Summary
Pinchas Smagarinsky (1900-1966), the Histadrut union bureaucrat appointed in spring 1941 to coordinate activities in the diamond factories in Netanya and Tel Aviv (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.117).
Details
- He had no background in diamond cutting, had to depend on a Histadrut committee that handled the negotiations, and it took some time before he could command the respect of the young workers or that of the Palestine Diamond Manufacturers’ Association negotiators (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.117).
- His “Review of the Situation in the Diamond Industry” of 11 February 1942 (LA/IV-208-1-2941) is one of the sources of Table 3.4, the trade union structure in Palestine’s diamond industry, 1941-1946 (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.115).
- Chapter 3 note 69 gives his background: Pinchas Smagarinsky (later Shamgar) was born in Loyew (in today’s Belarus), was active in Socialist-Zionist circles in Moscow, and immigrated to Palestine in 1929; after joining Mapai he took part in founding the village Givat Chen and was nominated as the first secretary of the Raanana Labor Council; in the late 1930s he was active in the Holon Labor Council and from the early 1940s led the organization of the Diamond Workers’ Union; he worked closely with Eliezer Zourne (1905–1960), the Mapai-nominated secretary of the Netanya Labor Council in 1940–1945 (Diamonds and War — State, Capital, and Labor in British-Ruled Palestine, PDF p.302).