Joe Slovo

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Yossel "Joe" Mashel Slovo (born May 23, 1926 in Obeliai near Rokiškis , Lithuania , † January 6, 1995 in Johannesburg ) was a South African politician and opponent of apartheid .

Joe Slovo's grave site in Avalon Cemetery in Soweto , Johannesburg

Life

Slovo's parents emigrated to South Africa with their eight-year-old son from Lithuania in 1935 to escape anti-Semitism in Lithuania. Slovo later joined the trade union movement and became a member of the South African Communist Party (SACP) in 1942 at the age of 16 .

In 1946 he began studying law at the Witwatersrand University in Johannesburg, which he finished with a Bachelor of Laws in 1950 and where he became a friend of Nelson Mandela . He then worked as a lawyer. When the SACP was officially banned in 1950, he remained its underground member and became a member of the party's central committee in 1953. In 1954, the government banned from attending meetings. This meant that he was not at the meeting of the African National Congress could participate (ANC) and other organizations on which this the Freedom Charter adopted (Freedom Charter), to which it is a key role. In 1956 he was arrested and charged with treason in the Treason Trial . However, charges against him were dropped in 1958.

In 1961 he was one of the founding members of the ANC's military wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe , of which he was then commander for many years. After Mandela was arrested in 1963, he fled South Africa and went into exile in London before he lived in several countries in southern Africa . In 1966 he completed a postgraduate course at the London School of Economics and graduated with a Master of Laws . From 1969 until its dissolution in 1983, he was a member of the ANC's Revolutionary Council. As chief of staff of the armed wing of the ANC, he planned attacks from exile.

Slovo was the main leader of the white population against apartheid by the white South African government. In 1984 he became chairman of the SACP and in 1985 the first white man to be elected to the national executive of the ANC. Between 1987 and 1991 he was Secretary General of the SACP. In 1987 he also became Chief of Staff of Umkhonto we Sizwe. Chris Hani succeeded him as Secretary General . In the photo from the military parade in East Berlin in October 1989, Slovo can be seen near Honecker and Gorbachev . He later turned away from his Stalinist convictions

After the amnesty issued by President Frederik Willem de Klerk in 1990 and Mandela's release from prison, he returned to South Africa and was then chairman of the SACP again from 1991 until his death.

In May 1994, Joe Slovo was appointed Minister of Housing by President Mandela in the country's first government after the end of apartheid. He held this office until his death a few months later. Until recently, Slovo worked on an extensive housing construction program. The cabinet approved his housing plan at its last meeting in December 1995. After President Mandela visited him in bed on Thursday evening, Slovo died of cancer on Friday morning, January 6, 1995, at five o'clock . Immediately after the death, President Mandela visited the family of the deceased. Slovo was buried in Avalon Cemetery in Soweto .

family

Blue plaque in memory of Ruth First and Joe Slovo in London

In 1949 he married Ruth First , daughter of the treasurer of the SACP Julius First. She was also an anti-apartheid activist, was considered a Marxist thinker in the media and was killed in a letter bomb in Maputo , Mozambique , in 1982 . The perpetrators are suspected to be in the South African secret service. The Circumstances of Her Death was filmed in 1988 under the title A World Apart .

From the marriage come the writer Gillian Slovo , the screenwriter Shawn Slovo and the film producer Robyn Jean Slovo . In 1984 Slovo married the agricultural economist Helena Dolny for the second time .

Publications, speeches and interviews

  • "The Armed Struggle Spreads" (A discussion article) - Sechaba, May 1968
  • "People's War - the task is to make these words a reality" (interview, first published in Dawn). - Sechaba, April 1983
  • “Ruth First Memorial Lecture,” Sechaba, February 1985
  • "Interview with The Guardian", London, July 1985
  • "BBC Interview", July 1986
  • "Speech at the 65th anniversary meeting of the South African Communist Party", London, July 1986
  • “Interview with Neues Deutschland ”, Berlin, October 1987
  • "The South African Working Class and the National Democratic Revolution", 1988
  • "Message to the Soweto Rally for Walter Sisulu and other released ANC Leaders", 1989
  • “Has Socialism Failed?” January 1990
  • "BBC Interview", February 1990
  • "Interview with The Weekly Mail," February 1990
  • "Interview to Africa Report" - Africa Report, New York, September – October 1990
  • "Joe Slovo Discusses ANC / SACP Economic Policies", Johannesburg, Business Day, December 1990
  • "Beyond the Stereotype: The SACP in the past, present and future" (Speech at the University of the Western Cape to mark the 70th anniversary of the SACP), Communist, 1991
  • "A tribute to Yusuf Dadoo  - African Communist", 1991
  • "It was just the beginning". The MK Sabotage Campaign. Article in Submit or Fight !, 30 Years of Umkhonto we Sizwe, Booklet Published by the ANC Political Education Section, December 1991
  • "Political Report to the 8th Congress of the South African Communist Party" - African Communist, first quarter 1992
  • "Negotiations: What room for Compromise?" - African Communist, 1992
  • "Extracts from a speech by Joe Slovo recorded at SACTU seminar on the life and times of JB Marks held at Morogoro in March 1983 to Commemorate the 80th anniversary of Mark's birth on March 21, 1903" - African Communist, 1993
  • "The Negotiations Victory: a political overview" African Communist 1993
  • "Shared Values: Socialism and Religion" African Communist, 1994

Honors

  • In 1994 the ANC recognized his commitment with the Isitwalandwe award .

Web links

Commons : Joe Slovo  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e f From public enemy to national hero. The South African communist Joe Slovo has died. In: Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung , January 7, 1995.
personal data
SURNAME Slovo, Joe
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Slovo, Yossel Mashel (real name)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION South African politician and opponent of apartheid
DATE OF BIRTH May 23, 1926
PLACE OF BIRTH Obeliai near Rokiškis , Lithuania
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1995
Place of death Johannesburg