Siham Alawi and her colleagues from the Workers Advice Center (WAC) in Kfar Qara, are planning a demonstration in Tel Aviv on Thursday, in which they will demand that the government stop importing foreign farm workers from Thailand, and allow Israelis who wish to work - "and many do," Alawi says - to do so.

Alawi, 50, is a mother of four. Like many WAC members in Qara, she rises at 4 A.M. every day, makes breakfast for the children and by 6 A.M. is already cutting flowers.

When the sun gets too hot, she moves to packaging - arranging the flowers according to stem length, chopping, wrapping and packing. She receives NIS 19.28 per hour, the minimum wage, and is grateful for it. But she knows it's temporary.

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When the seasonal pressure is over she and others will be fired and have to wait for the next job offer. She has never been overseas. "I'm dreaming of going to the hajj in Saudi Arabia," she says, her eyes sparkling.

Alawi's hands are coarse from hard physical labor. The gloves she wears while handling the flowers so not provide sufficient protection. After working with the flowers, Alawi continues working at home.

"We all do. We work from morning to night," she says with no rancor. She wants to continue working to feed her family. Alawi and her husband sent their 21-year-old daughter to study overseas, but she returned after one year because her parents could not afford the tuition.

"I work a little here and there, I never had a steady work place, with rights. The Thai workers come and take our work from us. I feel they're taking our children's bread away," she says.

Many farm workers live in Kfar Qara, one of the wealthier communities in the triangle. Beside the grand, new villas in the village live poor people who depend on their occasional employers. Many of them work for Arab or Jewish job contractors under miserable conditions.

WAC - the independent labor association these women belong to - is located in the village. For NIS 35 a month its members, both women and men, receive placement services for physical labor. This week, a group from Umm al-Fahm, where tradition prohibits women from working outside their home, joined the Kfar Qara workers for the first time.

On Friday afternoon, people come to the WAC club to hear speeches and soak in a little culture. This involves politics (anti-occupation) combined with workers' solidarity, legends, songs and dances.

WAC aims to provide an address for unorganized workers, who number in the hundreds of thousands in Israel, who lack the benefits unions struggled to attain during most of the 20th century. Employees of personnel agencies and those employed under individual contracts seek WAC support, advice and protection.

Just say no

The word "communism" is not uttered, but the ideology is similar. The members are mainly women. Perhaps these are the "new communists."

"We don't celebrate Women's Day with cosmetic treatments, a picnic or fairs. We will say no to unemployment," says organization leader Asma Ajabaria to Kfar Qara WAC members this week.

Hitam Naamna, WAC's local branch manager, says WAC employs some 100 people nationwide. She herself is responsible for placing women - that is, making contact with the workers and farmers. The division is clear: The laborers are Arab, the employers are Jewish.

"We want to send workers to every job. There are hard jobs and less hard ones. For example, cucumbers are murder. They're in hothouses and the leaves have prickly hair. Sometimes the workers have to work with a hoe. Citrus picking is a back-breaker. But people are willing to travel more than an hour in any direction to work for minimum wage," she says.