More Kosher Commies: Ruth First and Shirley Kaufman

Sometimes I wonder - when I receive my monthly copy of the Socialist History Society Newsletter - if the society - of which I am a long-time member - can get any more kosher: I almost invariably find myself surprised at yet more mentions of the self-chosen of Yahweh as contributors to communist thought, communist revolutions and/or communist politics in general. The newsletter for August 2012 - for example - has two whole articles on significant jewish figures in the history of Communism: one is Ruth First - a leading member of the South African Communist Party - and the other is the late and not lamented Shirley Kaufman of the Communist Party of Great Britain.

To give a quick idea of who First was I shall summarise the sordid history of her political life below.

Ruth First was the wife of fellow jewish communist African National Congress leader Joe Slovo. She first assisted in founding the Congress of Democrats: the ‘white wing’ of the Congress Alliance. She then assumed control of ‘Fighting Talk’: a Marxist propaganda journal supporting the Congress Alliance.

In 1956 First and Slovo were arrested for treason with the trial lasting four years and resulting in the acquittal of all the one and fifty-six accused. She fled to Swaziland after a state of emergency was declared after the Sharpville incident: returning to South Africa six months later - when the state of emergency had been lifted - to continue as the editor of ‘New Age’ (successor to ‘The Guardian’). During this period she also organized broadcasts of ‘Radio Freedom’ from mobile transmitters in Johannesburg.

She was detained in 1963 along with several members of the African National Congress’ terrorist wing: ‘Umkhonto We Sizwe’. First was never tried for treason, but detained instead for ninety days.

Following her release she and her children fled for the African National Congress headquarters in London after Slovo - humorously enough being the obviously caring jewish husband and father he was - abandoned her and their children in South Africa without telling them where he was going. Both First and Slovo subsequently resumed their anti-Apartheid activism in the United Kingdom. First then emigrated to Mozambique after being appointed Professor and Research Director of the Centre for African Studies.

First was subsequently executed by the use of a letter bomb that may well have been sent by the South African security services. Coincidentally First's father Julius First was the jewish treasurer of the South African Communist Party.

First isn't exactly the kind of person you would look up to then: is she?

After all she was fundamentally a failed terrorist turned academic.

In spite of this the balding and quite overweight wannabe Bolshevik brigade - as represented by the jew David Horsley - (1) breathlessly style First a 'hero' and a 'South African Freedom Fighter' while also - at the same time - correctly situating First as a dedicated communist not as a vague 'revolutionary' -- as First's friend and fellow jewish communist Albie Sachs incorrectly styled her - (2) as well as a guerrilla of sorts (read: terrorist).

Further Horsley amusingly describes First and Slovo's marriage as 'tempestuous', which is a nice way of saying that they were at each other throats most of the time and that both Slovo and First routinely walked out on each other.

Such wonderful role models: eh?

I also particularly like Horsley claim that First was 'forced into exile'. Well what would he have the South African government do: put her up against a wall and shoot her?

The fact remains that South Africa under Apartheid was a sane and very safe place to live regardless of your race, but the 'new' South Africa under its ANC junta is now one of the most violent and unsafe places to live in the world.

After all: in what other country do people walk around in the streets with sub-machine guns on their person and nobody bats an eyelid?

What attracts our further attention is that Albie Sachs and the ANC have somehow managed to wrangle the creation of a 'Ruth First' Rhodes Scholar position, which is possibly the greatest possible insult to intellectual sanity that I've seen in quite a while.

Whatever next? Are we to have 'Leon Trotsky', 'Fidel Castro' or 'Pol Pot' Rhodes Scholarships?

I hope not.

Shirley Kaufman on the other hand led a relatively tame life: a jewess who was raised in London and had the misfortune to look like a particularly ugly version of Cruella de Vil. She was the wife of veteran jewish communist organiser Sidney Kaufman: who betrayed the British army to Communist guerrillas in the Malayan Emergency and - in spite of later openly boasting of having done so - was never brought to book for his crimes.

Shirley - like Sid - was a Communist party employee in London and served as a Branch Secretary. True to form we are told she was a voracious reader (well with a face like that: what else was there to do?) of English language literature (apparently she was 'Lost in Austin') who viciously campaigned against nuclear weapons (as a Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament organiser), Franco's Spain and South Africa.

That is while - of course - maintaining her own jewish identity as her husband had explicitly demonstrated in his membership of the vicious jewish nationalist '43 Group', while trying to suppress Eurocentric identities.

Two words: Good riddance.

References

(1) Horsley previously wrote an article in the SHS describing one of his jewish grandparents who was 'killed in the holocaust'.

(2) Albie Sachs is one of the most senior legal figures in the post-Apartheid ANC junta and who is primarily responsible for a lot of the oppression that Boers suffer today.