Bundism and Music

The music of the Bundist Movement 

By Dona Newman

The Bundist Movement is about action, and that is what we do is action.

First a disclaimer:
Bundists have nothing in common with the Zionists except for two charismatics;
#1 Bundists and Zionists both recognize a Jewish Nation.
#2 Bundists and Zionists both reject Leon Trotsky as a flipflopping opportunistic  backstabber.
The Bundist Movement holds no guilt for deciding to claim some of the Jewish Anarchist songs as Bundist songs, and the Bundist Movement holds no guilt for deciding to claim some of the Jewish Zionist songs as Bundist songs; this depends on the content, if a song just so happens to be written by a Zionist and yet has no reference to Zionism then it may be eligible for Bundist use so long as the song can be relevant to Bundism.

A second disclaimer:
Songs that are not traditionally political may be necessary for memorial reasons;
Judaism is a Cultural Religion, and Bundists seek to protect Jewish Religion and Jewish Culture especially in the context of Yiddishism. The Bundist Movement is not in any way anti-religion, rather the Bundist Movement takes a non-religious position in the context of politics. Trotskyism is a threat to the Bundist Movement and although this may seem to be irrelevant to the subject of Bundist music, the relevance of this is extremely crucial. The Bundist Movement can be traced back to the old Jewish Labour Bund, yet the Bundist Movement is much more refined and developed.
Part of our refined development is our awareness to critical mistakes made by the old Jewish Labour Bund, one of these mistakes is the alliance with Leon Trotsky, in fact that was the second most critical error of the old Jewish Labour Bund. Understanding this, we can say that Bundists are against the assimilatist nature of Marxism. And sadly Joseph Stalin was more in alignment with Bundists than Leon Trotsky. While not his only mistake, the most critical mistake of Joseph Stalin was how much he idolized Vladimir Lenin. Unlike the self-hating Jew that was Leon Trotsky, Bundists understood the vindication of Jewishness. Identity politics is very important, and it was Joseph Stalin who understood this, the work of Stalin would inspire Mao Zedong, furthermore Mao Zedong's work would be important to the struggle carried out by the Black Panther Party who we in the Bundist Movement identify with. Joseph Stalin brutalized Bundists because he never questioned Vladimir Lenin, he was just to devout as a Leninist. As the reader may now realize this is all about identity politics, Yiddish is crucial to Jewish identity politics and so we are going to push Yiddish music to ensure that a further layer of culture can be made more universal to the Jewish People.
For the Jewish People to survive an extra layer of culture is necessary, a layer of political culture that is resistant to Zionism and assimilation of any sort, this is only possible when we all without shame recognize that without Judaism there is no Jewish People, and Judaism is a cultural Religion.
And this brings us to the first most critical error of the old Jewish Labour Bund, failure to emphasize the self evident foundation of the Jewish People, and the use of Yiddish music will help to fix this.   

In Kamf

We are going to use the Jewish anarchist song In Kamf by David Edelstadt for the Bundist Movement. We are taking this song from the Jewish Anarchists and claiming it for the Bundist Movement because this song applies to our struggle for restoring the Jewish political Culture.

Arbeter, Vakht Oyf!

The last I heard concerning any information about "Arbeter, Vakht Oyf!" was that this song was written by Hyman Kaplan, yet I understood Hyman Kaplan to be a fictional person coming from the imagination of Leo Rosten. You can see how I am so confused as to the true origins of this song. 
To be sure "Arbeter, Vakht Oyf!" is a very important song to Socialism, the very Yiddishist nature of this song means that the Bundist Movement has to claim it. Besides no one is really using this song anymore. The boss still needs workers, we are taking this song before robots replace humanity in the workplaces.

Vilna

Vilna by A. L. Wolfson & Alexander Olshanestsky is a song that the Bund must claim; 

as there were many Bundists in the city of Vilna, and we are not concerned any longer with offending other political groups with our need to preserve the memory of our role in Ashkenazi Jewish history. 

Der zig fun di klokmeykers

Der zig fun di klokmeykers is a very important Socialist song in Yiddish, we are taking this song away from the Zionists and claiming it for the Bund, this song is by Morris Rund. I do not really know if Morris Rund was a Zionist, all I know for sure is that Labour Zionists would sing this every time I made a trip to England. 

Songs that are not traditionally political, that we claim for Bundism anyway: 

Mein Shtetl Belz

We are going to utilize this song a lot because this song promotes Shtetl life. 
There are two extremes that the Bundist Movement discourages. 
The first extreme is assimilation and the second extreme is isolationism. 
Before I get further into this I need to make something clear to the reader, the Bundist Movement seeks to protect the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Community from the LGBT Community, and the Bundist Movement seeks to protect the LGBT Community from the Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Community. 
Assimilation of any Community is wrong and unethical. Mein Shtetl Belz is important as a song, this song must be utilized to halt attempts towards assimilation. 
The Bundist Movement is for integration, yet never assimilation.
Integration is not something that can be forced only encouraged. 

Oyfn Pripetchik

Oyfn Pripetchik is a song is about a Rabbi teaching his young students the Jewish alphabet.
This song is very important to our collective memory of pre-Holocaust Europe.
I will even go as far as to say that this song inspires a restoration of the old Jewish Diaspora. 

Tumbalalika 

Tumbalalaika is a Jewish folk song in the Yiddish language. We need this song, this song oozes with Shtetl Yiddishkeit, such a song is good for the very promotion of Doikeit. 

Kinderjohren

This song by Mordechai Gebirtig is so culturally important that we can not bypass it. 

Songs that are already Bundist:

Di Shvue
Di Shvue is the Bundist Anthem, that says everything. 

Arbetlose Marsch 
This song was written for Bundists.

Yungt-himen
This is the Bundist Youth Anthem.
This song also happens to be a very important Partisan song.

Zog nit keyn mol
Zog nit keyn mol is the Jewish Partisan Song, the majority of the Jewish Partisans where Bundist, enough said.

Oy ir Narishe Tsienistn
This short Yiddish song just happens to be my all time favorite song.
This song may be very short but it is so Bundist, this song is Socialist, anti-Zionist, and most importantly Jewish. This song expresses the utopian madness that Zionists suffer with.
Zionists, even today dependent on outside assistance as they are never self determined.

Hey, hey, daloy politsey!
We need to remember that "Hey, hey, daloy politsey!" was poular with Bund, as it was with the Jewish Anarchists as well. We don't need to justify our use of this song whatsoever.