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 Countries of the United Kingdom, country that is part of the United Kingdom. It is located on the island of Great Britain, of which it covers about 62%, and List of islands of England, more than 100 smaller adjacent islands. It ...

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 totalitarian means of governing and Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from 1927 to 1953 by dictator Joseph Stalin and in Soviet satellite states between 1944 and 1953. Stalinism in ...

methods used by the

African National Congress The African National Congress (ANC) is a political party in South Africa. It originated as a liberation movement known for its opposition to apartheid and has governed the country since 1994, when the 1994 South African general election, fir ...

(ANC).

Life

Baruch Hirson was born to a lower-middle class

Jew Jews (, , ), or the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group and nation, originating from the Israelites of ancient Israel and Judah. They also traditionally adhere to Judaism. Jewish ethnicity, religion, and community are highly inte ...

ish family in

Doornfontein Doornfontein ( ) is an inner-city suburb of Johannesburg, South Africa, located to the east of the city centre. It is in Region F of the City of Johannesburg Metropolitan Municipality. In the 1930s, it attracted many Jewish immigrants, becoming ...

Johannesburg Johannesburg ( , , ; Zulu language, Zulu and Xhosa language, Xhosa: eGoli ) (colloquially known as Jozi, Joburg, Jo'burg or "The City of Gold") is the most populous city in South Africa. With 5,538,596 people in the City of Johannesburg alon ...

. His parents, Joseph and Lily Hirson, had emigrated to South Africa to escape

antisemitism Antisemitism or Jew-hatred is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who harbours it is called an antisemite. Whether antisemitism is considered a form of racism depends on the school of thought. Antisemi ...

in the

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire that spanned most of northern Eurasia from its establishment in November 1721 until the proclamation of the Russian Republic in September 1917. At its height in the late 19th century, it covered about , roughl ...

. From the age of four, Hirson attended a

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school in

. His mathematical ability enabled him to study as a part-time student at the

University of Witwatersrand The University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg (), commonly known as Wits University or Wits, is a multi-campus public research university situated in the northern areas of central Johannesburg, South Africa. The university has its roots in ...

, matriculating in 1939.Biography: Baruch Hirson
''South African History Online'' In 1940, he joined

Hashomer Hatzair Hashomer Hatzair (, , 'The Young Guard') is a Labor Zionism, Labor Zionist, secular Jewish youth movement founded in 1913 in the Kingdom of Galicia and Lodomeria, Austria-Hungary. It was also the name of the Hashomer Hatzair Workers Party, the ...

, the radical

Zionist youth movement A Zionist youth movement () is an organization formed for Jewish children and adolescents for educational, social, and ideology, ideological development, including a belief in Zionism, Jewish nationalism as represented in the State of Israel. Yout ...

. Encountering organized

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, fascist movement that existed during the 1930s and 1940s. Initially referring only to a paramilitary g ...

and those celebrating the centenary of the

Great Trek The Great 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 beyond the Cape's British colonial adminis ...

, he moved towards

Marxism Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflict, ...

, joining the Fourth International Organisation of South Africa (FIOSA). Influenced against

Stalinism Stalinism (, ) is the Totalitarianism, totalitarian means of governing and Marxism–Leninism, Marxist–Leninist policies implemented in the Soviet Union (USSR) from History of the Soviet Union (1927–1953), 1927 to 1953 by dictator Jose ...

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 Rev. William George Brockway and Frances Eliz ...

's account of the

Spanish Civil War The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...

, he became a

Trotskyist Trotskyism (, ) is the political ideology and branch of Marxism developed by Russian revolutionary and intellectual Leon Trotsky along with some other members of the Left Opposition and the Fourth International. Trotsky described himself as an ...

. From 1944 to 1946, Hirson was full-time-organiser for the Workers' International League, a short-lived

group, trying to develop black

trade unions A trade union (British English) or labor union (American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers whose purpose is to maintain or improve the conditions of their employment, such as attaining better wages ...

despite the

Suppression of Communism Act The Suppression of Communism Act, 1950 (Act No. 44 of 1950), renamed the Internal Security Act in 1976, was legislation of the national government in apartheid South Africa which formally banned the South African Communist Party, Communist Party ...

. 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 (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 was led by Ben Ulenga from 2004 to 2015. It was established in 1999, prior to that year's general elections, and started off w ...

, the white wing of the ANC-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 Peopl ...

, organizing a new Socialist League of Africa. After the Sharpeville Massacre Hirson felt discouraged by the political failure to combat

apartheid Apartheid ( , especially South African English: , ; , ) was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that existed in South Africa and South West Africa (now Namibia) from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was characterised by an ...

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 ...

(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, 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, anti-apartheid activist and former 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''). Released in 1973, but facing a banning order and

house arrest House arrest (also called home confinement, or nowadays electronic monitoring) is a legal measure where a person is required to remain at their residence under supervision, typically as an alternative to imprisonment. The person is confined b ...

, Hirson and his family moved to

. There he found posts at

the University of Bradford 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 ...

and then

Middlesex Polytechnic Middlesex University London (legally Middlesex University and abbreviated to MDX) is a public research university based in Hendon, northwest London, England. The university also has campuses in Dubai and Mauritius. The name of the university is ...

where he lectured in politics, and in 1986, he enrolled for a PhD in

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

. Beginning with ''Year of fire, year of ash'', a record of the

Soweto uprising The Soweto uprising, also known as the Soweto riots, was a series of demonstrations and protests led by black school children in South Africa during apartheid that began on the morning of 16 June 1976. Students from various schools began to p ...

, 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'' (Helmet album), 2023 * "Left", a song by Nickelback from the album ''Curb'', 1996 Direction * Left (direction), the relativ ...

and the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa. He collaborated with

Hillel Ticktin Hillel H. Ticktin is a Marxist philosophy, 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 wa ...

of ''Critique'', and founded the critical journal ''Searchlight South Africa'' with Paul Trewhela. 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 David Ivon Jones (18 October 1883 – 13 April 1924) was a Welsh people, Welsh communist, newspaper editor, and political prisoner, most famous as a leading opponent of Apartheid, South African racial segregation and for being one of the first ...

, 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 to the southeast by Liberia and by Guinea to the north. Sierra Leone's land area is . It has a tropical climate and envi ...

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 ''International Socialism'' is a British-based quarterly journal established in 1960 and published in London by the Socialist Workers Party which discusses socialist theory. It is currently edited by Joseph Choonara who replaced Alex Callini ...

'', 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 Enge ...

Baruch Hirson archives
held by the

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

{{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 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