Baruch Hirson (10 December 1921 – 3 October 1999) was a South African political activist, academic, author and historian, who was jailed for nine years in
apartheid-era South Africa before moving to
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
in 1973. He was co-founder of the critical journal ''Searchlight South Africa'', and in 1991 a critic of what he referred to as
Stalinist
Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory o ...
methods used by the
African National Congress
The African National Congress (ANC) is a Social democracy, social-democratic political party in Republic of South Africa, South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when ...
(ANC).
Life
Baruch Hirson was born to a lower-middle class
Jew
Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""Th ...
ish family in
Doornfontein
Doornfontein is an inner-city suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, located to the east of the city centre, Region 8.
History
The area, whose name means "thorn fountain", was originally the southern part of a farm owned by Frederick Jacobus Bez ...
,
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
. His parents, Joseph and Lily Hirson, had emigrated to South Africa to escape
anti-Semitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
in the
Russian Empire
The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...
. From the age of four, Hirson attended a
Hebrew
Hebrew (; ; ) is a Northwest Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Historically, it is one of the spoken languages of the Israelites and their longest-surviving descendants, the Jews and Samaritans. It was largely preserved ...
school in
Johannesburg
Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu and xh, eGoli ), colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, or "The City of Gold", is the largest city in South Africa, classified as a megacity, and is one of the 100 largest urban areas in the world. According to Demo ...
. His mathematical ability enabled him to study as a part-time student at the
University of Witwatersrand
The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), is a multi-campus South African public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg. It is more commonly known as Wits University or Wits ( or ). The university ...
, matriculating in 1939.
[Biography: Baruch Hirson]
''South African History Online''
In 1940 he joined
Hashomer Hatzair
Hashomer Hatzair ( he, הַשׁוֹמֵר הַצָעִיר, , ''The Young Guard'') is a Labor Zionist, secular Jewish youth movement founded in 1913 in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary, and it was also the name of the group ...
, the radical
Zionist youth movement
A Zionist youth movement ( he, תנועות הנוער היהודיות הציוניות ''tnuot hanoar hayehudiot hatsioniot'') is an organization formed for Jewish children and adolescents for educational, social, and ideological development, i ...
. Encountering organized
anti-Semitism
Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism.
Antis ...
from the
Greyshirts
Greyshirts or ''Gryshemde'' is the common short-form name given to the South African Gentile National Socialist Movement, a South African Nazi movement that existed during the 1930s and 1940s. Initially referring only to a paramilitary group, it ...
and those celebrating the centenary of the
Great Trek
The Great Trek ( af, Die Groot Trek; nl, De Grote Trek) was a Northward migration of Dutch-speaking settlers who travelled by wagon trains from the Cape Colony into the interior of modern South Africa from 1836 onwards, seeking to live beyon ...
, he moved towards
Marxism
Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...
,
[ joining the Fourth International Organisation of South Africa (FIOSA).][ Influenced against ]Stalinism
Stalinism is the means of governing and Marxist-Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union from 1927 to 1953 by Joseph Stalin. It included the creation of a one-party totalitarian police state, rapid industrialization, the theory ...
by reading ''Workers' Front'' (1938), Fenner Brockway
Archibald Fenner Brockway, Baron Brockway (1 November 1888 – 28 April 1988) was a British socialist politician, humanist campaigner and anti-war activist.
Early life and career
Brockway was born to W. G. Brockway and Frances Elizabeth Abbey in ...
's account of the Spanish Civil War
The Spanish Civil War ( es, Guerra Civil Española)) or The Revolution ( es, La Revolución, link=no) among Nationalists, the Fourth Carlist War ( es, Cuarta Guerra Carlista, link=no) among Carlists, and The Rebellion ( es, La Rebelión, lin ...
, he became a Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
.
From 1944 to 1946 Hirson was full-time-organiser for the Workers' International League, a short-lived Trotskyist
Trotskyism is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Ukrainian-Russian revolutionary Leon Trotsky and some other members of the Left Opposition and Fourth International. Trotsky self-identified as an orthodox Marxist, a rev ...
group, trying to develop black trade unions
A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and Employee ben ...
despite the Suppression of Communism Act. He came to know other South African Trotskyists such as M. N. Averbach, Hosea Jaffe, Yudel Burlak and Raff Lee. When the WIL stopped working with unions, Hirson was involved for a while with the Non-European Unity Movement
The Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM) is a Trotskyist organisation formed in South Africa in 1943. It had links to the Workers Party of South Africa (WPSA), the first countrywide Trotskyist organisation, and was initially conceived as a broad p ...
(NEUM).[
In 1950 he joined the ]Congress of Democrats
The Congress of Democrats (CoD) is a Namibian opposition party without representation in the National Assembly and led by Ben Ulenga. It was established in 1999, prior to that year's general elections, and started off with a number of notabl ...
, the white wing of the ANC
The African National Congress (ANC) is a social-democratic political party in South Africa. A liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid, it has governed the country since 1994, when the first post-apartheid election install ...
-led Congress Alliance
The Congress Alliance was an anti-apartheid political coalition formed in South Africa in the 1950s. Led by the African National Congress, the CA was multi-racial in makeup and committed to the principle of majority rule.
Congress of the People ...
,[ organizing a new Socialist League of Africa. After the ]Sharpeville Massacre
The Sharpeville massacre occurred on 21 March 1960 at the police station in the township of Sharpeville in the then Transvaal Province of the then Union of South Africa (today part of Gauteng). After demonstrating against pass laws, a crowd of ...
Hirson felt discouraged by the political failure to combat apartheid
Apartheid (, especially South African English: , ; , "aparthood") was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. Apartheid was ...
and in 1960 he wrote a critique of the movement, called ''10 Years of the Stay at Home''.
In the early 1960s Hirson organized a National Committee for Liberation, later known as the African Resistance Movement
The African Resistance Movement (ARM) was a militant anti-apartheid resistance movement, which operated in South Africa during the early and mid-1960s. It was founded in 1960, as the National Committee of Liberation (NCL), by members of South A ...
(ARM), with other Trotskyists and younger members of the ANC. The group carried out sabotage actions, and in 1964 Hirson was arrested, convicted of sabotage, and jailed for nine years.[ During his time in ]Pretoria Central Prison
Pretoria Central Prison, renamed Kgosi Mampuru II Management Area by former President Jacob Zuma on 13 April 2013 and sometimes referred to as Kgosi Mampuru II Correctional Services is a large prison in central Pretoria, within the City of Tshwane ...
, he met Denis Goldberg
Denis Theodore Goldberg (11 April 1933 – 29 April 2020) was a South African social campaigner, who was active in the struggle against apartheid. He was accused No. 3 in the Rivonia Trial, alongside the better-known Nelson Mandela and Walter ...
, and helped Goldberg to communicate with ANC members on the outside via coded letters. These communications helped to effect the prison escape of Tim Jenkin
Timothy Peter Jenkin (born 1948) is a South African writer, former anti-apartheid activist and political prisoner. He is best known for his 1979 escape from Pretoria Local Prison (part of the Pretoria Central Prison complex), along with Steph ...
, Stephen Lee and Alex Moumbaris in 1979 (later the subject of the film ''Escape from Pretoria
''Escape from Pretoria'' is a 2020 Australian prison film co-written and directed by Francis Annan, based on the real-life prison escape by three political prisoners in South Africa in 1979, starring Daniel Radcliffe and Daniel Webber. It is ba ...
'').
Released in 1973, but facing a banning order and house arrest
In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...
, Hirson and his family moved to England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Wales to its west and Scotland to its north. The Irish Sea lies northwest and the Celtic Sea to the southwest. It is separated from continental Europe b ...
. There he found posts at Middlesex University
Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated MDX) is a public research university in Hendon, northwest London, England. The name of the university is taken from its location within the historic county boundaries ...
and Bradford University
The University of Bradford is a public research university located in the city of Bradford, West Yorkshire, England. A plate glass university, it received its royal charter in 1966, making it the 40th university to be created in Britain, but ...
. He initially lectured in physics
Physics is the natural science that studies matter, its fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge which r ...
, but in 1986 enrolled for a PhD in history
History (derived ) is the systematic study and the documentation of the human activity. The time period of event before the History of writing#Inventions of writing, invention of writing systems is considered prehistory. "History" is an umbr ...
.[
Beginning with ''Year of fire, year of ash'', a record of the Soweto uprising, Hirson wrote a series of works on the history of the ]left
Left may refer to:
Music
* ''Left'' (Hope of the States album), 2006
* ''Left'' (Monkey House album), 2016
* "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996
Direction
* Left (direction), the relative direction opposite of right
* L ...
and the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. He collaborated with Hillel Ticktin
Hillel H. Ticktin is a Marxist theorist and economist. He was born in South Africa in 1937, but had to leave to avoid arrest for political activism. He then lived and studied in the Soviet Union, where his PhD thesis, which was critical of offic ...
of ''Critique'', and founded the critical journal ''Searchlight South Africa'' with Paul Trewhela
Paul Trewhela (born 1941) is a South African journalist and a former political prisoner.
Biography
Trewhela was born in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 1941, educated at Michaelhouse in KwaZulu-Natal.
Trewhela worked in underground journalism ...
.[
In 1991 Hirson returned to visit South Africa, speaking at eight universities with the demand that "use of Stalinist methods in the ANC" be exposed and stopped.][
In 1995 his biography of the Welsh communist and opponent of apartheid, David Ivon Jones, was published.
He died in London in 1999, aged 77, from the cumulative effects of a long-term degenerative paralysis of the bone structure, one of several health problems exacerbated by his imprisonment.][
]
Recognition
In March 2011, the country of Sierra Leone
Sierra Leone,)]. officially the Republic of Sierra Leone, is a country on the southwest coast of West Africa. It is bordered by Liberia to the southeast and Guinea surrounds the northern half of the nation. Covering a total area of , Sierra ...
issued a postage stamp in his honor, naming him as one of the Legendary Heroes of Africa.
Works
* '10 Years of the Stay at Home', ''International Socialism
Proletarian internationalism, sometimes referred to as international socialism, is the perception of all communist revolutions as being part of a single global class struggle rather than separate localized events. It is based on the theory that ...
'', 1961
* ''Year of fire, year of ash: the Soweto revolt, roots of a revolution'', 1979
* ''Yours for the union!: class and community struggles in South Africa, 1930-1947'', 1989
* ''Colonialism and Imperialism'' p. 7–18 in Searchlight South Africa, Vol 2, No 3, July 1991
* ''Strike across the Empire: the seamen's strike of 1925 : in Britain, South Africa and Australasia'', 1992
* ''Revolutions in my life'', 1995
* ''The delegate for Africa: David Ivon Jones, 1883-1924'', 1995
* ''The Cape Town intellectuals: Ruth Schechter and her circle, 1907-1934'', 2000
* ''Frank Glass: the restless revolutionary'', 2003
* ''A history of the Left in South Africa: writings of Baruch Hirson'', 2005
References
External links
Baruch Hirson material
at the Marxists Internet Archive
Marxists Internet Archive (also known as MIA or Marxists.org) is a non-profit online encyclopedia that hosts a multilingual library (created in 1990) of the works of communist, anarchist, and socialist writers, such as Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels ...
Baruch Hirson archives
held by the University of London
The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in post-nominals) is a federal public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The university was established by royal charter in 1836 as a degree ...
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hirson, Baruch
1921 births
1999 deaths
20th-century South African historians
South African Trotskyists
South African Jews
Jewish socialists
Jewish South African anti-apartheid activists
Historians of South Africa
Academics of the University of Bradford
White South African anti-apartheid activists
South African Marxists
South African expatriates in the United Kingdom