Baruch Hirson,
named after his late grandfather, was born on 10 December 1921 at
Doomfontein
near Johannesburg in the Transvaal. His father was an electrician. His
parents,
Joseph and Lily Hirson, were Jews who had immigrated to South Africa to
evade
the pogroms, persecution and discrimination Jews were subjected to in
the old
Romanov Empire.
At the age of four, Hirson was enrolled at the Talmud Torah, a Hebrew
school in
Johannesburg. Baruch had a great mathematical ability and insight and
studied
as a part-time student at the University of Witwatersrand. This allowed
him to
move up the educational hierarchy of the university, later working as a
teacher
and lecturer at Witwatersrand University.
After matriculating in 1939, he joined Zionist Youth Clubs and groups.
In 1940
he became a member of the left-wing Hashomer Hatzair group. A few years
later
Hirson became a member of Fourth International Organization of South
Africa
(FIOSA), and started studying Marxist literature. Between 1944 and 1946
he
worked for the Workers International League, a South African Trotskyist
group,
as a full-time political organizer and became a key figure in the
organization.
However, similar to other Trotskyist groups at the time, the League was
in the
doldrums and politically quite isolated. As a result, it could not
develop into
a real political party.
Nevertheless, this situation never despaired Hirson and his colleagues. They strove to set up black trade unions, undertaking this cause under extremely difficult conditions created by the oppressive Suppression of Communism Act. Hirson's participation in politics grew. With other South African Trotskyists, he became involved in the Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM) and in 1950 joined the Congress of Democrats (COD), the white arm of the Congress Alliance, which was led by the ANC.After the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, Trotskyists around Hirson organized in a National Committee for Liberation (later called African Resistance Movement, ARM) and other faction in the ANC adopted radical methods in dealing with the government, for example sabotage as a substitute for peaceful action. In 1964 he was arrested and convicted of sabotage. He was sentenced to 9 years imprisonment and served the time in the Johannesburg Fort, Pretoria Local and Pretoria Central jails.
When was released in 1973, Hirson was
confronted with a
banning order and house arrest and immediately decided to go into exile
with
his wife and three children. They arrived in England in1973 and Hirson
managed
to find a job at Bradford University and later at Middlesex University.
He
lectured in physics for several years and in 1986 he enrolled for a
doctorate
in history. His wife was working as pediatrician.Hirson visited
South Africa once in 1991 for a short visit to participate in a
conference on
Marxism. Hirson authored excellent
and
meticulously researched history documents and biographies. The
documents and
books he published includes a chronology of the famous Soweto Uprising
(Year of
fire, year of ash, 1979), an account of working-class rebellion in
South Africa
(Yours for the union, 1989) amongst others. During the last years of
his life,
he maintained correspondence with Chinese veteran Trotskyist, Wang
Fanxi, and
American photographer and ex-guard of Leon Trotsky, Alex Buchman.
Hirson died
on 3 October 1999 at the age of 77. He was survived by his wife Yael
and three
children.
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