Hirson, Baruch (1921-1999)

IDENTITY STATEMENT AREA

Reference code(s): ICS 32

Title: Hirson, Baruch (1921-1999)

Date(s): 1960 - 1979

Level of description: Fond

Extent and medium of the unit of description: 1 box

CONTEXT AREA

Name of creator(s): Hirson, Baruch, 1921-1999, physicist, author and South African political activist

Administrative/Biographical history: 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, 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.

Archival history: The papers were deposited at ICS by Baruch Hirson, date unknown.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer:

CONTENT AND STRUCTURE AREA

Scope and content: Papers of and collected by Baruch Hirson, on South African politics, 1960-1979; comprising 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Year of Fire, year of Ash: the Soweto revolt; roots of a revolution (1979), including press cuttings, published and unpublished papers on the riots, and material produced by the Soweto Students' Representative Council and other groups including the African National Congress (ANC), Black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.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling information:

Accruals:

System of arrangement: Papers arranged in 3 series as described above.

CONDITIONS OF ACCESS AND USE AREA

Conditions governing access: Open

Conditions governing reproduction: 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.

Language/scripts of material: English

Physical characteristics:

Finding aids:

ALLIED MATERIALS AREA

Existence and location of originals:

Existence and location of copies:

Related units of description: 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).

Publication note:

DESCRIPTION CONTROL AREA

Recorder's note:

Rules or conventions: Compiled in compliance with General International Standard Archival Description, ISAD(G), second edition, 2000; National Council on Archives Rules for the Construction of Personal, Place and Corporate Names, 1997.

Date(s) of descriptions: February 2002

Interest:

Specific group:

Subjects

Anti-apartheid movements

Educational sciences

Educational sociology

Student sociology

Student unrest

Racial discrimination

Racial prejudice

Administration of justice

Penal sanctions

Prisons

Human rights

Civil and political rights

Political prisoners

Ethnic groups

Interethnic relations

Racial segregation

Apartheid

Personal/Corporate names

ANC

African National Congress

South African Native National Congress

Black Parents Association

Black Peoples Convention

National Union of South African Students

South African Commission of Inquiry into the Penal System

Soweto Students' Representative Council

University of Cape Town

Students' Representative Council

University of Witwatersrand, Southern Africa

Places

Southern Africa

South Africa

Soweto