The intellectual founders of Labor Zionism are…
1906 CE
They inspire the founding of Poalei Tziyyon (Workers of Zion) — the first Labor Zionist party, which grows quickly from 1906 until the start of the First World War.
The concepts of Labor Zionism had first emerged as criticisms of the Rothschild-supported settiements of the First Aliyah.
Both Borochov and Syrkin believe that the Rothschild settlements, organized on purely capitalist terms and therefore hiring Arab labor, will undermine the Jewish enterprise.
Syrkin calls for Jewish settlement based on socialist modes of organization: the accumulation
of capital managed by a central Jewish organization and employment of Jewish laborers only.
He believes that "anti-Semitism was the result of unequal distribution of power in society. As long as
society is based on might, and as long as the Jew is weak, anti-Semitism will exist."
Thus, he reasons, the Jews need a material base for their social existence—a state and political power.
