APDUSA honours  the life’s work and commitment to human liberation of Bernard Berhman, who passed away in England recently at the age of 81.  A fitting obituary, to which little can be added, can be read on the site of the Socialist Worker (UK):

  http://socialistworker.co.uk/art/34156/Bernard+Behrman+1931-2013

 The passing of Bernhard Behrman has prompted the need for comment on the important role of the Progressive Forum  as it was the body through which he first entered the ranks of the Non-European Unity Movement  (later, The Unity Movement of South Africa).

The Progressive Forum was started in Johannesburg in 1948 by a group of students at the University of the Witwatersrand. Many of them had travelled to Cape Town to meet with Dr. G H Gool, chairman of the National Anti-CAD (Coloured Affairs Department) movement. As a forum for critical discussion and political action, it reflected the radical trend in liberatory politics found in the Non-European Unity Movement to which it became affiliated. Not only did it provide an expanding base for the Unity Movement in  Johannesburg and the Transvaal, but also in Natal, to which some of its members returned after graduation as lawyers (Karriem Essack and Enver Hassim). These pioneers of ground broken in two provinces, amongst others such as Dr. Ahmed Limbada, deserve profiles of their own.