Cleveland, Ann Arbor, Chicago

I will be in Cleveland this week and Ann Arbor and Chicago next week talking about Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid

Cleveland, OH – October 3
Mac’s Books on Coventry
7 pm
1820 Coventry Rd.
Cleveland Heights, OH 44118

Ann Arbor, MI – October 8
Literati Bookstore
7pm
124 East Washington Street
Ann Arbor, MI 48104

Chicago, IL – October 9
City Lit Books
6:30 pm
2523 North Kedzie Blvd.
Chicago, IL 60647

Holly Near's It Could Have Been Me

After Ruth First was assassinated Joe Slovo listened to Holly Near's song "It Could Have Been Me" again & again. Although the song related mostly to Central America -- the words connect directly to Ruth First.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CadP4dRemYk

Los Angeles Radio Interview

Just had two wonderful days in Los Angeles talking about Ruth First and Joe Slovo. I met with with the committed and amazing organizers at The Labor/Community Strategy Center on Monday evening.  This is the organization that spearheaded the successful Bus Riders Union that won battles for low fares, green buses, and general rights for the mostly black and Latina who ride buses in LA. I also had the privilege of spending two days in conversation with the organizations founder, and long time American revolutionary, Eric Mann.  My time in LA ended talking with Eric on his radio show, Voices from the Frontlines. Eric added a blurb to our interview and you can listen to the show at:

http://voicesfromfrontlines.com/the-biography-of-ruth-and-joe-slovo-anti-aparthied-warriors-of-south-africa/#.UkdmP7z27VU

Voices from the Frontlines with Eric Mann

http://voicesfromfrontlines.com/

Eric Mann hosts the weekly radio show Voices From the Frontlines on Pacifica KPFK 90.7FM (Tuesdays at 4PM). The show features interviews with frontline organizers from across the globe. It boasts a large multi-racial Los Angeles audience, and increasingly, a national audience for our live, streaming webcast. Eric has conversations with leaders of social movements that focus on strategy and tactics, social movements, radical and revolutionary thinkers, strategists, organizers, and mass leaders - always asking the question, "What is to be Done?" and looking for answers.

I will join Eric tomorrow (Tuesday September 24) to talk about Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid.  Hope you will listen

 

Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid in Los Angeles

Will talk about Ruth First and Joe Slovo tomorrow night with Eric Mann at The Labor/Community Strategy Center in Los Angeles.

http://www.thestrategycenter.org/

KPFA Interview Link

Walter Turner interviewed me tonight on KPFA Berkeley -- here is the link

http://www.kpfa.org/archive/id/95374

KPFA - September 16

This evening I will be on Walter Turner's show, Africa Today, from KPFA-Berkeley at 7pm (pacific time). You can listen on-line.

http://www.kpfa.org/africa-today

Marxist School of Sacramento

The Marxist School of Sacramento

Upcoming Events:

 

Our Point of Vew Lecture Series starts Thursday, Sept. 19 at the Sol Collective 2574 21st Street, Sacramento, CA (1 blk south of Broadway)

Thursday, Sept. 19, 7–9pm: Alan Wieder will present his new book: Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War Against Apartheid

Join author Alan Wieder for a discussion of his new book, Ruth First and Joe Slovo in the War against Apartheid. This engaging and richly detailed work recounts the extraordinary lives of First and Slovo, their contributions to the anti-apartheid struggle, and their sometimes tumultuous relationship.
Ruth First and Joe Slovo, husband and wife, were leaders of the war to end apartheid in South Africa. Communists, scholars, parents, and uncompromising militants, they were the perfect enemies for the white police state. Together they were swept up in the growing resistance to apartheid, and together they experienced repression and exile. Their contributions to the liberation struggle, as individuals and as a couple, are undeniable. Ruth agitated tirelessly for the overthrow of apartheid, first in South Africa and then from abroad, and Joe directed much of the armed struggle carried out by the famous Umkhonto we Sizwe. Only one of them, however, would survive to see the fall of the old regime and the founding of a new, democratic South Africa.
This book, the first extended biography of Ruth First and Joe Slovo, is a remarkable account of one couple and the revolutionary moment in which they lived. Alan Wieder’s heavily researched work draws on the usual primary and secondary sources but also an extensive oral history that he has collected over many years. By intertwining the documentary record with personal interviews, Wieder portrays the complexities and contradictions of this extraordinary couple and their efforts to navigate a time of great tension, upheaval, and revolutionary hope.
Copies of the book will be available for purchase.

About the author:

Alan Wieder is an oral historian who lives in Portland, Oregon. He is distinguished professor emeritus at the University of South Carolina and has also taught at the University of the Western Cape and Stellenbosch University in South Africa. In the last ten years he has published two books and numerous articles on South Africans who fought against the apartheid regime.
View all Speakers and Discussions.
All Marxist School events are free and open to the public.

Cape Times Article

This article came out Monday, September 2, in The Cape Times

Ruth First Memorial Lecture

Next Wednesday, September 11, I will present a lecture on Ruth First, via Skype, at the Institute for Knowledge, Education, and Future at the University of Fort Hare.

Orca Books

Had a book talk yesterday at Orca Books – first this is a great independent bookstore.  Small turnout as it was labor day weekend but the three people that came besides Joanie and her mom Lore, Peter Bohmer, a long time activist and professor at Evergreen State College, and two young faculty members from UWash-Tacoma, Charles Williams & Yonn Dierwechter, asked great questions and were totally engaged.  Unlike the experiences of book tours outlined by Nathan Englander in “The Reader,” it was a great afternoon.