at what they call the workers' 'crisis of confidence' towards the Histadrut. This crisis is getting worse from year to year. It is, in fact, the reason for the change in the Histadrut top leadership in 1969, when the former Secretary General, Aharon Becker, was replaced by Itzhak Ben-Aharon, known for his vigorous rhetorical style and the working-class phraseology he customarily uses. The former Secretary General, and the new one, are both members of the ruling Labour party. Wild-Cat Strikes and Action Committees Certain important strikes have occurred in the short history of the workers' struggle in Israel. The first took place in 1951, relatively soon after the creation of the State of Israel, with the famous seamens' strike; next came a series of wild-cat strikes in 1962, after the devaluation of the Israeli pound; the third wave took place in 1969, with the postal workers' and the Ashdod port workers' strike. The seamens' strike was the most violent in the history of strikes in Israel. The battlefield was the port of Haifa, and Israeli ships there, and in foreign ports. It was special, because it was a strike led by young seamen without a trade-union tradition, and because the conflict was about the means of electing trade-union delegates by the mass of seamen. For those who know the nature of the Histadrut it is not surprising that it immediately mobilized all the forces at its disposition against the strikers. The strike leaders were dragged before an 'internal tribunal' of