Joe Slovo

Joe Slovo (May 23, 1926 – January 6, 1995) was a South African Communist politician and long time leader of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and leading member of the African National Congress. He was born in Obeliai, Lithuania to a Jewish family who emigrated to South Africa when he was eight. His full name was Yossel Mashel Slovo. His father worked as a truck driver in Johannesburg. This work is copyrighted. ... May 23 is the 143rd day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (144th in leap years). ... Year 1926 (MCMXXVI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar). ... January 6 is the 6th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar, with 359 days (360 in leap years) remaining. ... 1995 (MCMXCV) was a common year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... This article is about communism as a form of society and as a political movement. ... SACP symbol South African Communist Party (SACP) is a political party in South Africa. ... For political parties with similar names in other countries, see Northern Rhodesian African National Congress and Zambian African National Congress. ... Location Ethnographic region AukÅ¡taitija County Panevėžys County Municipality RokiÅ¡kis district municipality Elderate Obeliai elderate Coordinates General Information Capital of Obeliai elderate Population 1335 in 2005 (89) First mentioned 1519 Granted city rights 1956 Obeliai ( (help·info)) is city in RokiÅ¡kis district municipality, Lithuania. ... For other uses, see Jew (disambiguation). ... City motto: Unity in Development Province Gauteng Mayor Amos Masondo Area  - % water 1,644 km² 0. ...

Slovo left school in 1941 and found work as a dispatch clerk. He joined the National Union of Distributive Workers and, as a shop steward, was involved in organising a strike. He joined the SACP in 1942. The terms steward or stewardess can refer to a number of different professional roles. ... Year 1942 (MCMXLII) was a common year starting on Thursday (the link is to a full 1942 calendar). ...

Inspired by the Red Army's battles against the Nazis on the Eastern Front of World War II, Slovo volunteered to fight in the war joining the Springbok Legion. Red Army flag The Workers and Peasants Red Army (Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия, Raboche-Krestyanskaya Krasnaya Armiya; RKKA or usually simply the Red Army) were the armed forces first organized by the Bolsheviks during the Russian Civil War in 1918 and that in 1922 became the army of the Soviet Union. ... National Socialism redirects here. ... The Eastern Front was the theatre of combat between Nazi Germany and its allies against the Soviet Union during World War II. It was somewhat separate from the other theatres of the war, not only geographically, but also for its scale and ferocity. ... Combatants Allied powers: China France Great Britain Soviet Union United States and others Axis powers: Germany Italy Japan and others Commanders Chiang Kai-shek Charles de Gaulle Winston Churchill Joseph Stalin Franklin Roosevelt Adolf Hitler Benito Mussolini Hideki Tōjō Casualties Military dead: 17,000,000 Civilian dead: 33,000...

Between 1946 and 1950 he completed a law degree at Wits University and was a student activist. In 1949 he married Ruth First, the daughter of SACP treasurer Julius First. They had three daughters, Shawn, Gillian and Robyn. 1946 (MCMXLVI) was a common year starting on Tuesday. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... The University of the Witwatersrand is a leading South African university situated in Johannesburg. ... 1949 (MCMXLIX) was a common year starting on Saturday (the link is to a full 1949 calendar). ... Ruth First in a newsphoto ten years after her murder. ... Shawn Slovo is a screenwriter, best known for the film A World Apart, based on her childhood in South Africa under apartheid. ... Gillian Slovo, born in 1952, is a South African novelist, playwright and memoirist. ... Joe Slovo Joe Slovo (May 23, 1926 – January 6, 1995) was a South African Communist politician and long time leader of the South African Communist Party (SACP) and leading member of the African National Congress. ...

Both First and Slovo were listed as communists under the Suppression of Communism Act and could not be quoted or attend public gatherings in South Africa (see ban (law)). He became active in the African National Congress and was a delegate to the June 1955 the "Congress of the People" organised by the ANC and Indian, Coloured and white organisations at Kliptown near Johannesburg, that drew up the Freedom Charter. He was arrested and detained for two months during the Treason Trial of 1956. Charges against him were dropped in 1958. He was later arrested for six months during the State of Emergency declared after the Sharpeville massacre in 1960. The 1950 Suppression of Communism Act was legislation of the National government in South Africa. ... A ban is, generally, any decree that prohibits something. ... 1955 (MCMLV) was a common year starting on Saturday (link will display the full calendar) of the Gregorian calendar. ... City motto: Unity in Development Province Gauteng Mayor Amos Masondo Area  - % water 1,644 km² 0. ... The Freedom Charter was adopted at the Congress of the People in Kliptown, South Africa on 26 June 1955 by the African National Congress and its allies. ... The Treason Trial was a trial in which 156 people including Nelson Mandela were arrested in a raid and accussed of treason in 1956. ... The Sharpeville massacre, also known as the Sharpeville shootings, occurred on March 21, 1960, when South African police opened fire on a crowd of black protesters. ...

In 1961, Slovo and Abongz Mbede emerged as one of the leaders of Umkhonto we Sizwe. In 1963 he went into exile and lived in Britain, Angola, Mozambique and Zambia. Slovo was elected general secretary of the SACP in 1984. He died in 1995 of cancer. For other uses of Umkhonto, see Umkhonto (disambiguation) Umkhonto we Sizwe (or MK), translated Spear of the Nation, was the military wing of the African National Congress (ANC). ... The term General Secretary (alternatively First Secretary) denotes a leader of various unions, parties or associations. ... Cancer is a class of diseases or disorders characterized by uncontrolled division of cells and the ability of these to spread, either by direct growth into adjacent tissue through invasion, or by implantation into distant sites by metastasis (where cancer cells are transported through the bloodstream or lymphatic system). ...

He returned to South Africa in 1990 to participate in the early "talks about talks" between the government and the ANC. Ailing, he stood down as SACP general secretary in 1991 and was succeeded by Chris Hani who was soon murdered. Slovo was given the titular position of chairperson of the SACP. He served as housing minister in the first government of Nelson Mandela. This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Mandela redirects here. ...

Slovo was a leading theoretician in both the party and the ANC. In 1989, he wrote Has Socialism Failed? which acknowledged the weaknesses of socialism and excesses of Stalinism. In 2004 he was voted 47th in the Top 100 Great South Africans. Joseph Stalin Stalinism is the political and economic system named after Joseph Stalin, who implemented it in the Soviet Union. ... Great South Africans was a South African television series that aired on SABC3 and hosted by Noeleen Maholwana Sangqu and Denis Beckett. ...

Joe Slovo appears as a character (played by Malcolm Purkey) in the 2006 film Catch a Fire, for which Shawn Slovo wrote the screenplay. Catch a Fire the name of a film set to be released in 2006. ...

External links

• Joe Slovo – biographical sketch at the homepage of the ANC
• "Has Socialism Failed?" – article by Joe Slovo, first published January 1990, at the homepage of the SACP (retrieved 15 December 2006)
• "Old Marxist Returns, With Hope for South Africa" – article by Chris Hedges, The New York Times 17 October 1990
• "Joe Slovo: Ode to a mensch" – eulogy by friend Linzi Manicom