ABSTRACT
The international socialist Emile Vandervelde, speaking to 5,000 people in Tel Aviv, was moved by his 1928 Palestinian visit to express the high hope that: 'Le soleil du socialisme commence a se lever sur le monde'. It was remarkable that a nationalist vision should act so powerfully upon an internationalist, and Vandervelde's analysis of Zionism was controversial within the international Labour Movement. This chapter discusses each of the Utopian visions set in its political context and their relationship to each other. It concerns Histadruth and Poale Zion/Palestine Labour Party formed the mainstream of Labour Zionism. The British Labour Movement was formed of the Labour Party and its affiliated organisations, including Poale Zion, and the trade unions. The Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB) had been denied affiliation to the Labour Party and was thus removed from the mainstream. The Labour and Socialist International embodied the imaginings of its various member parties: international solidarity and eventual victory over capitalism.
