Seventh Congress of the Comintern in Moscow, 1935
(Never before Published in Arabic or English)
Dear Readers of the Free Arab Voice,
The translation of Yusuf Khattar Al Hilw’s speech below is the outcome of the combined efforts of two individuals: Kevin Walsh, who translated from the original French into English, and Muhammad Abu Nasr, who translated from Russian. The result of cross-checking the two translations was the piece below. Interestingly enough, discrepancies emerged between the Russian and French texts, especially in certain places pertaining to Zionism. The French piece seems longer than the Russian piece especially since the delegates where given only twenty minutes to deliver their addresses and thus speakers could not have said all that they had written down on their original speeches. Nevertheless, scratching out little comments about Zionism seems unrelated to considerations of time, especially where Yusuf’s Khattar Al Hilw’s speech, already permeated with anti-Zionism throughout, identifies Zionism as an ideology of racial superiority.
Note especially how he viewed Zionist immigration to Palestine as intrinsically serving imperialist goals. In other words, he didn’tfall for the trap of speaking about the “oppressed Jewish workers in Palestine” as some other Arab delegates did. In fact, these “immigrants” were no different from an invading imperialist army. By coming to Palestine on an imperialist bridgehead, they have tied their lot to imperialism by definition. Hence any real liberation is bound to make them worse off as a matter of necessity.
Finally, note that at the time, Lebanon was still considered part of Syria, so Yusuf Khattar Al Hilw was speaking for the Syrian Communist Party although originally Lebanese, while Khaled Bakdash (the Syrian) was speaking for all Arab delegates who were present at the Comintern of 1935. Such was the spirit of camaraderie and the level of coordination between Arab delegates then. Thus, it is in that we can see the travesty of forming two separate Lebanese and Syrian Communist parties just when French imperialism found it in its best interest to make Lebanon into a separate state, where the division of Greater Syria into several states is condemned below in Yusuf Khattar Al Hilw’s speech. But then again, that is but one amongst many manifestations of the original problem: the position of Arab communists on the nationalist question. Of course, Yusuf Khattar Al Hilw’s speech came at a time when the Comintern was following a policy of Arabization, a policy which Zionist elements resisted vehemently. Very soon after the Seventh Comintern, however, the Soviet Union began to reverse itself on the Zionist movement, and thus on the Arab nationalist question. Later on, this culminated in the recognition of the state of “Israel”. Needless to say, we need not repeat ourselves about how we disagree with the tendency to idolize Stalin that was so prevalent in the speeches by many an Arab delegate at the Comintern of 1935. Furthermore, for an overall evaluation of the positions of Arab communists on Arab unity and Palestine, and to view the speeches by other Arab delegates at the Comintern of 1935, please go to: Introduction to the Speech by Yusuf Khattar Al Hilw by Muhammad Abu Nasr