REVIEW [+ PDF]: Lucien van der Walt, 2007, “Triumph and Tragedy of a South African Communist: Ray Simons, 1914-2004 – review of Ray Alexander Simons, 2004, ‘All my Life and All my Strength’”

van der Walt, Lucien, (2007), “Triumph and Tragedy of a South African Communist: Ray  Simons, 1914-2004 [review of Ray Alexander Simons, 2004, All my Life and All my Strength],” Khanya: a journal for activists, number 13

The previous link to the review went down.

The PDF is now online here (mirrors here or here).

The text version follows below:

van der Walt, Lucien, (2007), “Triumph and Tragedy of a South African Communist: Ray  Simons, 1914-2004 [review of Ray Alexander Simons, 2004, All my Life and All my Strength],” Khanya: a journal for activists, number 13

Ray Alexander Simons, 2004, All my Life and All my Strength STE Publishers, Johannesburg, 378 pages, soft cover, edited by Raymond Suttner, with introduction by Iris Berger, ISBN: 1-919855-12-2, ZAR 160.00

Lucien van der Walt looks at the life of one of the veterans of the South African anti-apartheid struggles.

All my Life and All my Strength is the autobiography of Ray Alexander Simons, the South African Communist Party (SACP) and African National Congress (ANC) veteran who died at 90 in 2004. She was lauded as “a hero of the working class” by the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU), and recently received the African National Congress’ highest honour, the Isithwalandwe. Edited for publication by Raymond Suttner, the book provides a mass of detail about the inner workings of the Party and local left-wing trade unions from the 1920s to the 1960s, as well as some insight into the period of ANC and Party exile politics starting in the 1960s.

It also inadvertently highlights the limitations of the politics of the SACP, a Party which shaped a generation of South African socialists. The autobiography is a testament to the sacrifices and dedication of an earlier generation, but indicates some of the blind spots and contradictions of local socialist traditions. Read more of this post