A Tribute
[See www.apdusa.org.za for more memorial meeting tributes]

We proudly salute the life of Gwendolyn Wilcox, a stalwart in the struggle for socialist democracy who passed away on 11 August 2019, at the age of 91. Born into a family of eight siblings, Gwen echoed her sisters in that she became an outstanding student at high school. She became involved in the political struggle at the age of seventeen when she joined the New Era Fellowship (NEF), a discussion forum affiliated to the Unity Movement. At first, she chose to pursue a career in teaching but soon found the work too demanding and a distraction from her chosen political role. She then chose to work as a bookkeeper, not seeking self-enrichment but earning enough to make her financially independent.

Gwen dedicated her life to the political struggle in South Africa. She immersed herself in the organisations of the NEUM (later UMSA) involved in the South African liberation struggle. She joined the Society of Young Africa (SOYA) when it was established in 1951 and together with her sister, Edna, became well known throughout the country for her work in this organization. In 1961 she joined the newly established APDUSA in which she played a sterling role, so much so that she was served with banning orders in 1964, which placed severe restrictions on her movements and communication with others. The five-year banning order was reimposed in 1969. All of this did not deter her and in 1971 she was arrested with over 200 APDUSA members across the country. She, with her one brother, was held in solitary confinement without trial for a period of about seven months and then released without being charged while another brother was among thirteen members sentenced to various terms of imprisonment on Robben Island. She was banned again in 1974 for a third time until the rulers concluded that the banning of people was not helping their cause and all banning orders were lifted in 1981.

From the 1980s she renewed her involvement in liberatory politics with the rebuilding of APDUSA initiated by returning former Robben Island prisoners. Apart from attending UMSA and APDUSA conferences and APDUSA political schools on a regular basis, she served as a political mentor to at least two generations of APDUSANS. Key to her incisive political analyses was the central role of political programmes when conducting political struggle. Similarly, her active participation in political struggle into the 21st century bears testimony to her steadfastness and principled political involvement. The organization’s younger members benefitted tremendously from her thoughtful and invaluable contributions in political school discussions. The cardinal point from these endeavours was that Gwen’s contributions reminded her fellow comrades of the importance of collective political memory.

The memorial meeting held in her honour, on 14 September in Cape Town, saw family, friends and comrades alike paying a fitting farewell to one of the heroines of our liberation struggle.