Overview
- Explores the role of social movements in the Southern African liberation struggle
- Sheds light on the interplay between transnational and national tendencies during the liberation movement
- Provides fresh insights into ‘underground’ activism
Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements (PSHSM)
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Table of contents (8 chapters)
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Front Matter
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Back Matter
Keywords
- South African Communist Party
- Communist Party of South Africa
- African National Congress
- Apartheid
- Communism
- South African Liberation Struggle
- Transnationalism
- Underground activism
- Bram Fischer
- Joe Slovo
- Ivan Schermbrucker
- Lesley Schermbrucker
- Stalinism
- Exile
- CPSA
- Equality
- Liberation Movement
- South African history
About this book
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.
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
Authors and Affiliations
About the author
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.
Bibliographic Information
Book Title: Everyday Communists in South Africa’s Liberation Struggle
Book Subtitle: The Lives of Ivan and Lesley Schermbrucker
Authors: Alan Kirkaldy
Series Title: Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-83921-5
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan Cham
eBook Packages: History, History (R0)
Copyright Information: The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2022
Hardcover ISBN: 978-3-030-83920-8Published: 11 November 2021
Softcover ISBN: 978-3-030-83923-9Published: 12 November 2022
eBook ISBN: 978-3-030-83921-5Published: 10 November 2021
Series ISSN: 2634-6559
Series E-ISSN: 2634-6567
Edition Number: 1
Number of Pages: XVIII, 386
Number of Illustrations: 13 b/w illustrations
Topics: African History, Political History, Imperialism and Colonialism, Social History, World History, Global and Transnational History