Summary
De Vries’s term for the Palestine Diamond Manufacturers’ Association as a collective of capitalists: members expected to share a common corporate good, held together as a group of individualists motivated to act collectively (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.153).
Details
- Members would define themselves to the external world as capital entrepreneurs, expert in diamond making, committed to the Zionist national cause and independent from suppressing pressures either from local community institutions or from diamond circles abroad; facing inward, they would reach decisions together in an egalitarian manner and jointly concede execution to the president at the top of the hierarchy (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.153-154).
- The collectivity was achieved through selection and regimentation, and by mobilizing the backing of the British authorities; Ben-Ami employed a dual strategy of not intervening too deeply in each factory’s affairs while demonstrating force to the world outside the industry (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.154).
- Its centralized structure revived the opposition inside the PDMA, which attacked the association’s “totality of functions” and Ben-Ami’s unaccountability (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.154-155).