GB 0101 ICS 32 - HIRSON, Baruch (1921-1999)

53 boxes

The first accession of 1 box of material was deposited at ICS by Baruch Hirson, date unknown. A futher 36 boxes of his reasearch files were deposited by the family after his death in 1999.
GB 0101 ICS 32 1912-1998 Collection (Fonds) 53 boxes Hirson , Baruch , 1921-1999 , physicist, author and South African political activist

Baruch Hirson was born at Doornfontein near Johannesburg, South Africa on 10 December 1921, the son of a Jewish electrician. Between 1944 and 1946 he worked as the political organiser for the Workers' International League, and subsequently he combined his politics with an academic career as a physicist at the University of the Witwatersrand. Towards the end of the 1950s he joined the Congress of Democrats, the white arm of the African National Congress-led congress alliance. Highly critical of its leadership and policies, with other disaffected left-wing congress activists Hirson formed the Socialist League of Africa just before the Sharpeville massacre in 1960, and later the National Committee for Liberation/African Resistance Movement (ARM). The ARM was broken in 1964, and Hirson and other leading activists arrested and imprisoned for nine years. After his release he moved to Britain, he taught physics at Bradford and Middlesex Universities, and devoted much of his time to history and the publication of Searchlight South Africa (1988-1995), a left-wing analysis of South African politics. He wrote several books or aspects of South African history and an autobiography, Revolutions in my Life (1995). He died in London on 3 October 1999.

The first accession of 1 box of material was deposited at ICS by Baruch Hirson, date unknown. A futher 36 boxes of his reasearch files were deposited by the family after his death in 1999.

Papers of Baruch Hirson chiefly comprising thirty six boxes of research notes including manuscript notes, typescript drafts and photocopies, arranged by subject on topics including South African politics, trade unions, racism, imperialism, industry and economics. The collection also includes seminar papers by Hirson given at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies; photocopies of correspondence on Hirson's appointment as a Lecturer in the Department of Physics at the University of the Witwatersrand, 1960; photocopy of memoranda written by Dennis Goldberg to the South African Commission of Inquiry into the Penal System from political prisoners in Pretoria Local prison, [1974]; photocopies of material on the Soweto riots, 1976, collected by Hirson while working on his book Year of Fire, year of Ash: the Soweto revolt; roots of a revolution (1979), including press cuttings, published and unpublished papers on the riots, and material produced by the Soweto Students' Representative Council and other groups including the African National Congress (ANC), Black Peoples Convention, Cape Town University Students' Representative Council, the Black Parents Association, the University of Natal Medical Students' Representative Council and the National Union of South African Students. Also archives on South African politics, history, trade unions and social conditions; also comprising papers and correspondence used in Hirson's research. Topics include Workers' International League, Communist Party of South Africa, Workers' Party, Trotskyism in South Africa, Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania, Ruth and Amy Schechter, Cecil Frank Glass, David Ivon Jones, African Peoples Organisation, Workers Dreadnought, women's suffrage movement in South Africa, South Africa and the First World War, Mary Fitzgerald, miners in South Africa (especially strike of 1946), migrant labour in South Africa, University of Bradford School of Peace Studies, South African Coloured Peoples Congress, Searchlight South Africa correspondence and accounts (c1988-c1992), Jack Halpern draft articles and correspondence (1956-1960). Also transcripts of interviews including James Philips, Lewis Nkosi, Louis Kreel, E. J. Burford, Eli Wienberg, Sam and Sarah Woolf, Dan Mokanyana, Pauline Podbury, Anne Bloch, M. B. Yengwa, Eileen Jaffe, John Gaetsewe, Jack Hodgson (June 1977), Guy Routh, and Joan Robinson/Schedrin.

Original order

Open although advance notice should be given. Access to individual items may be restricted under the Data Protection Act or the Freedom of Information Act.

A photocopying service is available, at the discretion of the Library staff. Copies are supplied solely for research or private study. Requests to publish, or quote from original material should be submitted to the Information Resources Manager.
English; Xhosa; Dutch; Afrikaans: French

Catalogued to file and item level (see link to repository catalogue).

There is a list of the Soweto riots material in the ISC Library.

University of Cape Town: Students' Representative Council papers on South African disturbances, 1976 (ICS 81); There are also several other collections at ICS given or deposited by Baruch Hirson, including the papers of H M Basner (ICS 88); A L Saffery (ICS 69); Josie Palmer (ICS 57) and Neil Alcock (ICS 3).

Compiled by Alan Kucia as part of the RSLP AIM25 Project. Revised by Sarah Drewery. General International Standard Archival Description ISAD(G), 2nd Edition, 2000. National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997. Oct 2001, Modified Feb 2008 and Sept 2014 Administration of justice ANC , African National Congress x African National Congress x South African Native National Congress Apartheid Black Parents Association Black Peoples Convention Blacks Civil and political rights Coloureds Educational sciences Educational sociology Ethnic groups Hirson , Baruch , 1921-1999 , physicist and South African political activist Human rights Interethnic relations National Union of South African Students Penal institutions Penal sanctions Political prisoners Prisons Racial discrimination Racial prejudice Racial segregation South Africa South African Commission of Inquiry into the Penal Stystem Southern Africa Soweto Soweto Students' Representative Council Student sociology Student unrest University of Cape Town , Students' Representative Council University of Witwatersrand, Southern Africa

Papers of Baruch Hirson chiefly comprising thirty six boxes of research notes including manuscript notes, typescript drafts and photocopies, arranged by subject on topics including South African politics, trade unions, racism, imperialism, industry and economics. The collection also includes seminar papers by Hirson given at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies; photocopies of correspondence on Hirson's appointment as a Lecturer in the Department of Physics at the University of the Witwatersrand, 1960; photocopy of memoranda written by Dennis Goldberg to the South African Commission of Inquiry into the Penal System from political prisoners in Pretoria Local prison, [1974]; photocopies of material on the Soweto riots, 1976, collected by Hirson while working on his book Year of Fire, year of Ash: the Soweto revolt; roots of a revolution (1979), including press cuttings, published and unpublished papers on the riots, and material produced by the Soweto Students' Representative Council and other groups including the African National Congress (ANC), Black Peoples Convention, Cape Town University Students' Representative Council, the Black Parents Association, the University of Natal Medical Students' Representative Council and the National Union of South African Students. Also archives on South African politics, history, trade unions and social conditions; also comprising papers and correspondence used in Hirson's research. Topics include Workers' International League, Communist Party of South Africa, Workers' Party, Trotskyism in South Africa, Pan-Africanist Congress of Azania, Ruth and Amy Schechter, Cecil Frank Glass, David Ivon Jones, African Peoples Organisation, Workers Dreadnought, women's suffrage movement in South Africa, South Africa and the First World War, Mary Fitzgerald, miners in South Africa (especially strike of 1946), migrant labour in South Africa, University of Bradford School of Peace Studies, South African Coloured Peoples Congress, Searchlight South Africa correspondence and accounts (c1988-c1992), Jack Halpern draft articles and correspondence (1956-1960). Also transcripts of interviews including James Philips, Lewis Nkosi, Louis Kreel, E. J. Burford, Eli Wienberg, Sam and Sarah Woolf, Dan Mokanyana, Pauline Podbury, Anne Bloch, M. B. Yengwa, Eileen Jaffe, John Gaetsewe, Jack Hodgson (June 1977), Guy Routh, and Joan Robinson/Schedrin.

Original order

Open although advance notice should be given. Access to individual items may be restricted under the Data Protection Act or the Freedom of Information Act.

A photocopying service is available, at the discretion of the Library staff. Copies are supplied solely for research or private study. Requests to publish, or quote from original material should be submitted to the Information Resources Manager.

• English

• Latin

English; Xhosa; Dutch; Afrikaans: French

University of Cape Town: Students' Representative Council papers on South African disturbances, 1976 (ICS 81); There are also several other collections at ICS given or deposited by Baruch Hirson, including the papers of H M Basner (ICS 88); A L Saffery (ICS 69); Josie Palmer (ICS 57) and Neil Alcock (ICS 3).

Catalogued to file and item level (see link to repository catalogue).

General International Standard Archival Description ISAD(G), 2nd Edition, 2000. National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

• English