Page 4 - C.A.L.L. #32 - Summer 2010

Book Reviews

A Living Revolution: Anarchism in the Kibbutz Movement by James Horrox

• Imagine a country built from scratch, from the bottom-up, by
Anarchists, Socialists, Communists, Marxists – radicals from all the
shades of red.

• Imagine a country where the founders voluntarily came together to
found co-operatives, communities, unions, national health care etc
without the presence of a government that could tell them what to do.

• Imagine a country whose pioneers, having mostly been urbanites, made
a conscious decision to go back to working the land.

• Imagine a country with the most extensive and most successful
examples of communal living anywhere in the world over the last
hundred years.

• Imagine a country that today, in 2010, contains within it a network of
communes which is growing by a couple of hundred people per year.

You would assume that if such a country existed, those even remotely interested in the
communities movement, alternative living or those who are simply searching for signs that a
non-coercive, non-capitalist society is possible, would be clamouring to find out more, to visit,
and to garner inspiration from such a remarkable entity.

That this country happens to be called Israel, which possesses also negative attributes, not
unlike all other countries, means that many progressive-minded individuals choose to overlook
the good for the bad, rather than being prepared to engage in a more sophisticated, three-
dimensional appraisal of complex historical processes.

One of those brave enough to cut through the din is James Horrox, whose book intends to be
a wake-up call to those on the left who stubbornly refuse to hear anything remotely positive
said of the rogue Jewish State, even if it means restricting their sight as far as the end of
their noses.

In a nutshell, James’ thesis proclaims that the kibbutz movement was established according
to anarchist principles, and, in the absence of centralized institutions of a State, fulfilled all
of the functions of a real workers society. He continues to surmise that the burgeoning
urban communal movement of contemporary Israel is the ideological continuation of this
anarcho-socialist trend.

I must confess that I met James multiple times during his writing of this book, and there is
even a section within on my community, with quotes from interviews he conducted with me.
I’m aware that James has had to contend with anti-Israel bias through the various stages of
publishing, editing and marketing his book, and we at the International Communes Desk
indubitably sympathise with his plight. Over the years, we too have felt the scorn of those
unwilling to be in a dialogue with Israelis or Israel-based organizations such as the ICD. We
at the ICD aim to be a contact centre which brings together people who believe that
community and communal living, and the values that underlie it, should be encouraged and
supported, and for them to affect the societies and countries that they live in, regardless of
where they reside.
Review by Anton Marks

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