Lionel Bernstein

Lionel "Rusty" Bernstein
Lionel andHilda Bernstein
Born	Lionel Bernstein (1920-03-20)20 March 1920 Durban,Natal,Union of South Africa
Died	23 June 2002(2002-06-23)(aged 82) Cape Town,South Africa
Nationality	South African
Other names	Rusty
Occupation	Architect
Known for	Anti-apartheid activism
Spouse(s)	Hilda Bernstein (nee Schwarz),m. 1941
Awards	Order of Luthuliin gold (2011)

Lionel "Rusty" Bernstein(20 March 1920 – 23 June 2002) was a JewishSouth African anti-apartheid activist andpolitical prisoner.He played a key role in political organizations such as theSouth African Communist Party(SACP) and theAfrican National Congress(ANC). He helped form theSouth African Congress of Democratsto bolster white participation in the ANC, and he brought its allies together to establish aCongress of the People,working closely withNelson Mandela.

The anti-apartheid movement drew the ire of the South African government. They imposed severe restrictions on the movement, such as banning a publication Bernstein edited, banning a party he organized with, and detaining leaders including him for long periods of time. These actions culminated in him fleeing his home country after being detained following a police raid.

To participate inthe first post-apartheid elections in 1994,he returned to South Africa and resumed working for the ANC. Many institutions bestowed honours on him for his activism, and he remains a celebrated figure in Africa.

Early life

Bernstein was born on 20 March 1920 inDurban,Union of South Africa,the youngest of four children of Jewish émigrés from Europe. He was orphaned at eight years of age, and brought up by relatives, after which he was sent to finish his education atHilton College,a private boys' boarding school.

Aftermatriculating,he returned toJohannesburg,where he started work at an architect's office, while studying architecture part-time at theUniversity of the Witwatersrand.After qualifying in 1936, he worked full-time as an architect.

Early political activism

In 1937, he joined theLabour League of Youth.Later, he joined theSouth African Communist Party,where he soon played a leading role. For one year he forsook architecture to work as a full-time Party official and Secretary of the Johannesburg District of the Communist Party. In March 1941, he marriedHilda (née Schwarz),an immigrant from Britain, whom he had met in the Labour League of Youth.

That year he volunteered for theSouth African Armyand later served as a gunner in North Africa and Italy. He was repatriated and discharged from the army at the beginning of 1946. During the strike of African miners in 1946, he produced the strike bulletin. After the strike both he and his wife were arrested together with others and charged withsedition.They were ultimately convicted of aiding an illegal strike and received suspended sentences.

Over the next quarter of a century, he wrote extensively for the a number of journals, includingLiberationand the South African newspaperThe Guardian.He editedFighting Talk( which became a banned publication), a paper for ex-servicemen. This carried the same message as his other writings; that South Africa was approaching its last chance to make a peaceful transition to democracy. Once he was banned, he continued to write under several pseudonyms.

In 1950, the South African Communist Party (SACP) was banned. All SACP members became subject to various restrictions, including a ban on being published. After this, Bernstein took part with others in forming an underground Communist Party. He was prominent in forming theCongress of Democrats,an organisation for whites that could co-operate with theAfrican National Congress(ANC), which at that time was restricted to black membership only. ThisCongress Alliancedrew in radical trade unions, and many other non-racial political organisations.

Congress of the People

In 1954, the ANC called together its allies to a joint meeting in Natal. This included theSouth African Indian Congress,theSouth African Congress of Democrats(COD), theSouth African Congress of Trade Unions(SACTU), and theColoured Peoples' Congress.It was at this historic meeting that it was decided to convene aCongress of the Peoplewhere aFreedom Charterwould be adopted.

Bernstein played a major part on the committee organising the Congress, and worked very closely withNelson Mandela,Walter SisuluandOliver Tambo.Although often credited with the drafting of the Freedom Charter, his own memoirs dispel this. He was actually given the responsibility of drafting the Freedom Charter from the thousands of demands coming in from all over the country. His written words became a rallying call for those struggling for national liberation from that time on; "Let Us Speak of Freedom. South Africa belongs to all who live in it, black and white." The Freedom Charter became the basic document for the ANC for the next 40 years but split the liberation movement into two when one section of the ANC broke away in protest to form thePan Africanist Congressin April 1959.

By 1953, both he and his wife became subject to bans and restrictions that prohibited them from belonging to or taking part in the activities of numerous organisations including non-political bodies such as parent teacher associations.

At the end of 1956, Bernstein and 155 others were arrested and charged with treason. The infamousTreason Triallasted for more than four years after which all the accused were found not guilty and discharged.

In 1960, theSharpeville massacretook place; Bernstein and his wife were both among those arrested and detained under the state of emergency that followed. He was not released until five months later when the state of emergency was lifted. In 1962, he was placed under house arrest and allowed out only on weekdays between 6:00 am and 6:00 pm.

Rivonia Trial

His covert ANC and South African Communist Party activities led up to the police raid onLiliesleaf Farm,Rivonia, where he and ten other prominent ANC leaders were arrested on 11 July 1963. Bernstein was held in solitary confinement under the notoriousNinety Days detention law.At the end of ninety days, he was charged together with Nelson Mandela and others, in what became known as theRivonia Trial.At the end of the trial, the remaining men were all found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment. Bernstein was the only one found not guilty and he was discharged.

He was immediately re-arrested while leaving the dock and later released on bail. Shortly after his release, the police came to arrest his wife, Hilda, but she managed to escape from their home and went into hiding.

Life in exile

The Bernsteins decided to leave South Africa for the sake of their children, who would be left without their parents for a very long time if both of them were sent to prison. Also, their activities were now so circumscribed, they felt they had become a danger to all who associated with them. They left their children in the care of their eldest daughter and her husband, and crossed the border toBotswanaon foot. Their flight across the border and subsequent journey is described in Hilda's bookThe World That Was Ours.

The Bernsteins eventually made their way intoNorthern Rhodesia.Despite Northern Rhodesia being well on the way to independence within the Commonwealth asZambia,and the ANC being well respected by the new incoming authorities, they were declaredprohibited immigrantsby the British authorities. They then travelled overland toTanzaniaand eventually to England, where their children joined them one by one. Bernstein worked as an architect in London.

Despite leaving the country of his birth, he continued to work tirelessly for the abolition of apartheid without drawing a salary from the ANC, preferring to earn his living independently. In 1987, he conducted a series of seminars for the ANC in Moscow, on the history of South Africa's liberation struggles. He also spent a year in Tanzania at the ANC'sSolomon Mahlangu Freedom Collegesetting up apolitical scienceschool and teaching the history of the freedom struggle to young South African political exiles.

Return to South Africa, later life and death

Bernstein returned to South Africa for four months in 1994 for the first post-apartheid elections and worked in the ANC press office during this time, with particular responsibility for ensuring mass white participation in the first non-racial elections to take place in South Africa.

In 1998, the Bernsteins were awarded honorary degrees from theUniversity of Natalfor their role in helping to bring democracy to South Africa. This followed the publication of Bernstein's acclaimed book on the unwritten history of South African politics between 1938 and 1964.

Bernstein died at his Cape Town home on 23 June 2002, aged 82. He was posthumously made a member of theOrder of Luthuli(Gold), "For his political activism, abandoning privilege and dedicating his adult life to the struggle for liberation, democracy, human rights and peace, and for striving to build a better Africa and a better world through the anti-apartheid crusade."

In March 2011, the country ofThe Gambiaissued a postage stamp in Bernstein's honour, naming him as one of theLegendary Heroes of Africa.

See also

• Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College
• List of people subject to banning orders under apartheid

Notes and references

• Bernstein, Rusty (1999).Memory against forgetting: memoirs from a life in South African politics.Viking.ISBN978-0-670-88792-7.
• Alan Lipman."Review of Memory Against Forgetting, South African History 1935 to 1964, by Rusty Bernstein".The Sunday Independent (South Africa).Retrieved13 August2014.
• Bernstein, Hilda(1989).The World that was Ours: The Story of the Rivonia Trial.SAWriters.ISBN978-1-872086-01-9.
• Morrow, Seán; Maaba, Brown; Pulumani, Loyiso (2002). "Revolutionary Schooling? Studying the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College, the African National Congress Liberation School in Tanzania, 1978 to 1992".World Studies in Education.3(1): 23–37.doi:10.7459/wse/03.1.03.ISSN1441-340X.

External links

• Official website