Everyday Communists in South Africa’s Liberation Struggle: The Lives of Ivan and Lesley Schermbrucker

Author:   Alan Kirkaldy
Publisher:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Edition:   1st ed. 2022
ISBN:  

9783030839208


Pages:   386
Publication Date:   11 November 2021
Format:   Hardback
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
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Everyday Communists in South Africa’s Liberation Struggle: The Lives of Ivan and Lesley Schermbrucker


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Overview

This book explores the role of social movements in the Southern African liberation struggle, through the lens of two ‘everyday communists’. Focusing on the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), the author explores the lives of Ivan and Lesley Schermbrucker, whose contribution to the party was more clandestine than that of leaders such as Bram Fischer and Joe Slovo. They represent how ‘ordinary’ people could play significant roles based on stances more rooted in common decency and morality than in Marxist theory. The book also sheds light on the interplay between transnational and national tendencies during the liberation movement, particularly between the 1940s and the 1960s. The Schermbruckers changed their views in response to the shifting national and international political landscape, the rise of Stalinism, and the flight of South African activists into exile from the 1960s. Both fluent in African languages, they were able to create relationships of trust with African membersof the CPSA. Examining tensions and conflicts during the liberation struggle, this book provides fresh insights into ‘underground’ activism.

Full Product Details

Author:   Alan Kirkaldy
Publisher:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Imprint:   Springer Nature Switzerland AG
Edition:   1st ed. 2022
Weight:   0.684kg
ISBN:  

9783030839208


ISBN 10:   3030839206
Pages:   386
Publication Date:   11 November 2021
Audience:   Professional and scholarly ,  Professional & Vocational
Format:   Hardback
Publisher's Status:   Active
Availability:   Manufactured on demand   Availability explained
We will order this item for you from a manufactured on demand supplier.

Table of Contents

CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION AND AUTHOR’S NOTECHAPTER 2 THE SOCIO-POLITICAL CONTEXT, FINDING COMMUNISM AND IVAN AND LESLEY’S EARLY YEARS The CPSA/SACP, the ANC, Transnationalism and African Nationalism Women in the Struggle     A Sense of Rootedness: The Colonel       The Rural Economy: Transkei and Zululand Traders      Foundations of an Activist Ideology: Ivan’s Childhood and Youth        Radicalising Influences    The Party’s Paper: Work, the Move to the Guardian and funding the Party       Lesley’s Family and Youth          Developing a Political Ideology and Establishing a Working Career      Stalinism   CHAPTER 3 PARTNERS IN ACTIVISM - IVAN AND LESLEY Life Partners and Struggle Partners          Security Legislation, Repression and Financing the Guardian    Growing in the Struggle   CHAPTER 4:  TIGHTENING REPRESSION:  INCREASING INVOLVEMENT, SURVEILLANCE AND DETENTION Security Legislation in the 1960S in context       On the Central Committee            Funding the Revolution and Supporting its Captured Cadres      The State Cracks Down – Becoming a Target, Detention and Torture    Women Filling the Gap    Stayers vs Leavers in the Struggle            Situation of the Left at this time   CHAPTER 5:  THE TRIAL OF BRAM FISCHER AND 13 OTHERS       Awaiting Trial       The Accused         The Trial Begins   Ivan’s Defence and Cross-Examination   Judgement and Sentence  Reflections on Activism – Pre-Incarceration Letters       CHAPTER 6:  WOMEN PICKING UP THE SPEAR –  LESLEY’S INCREASING INVOLVEMENT, ARREST AND TRIAL          Increasing Involvement, Further Arrests and Detentions, Clandestine Meetings, Party Funds and Hiding Bram Fischer         Lesley’s Arrest and Detention and Bram Fischer’s Preliminary Hearing            Those who gave State Evidence   Tightening the Net Further – Lelsey and Violet’s Trial   Caught in the Crossfire – The Children    CHAPTER 7:  PRISON LIFE            “Politicals” and “Non-Politicals”  Ivan           A More Nationalist Focus      The Routine of Prison Life     Lesley        The Fort          Barberton        Changing Ideology     CHAPTER 8:  AFTERMATH           Lesley’s Release   Ivan’s Release       Disillusionment with Exiles and Cementing a More Nationalist Ideology          Helping those Left Behind in Prison        Other Activities and Making a Living in Defiance of Restrictive Measures       Declining Health and Death         REFERENCES ARCHIVAL SOURCES  UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPTS, NOTES, ADDRESSES AND RECOLLECTIONS INTERVIEWS     PERSONAL COMMUNICATIONS       NEWSPAPER ARTICLES          JOURNAL ARTICLES   BOOKS    CHAPTERS IN BOOKS UNPUBLISHED ARTICLES     THESES AND DISSERTATIONS         INTERNET SOURCES  

Reviews

Kirkaldy's moving biography is about 'everyday' lives in a different sense from the ordinary. ... Kirkaldy illuminates Lesley's and Ivan's everyday experience: their residences; their bill paying ... and of course their love and confidence in each other, for it is very much a book about a marriage. His heroes may be ordinary enough people, but in the way they lived their lives, they achieved 'a trumph of the everyday' ... . (Tom Lodge, H-Net Reviews, h-net.org, June, 2022)72 Words


Author Information

Alan Kirkaldy is Associate Professor and Head of the History Department at Rhodes University, South Africa. He has previously published works on the Kalk Bay fishing community and Venda history.  Alan has lectured on African and environmental history since 1989. Much of his teaching has focused on liberation movements.

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