Selected Writings

Ruth First held multiple roles during the struggles of her time as acommunist militant,journalist, and leading intellectual in South Africa. She was born intoa political family inJohannesburg in 1925 and, as a student in the 1940s, founded animportant organisation, theFederation of Progressive Students with other anti-apartheid activists.Her cohort of fellowstudents and comrades included a broad swathe of activists, such asNelson Mandela andEduardo Mondlane, the first leader of the Liberation Front of Mozambique(FRELIMO).While in exile in Mozambique and the United Kingdom, First carried outpioneering research onthe lives of migrant labourers in South African gold mines, critiquingthe apartheid statesimperialist ambitions and the impact of Western imperial nations onAfrica. Tragically, on 17August 1982, she was assassinated by a spy for the apartheid state whosent a deadly letterbomb to her office in Maputo.Ruth First: Selected Writings, the sixth joint book published by the International Union of LeftPublishers, brings together five stirring essays on a range of topicsincluding the landmark 1956Womens March, the workings of the apartheid state, and the history ofarmed struggle againstthis state, introduced by an essay on Firsts life and legacy, writtenby Vashna Jagarnath, alabour activist who works in the office of the general secretary of theNational Union ofMetalworkers of South Africa (NUMSA).