Hilda Bernstein

Hilda Bernstein

Bernstein was born in London, England, to Russian-Jewish immigrants Simeon and Dora Schwarz. In 1925, when she was 10 years old, her father, who was a lifelong Bolshevik and had been the Russian Trade Attaché to Britain, was recalled to the Soviet Union.^[1] He was not able to return to Britain, and after his death she quit school to work, before emigrating to South Africa at the age of 18 to work in journalism.

Activism in South Africa

In response to the rise of fascism in Europe, she became involved with the Labour Party. This party, however, did not share her growing concern with apartheid and she left it to join the South African Communist Party, the only South African party with no racial segregation. She demonstrated her speaking and organizing skills on the party's district committee and national executive committee.

Through her political activities she met Lionel "Rusty" Bernstein, whom she married in March 1941.

In 1943 she was elected to the city council of Johannesburg by a then all-white electorate, the only member of the Communist Party to do so. She used this position for three years as a platform for publicizing the injustices of racism.

In the 1950s she became more focused on organizing with women. She was a founding member of the multi-racial Federation of South African Women^[2] in 1956, and she was one of the organizers of the Women's March to Pretoria.^[3] Her writings were appearing regularly in periodicals in South Africa and other nations in Africa and Europe.

As early as 1946 the South African government began its attempts to limit her activities and minimize her political influence. In that year she was convicted of assisting an illegal strike of black mineworkers. In 1953 the government banned her membership in a list of organizations, and in 1958 extended this ban to prohibit her from writing or publishing. In 1960 she was detained during the state of emergency declared after the Sharpeville massacre. She was therefore required to go underground with her political work.

In 1963 her husband Rusty was one of 19

In exile, the Bernsteins eventually settled in Britain, where they continued to work in support of the African National Congress. She also dedicated her written and oral communication skills to the Anti-Apartheid Movement and the British peace movement. Her writings and speaking engagements were numerous in Europe, the United States, and Canada.

She wrote several books, including