The dominant political theory of the Yishuv was Labor Zionism. But it was more than a theory. It comprised the institutions of national economic life such as the Histadrut labor union and the rural kibbutzim. It dominated the apparatus of national security in the Haganah and its strike force the Palmach whose soldiers and commanders addressed one another as comrade. The cultural markers of daily life such as the Hashomer Ha’tzair youth group with its red bandanas and youth communes, the worker’s bank cooperative itself owned by the Histadrut (along with the worker’s health and life insurer), and the purchase of food and clothing from grocery and clothing cooperatives – these were all carriers of the spirit of Labor Zionism in its many forms and textures.1