Ruth First held multiple roles during the struggles of her time as a communist militant,
journalist, and leading intellectual in South Africa. She was born into a political family in
Johannesburg in 1925 and, as a student in the 1940s, founded an important organisation, the
Federation of Progressive Students with other anti-apartheid activists. Her cohort of fellow
students and comrades included a broad swathe of activists, such as Nelson Mandela and
Eduardo Mondlane, the first leader of the Liberation Front of Mozambique (FRELIMO).
While in exile in Mozambique and the United Kingdom, First carried out pioneering research on
the lives of migrant labourers in South African gold mines, critiquing the apartheid state’s
imperialist ambitions and the impact of Western imperial nations on Africa. Tragically, on 17
August 1982, she was assassinated by a spy for the apartheid state who sent a deadly letter
bomb to her office in Maputo.
Ruth First: Selected Writings, the sixth joint book published by the International Union of Left
Publishers, brings together five stirring essays on a range of topics including the landmark 1956
Women’s March, the workings of the apartheid state, and the history of armed struggle against
this state, introduced by an essay on First’s life and legacy, written by Vashna Jagarnath, a
labour activist who works in the office of the general secretary of the National Union of
Metalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA).
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