We pay tribute to the lifelong contribution of Neville Alexander to the South African Liberatory movement and indeed, his  vision and commitment to international struggle.

Neville, born in Cradock, came to Cape Town to further his studies at the University of Cape Town in the mid fifties and soon after joined the  joined the Society of Young Africa (SOYA). One was struck by his effervescent and infectious personality and his enthusiasm for everything he engaged in. He belonged to a new layer of serious young intellectuals determined to make their own contribution to the political struggle and he played a leading role in the establishment and building of the vibrant and influential Cape Peninsula Students Union.

At UCT, he achieved his master’s degree with distinction and went on to take up his doctoral studies in Germany. In 1961, while he was still abroad the APDUSA was established and when he returned he immediately joined the organisation. But he had become influenced to think of the struggle in South Africa in new terms. Impatient for change, he began organising clandestinely for his approach, which inevitably brought him into conflict with the organisation.  He was subsequently suspended from Soya which effectively meant that he could not, under the terms of his suspension, work in any affiliate of the Unity Movement. But this did not deter him. With those who he had won over to his views, he established the Yu Chi Chan Club whose first purpose was to study guerrilla warfare. Not long after, a number of them were detained by the security police and then sentenced to prison for varying terms ranging from five to ten years.   Some may believe that they were sentenced for taking a foolish risk but that is not true. They were sentenced because they were perceived to present a serious threat to the ruling establishment and they either had to be crushed or taken out of commission for the longest possible time.

In prison inmates immediately learnt that they had to unite to defend themselves from persecution and to fight for a dignified existence, irrespective of the political organisations to which they belonged. Moreover, in the single cells where Neville was detained, numbers seldom rose above thirty. Living cheek by jowl, day in and day out, inmates became akin to one big family and in such circumstances it would be impossible not to become tolerant of other political views. This would not necessarily affect your own political outlook but it was a big contribution to Neville’s adoption of total non-sectarianism. Later, Neville was greatly excited with the arrival of the APDUSA contingent on Robben Island and spoke approvingly of the organisation’s approach to armed struggle.

After his release from prison, and later, the release of the Apdusans, Neville initiated an attempt at a close collaboration with Apdusa. But bannings made effective communication an insurmountable obstacle at the time. Later, Neville was a key figure in the establishment of  the Workers Organisation For Socialist Action (WOSA)  In December 1997, WOSA took a bold step to host the first international socialist conference in South Africa to which APDUSA  gave its full solidarity. Though this conference did not achieve its’ hoped for objectives it made a major contribution to the understanding that our struggle is not merely a national one but that it is part of an international movement. Then, when the Anti-Privatisation Forum was established in Cape Town, WOSA and APDUSA worked closely together to promote a socialist outlook in the forum.  Later, in 2005, when APDUSA promoted the establishment of the Radical Left Network, as part of the initiative to build an international Radical Parties Network. Neville and WOSA avidly supported this project. This brought about a fruitful collaboration between a number of leftist groupings. Though the RLN failed to survive, it held many important public seminars and it broke the barriers of suspicion and disdain that had previously existed between imagined rival organisations.
While our political paths had diverged from 1962/3 onwards, they were never separated.

In the immediate, Neville believed strongly in the necessity for the formation of a mass workers party to carry the struggle forward, for full political liberation and full equality for all human beings, here at home and internationally.  It is a task that confronts all of us.