£(<9.1

'Rusty’ Lionel Bernstein

1920 - 2002

Rusty, Hilda and their youngest grandson, Hugh

Golders Green, London Friday 28th June 2002 ‘Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves' from Verdi’s opera Nabucco (1842) “....Oh my country, so lovely and lost Oh remembrance, so dear yet unhappy....”

Introduction and messages Lord Joel Joffe Attorney for the Rivonia triallists and close friend South African Freedom songs will be played as people leave Essop Pahad from President Mbeki’s Office On behalf of the South African Government Sikhalela “We deinand our land back” ‘Joe Hill’ sung by Paul Robeson A song and singer Rusty loved Sizongena “Our aim is to return to ” Rusty’s children Toni, Patrick, Frances and Keith talk about their dad Sung by James Madhlope Phillips & the Zeitgenossen Choir (Bremen) Joel Joffe concludes the proceedings

Nkosi Sikele’ iAfrika Rusty Bernstein lived We will stand and sing South Africa’s national anthem from 5th M arch 1920 Imilonji Kantu Choral Society “Let us speak of to 23rd June 2002 I freedom *.. ”

Donations will be accepted for g Everyone is welcome to a reception afterwards at UBELELE, The Marriott Hotel, Swiss Cottage a social and pyschotherapy on the corner of Adelaide Road and King Henry* s Road NW6 training centre at Alexandra Parking available Township, . 3? >: Nkosi Sikelel’ 1 Afrika < > Sc > Sc Nkosi sikelel’ I Afrika Maluphakanyisw’ uphondo lwayo % Yizwa imithandazo yethu Nkosi sikelela (x2) $ > < Nkosi sikelel’ I Afrika Maluphakanyisw’ uphondo lwayo g Yizwa imithandazo yethu g £ Nkosi sekel'ela I Thina lusapho lwayo I Woza m oya (x3) I i Woza moya oyingcwele I >: Nkosi sikelela :< £ Thina lusapho lwayo :< < Sc M orena boluka sechaba sa heso £ O fedise dintwa le matswenyeho %i (Repeat) £ > Sc O seboloke oseboloke (x2) £ 1 Sechaba sa heso >: Sechaba sa heso >: S3 % O seboloke oseboloke (x2) >: Sechaba sa heso Sechaba sa Afrika £ >►

The proceedings are being filmed to send to South Africa. 'Rusty’ Lionel Bernstein

1920 - 2002

Rusty, Hilda and their youngest grandson, Hugh

Golders Green, London Friday 28th June 2002 ‘Chorus of the Hebrew Slaves ‘ from Verdi’s opera Nabucco (1842) “....Oh my country, so lovely and lost Oh remembrance, so dear yet unhappy—” r Introduction and messages I Lord Joel Joffe Attorney for the Rivonia triallists and close friend South African Freedom songs will be played as people leave Essop Pahad from President M beki’s O ffice On behalf of the South African Government Sikhalela “We demand our land back” ‘Joe Hill’ sung by Paul Robeson A song and singer Rusty loved Sizongena “Our aim is to return to South Africa” Rusty’s children Toni, Patrick, Frances and Keith talk about their dad Sung by James Madhlope Phillips & the Zeitgenossen Choir (Bremen) Joel Joffe concludes the proceedings

Nkosi Sikele’ iAfrika Rusty Bernstein lived We will stand and sing South Africa’s national anthem from 5th M arch 1920 bnilonji Kantu Choral Society “Let us speak of to 23rd June 2002 > ______freedom... ”

Donations will be accepted for Everyone is welcome to a reception afterwards at UBELELE, The Mai'y'iott H otel, Sw iss Cottage a social and pyschoth erapy on the corner of Adelaide Road and King Henry3 s Road NW6 training centre at Alexandra Parking available Township, Johannesburg.

I £ < $ Nkosi Sikelel’ 1 Afrika % % % Nkosi sikelel’ I Afrika $ $ Maluphakanyisw’ uphondo lwayo :< % Yizwa imithandazo yethu :< $ Nkosi sikelela (x2) g > sc Nkosi sikelel’ I Afrika ga Maluphakanyisw’ uphondo lwayo % Yizwa imithandazo yethu £ " Nkosi sekelela £ >: Thina lusapho lwayo g £: Woza moya (x3) $ i Woza moya oyingcwele $ Nkosi sikelela :< Thina lusapho lwayo | Je$ Morena boluka sechaba sa heso g i O fedise dintwa le matswenyeho >: (Repeat) :< % O seboloke oseboloke (x2) £ 1 Sechaba sa heso I >: Sechaba sa heso £ 5a % O seboloke oseboloke (x2) Sechaba sa heso Sechaba sa Afrika Sc > < t?A W A TATAVi,A 'A TA,ArATA,ATA,ArA',ATATA,A,ATATATATA,A,A,AYATATA'A TA ^ The proceedings are being filmed to send to South Africa. TONI In speaking of our father we are speaking on behalf of our mother as well. She and my dad were married for over 60 years.

We remember him not just for his political life but as our father. A gentle and caring parent who was always available to us with considered advice and help - even from his prison cell. Yet he never tried to impose his wishes on us.

Our dad was the most patient man. When I was little he spent hours trying to help me with arithmetic - a hopeless task and yet he never became impatient with my inability to deal with numbers.. The same care and patience was given to everyone who knew him.

It was from him and my mother that I learned about honesty and integrity. They taught me to view all people as human beings and to be proud of who we were and what we believed in. As the oldest I was aware from an early age that we were different to ordinary white South Africans, and that we had a special responsibility to all the people of our country.

He considered himself fortunate to have lived to see the realisation of his life long dream - a free and democratic South Africa. His visits home, the reunions with old friends and comrades, gave enormous happiness to his last years. I am pleased that my father lived to see the new South Africa but I shall miss him, his quiet advice and presence more than I can ever say.

He left us a legacy beyond any worldly wealth. Not by preaching, not by trying to make us think one way or another. It was by the way he himself lived. His courage, his total honesty, his modesty that sought no honours, his profound belief in the possibility of a fairer more just world will remain in us, a part of us, for the rest of our lives. But mostly we will remember him as our dad. PAT “I am proud to speak on behalf of Rusty’s children, grandchildren and great grandchildren, which I know makes him sound terribly old. Especially, I speak for my sisters Toni and Francis, and my brother Keith, as well as for myself.

Many things have been / will be said about Rusty, our Dad as a man who gave so much to a political cause; as a man of honesty, principle and integrity. Not much has been heard of him as a father.

Children are always proud of their parents, whatever they do in life. For me personally, of course I’m proud of what he did; what he helped to achieve. But what I’ll always remember about him, is that while setting extremely high standards for himself, he never imposed his own standards on his children. Nor did he judge us by these standards. You all know what he did for South Africa. What you don’t know, is what he did for his children.

He remembered a birthday of mine and sent me an IOU. Something many parents do. However, not many do so, while in prison facing charges of treason, where the penalty could have been death; where the pen used to write the IOU was a highly prized and illegal possession; and where smuggling written material out of prison was sure to lead to further penalties.

I’m not sure I ever collected on that IOU, so I’ll be talking to mom later about the interest accumulated.

The one thing I know Keith and I will not miss, is the worried telephone call saying, “I was just finishing an article of the computer, when I must have pressed a wrong key. My file’s disappeared from the screen and is gone,” We would tell him that although it was not visible, it was definitely still there, in the computers memory.

Like his computer files, he may not be visible. However, I know that at least some of the honesty and integrity, and I hope modesty, is still there and always will be. In his children, and we hope, in Rusty’s grandchildren and great grandchildren.” FRANCES I just want to say thanks. Thank you dad, for the hard times and for the good times.

Thanks to you, and to the hard times, I understand the evil of racism, of depriving people of their rights, of exploitation, of man’s inhumanity to man.

I understand that even when this is done by governments, by people who seem to have all the power, who have embodied these evils in law and in peoples’ beliefs, you can do something about it.

I understand that every individual can raise their voice, speak out, join with others to organise, campaign, (go to lots of meetings) and do something about it.

This is a most precious knowledge - I want you to know that I have not one moment’s regret of some hard times we went through because it gave me a most precious thing, an indelible sense of morality and humanity.

I also want to say thanks for the good times.

Thanks to you, I have been able to enjoy the life you wanted for everyone - security, a home, family, comfort. I know that you had to make a very heavy, difficult, an impossible, a life-changing choice, so that I could have these simple and basic things that so many people don’t have.

A day doesn’t go by that I don’t give thanks to - who? god? fortune? the fates? - for the wonderful life I enjoy. Maybe I am able to appreciate it so much because I understand, through you, how rare and how precious it is. Maybe I appreciate it because you loved me enough to make that terrible choice, for my sake.

You left so much behind when you left South Africa, such a great and enormous cause, so much oppression still to be overcome.

Because I know how much - how many - you sacrificed, to give me a good life - 1 say thank you from the bottom of my heart. Rusty Bernstein. 1920-2002

The Man

Born in Durban, March 1920, one of four children of European immigrants. He spent his early life in Durban. After an early death of both parents, Rusty was brought up by relatives. He was educated at King Edward's School and at Hilton College in Natal where he matriculated.

He then studied architecture at The University of Witswatersrand as a part-time student. He pursued his career as an architect - he designed the first drive-in cinema in South Africa in Johannesburg. He married in 1941 and had four children.

As a volunteer for the South African armed forces, Rusty served as a Gunner in the South African artillery in Italy during the second world war.

The Politician

He attributes his entry into politics to an accident of discovery during a school debate. He joined the Labour League of Youth in 1937, and later joined the Communist Party where he soon played a leading role, becoming a full time Party official and Secretary of the Johannesburg District from 1941 to 1943.

After the Communist Party was banned in 1960, he was a founder member of the underground South African Communist Party and member of the Central Committee until 1991. He was also a founder member of the South African Congress of Democrats in 1954.

Throughout his political career he was an active writer and formulator of ideas, his writing ranging from propaganda to in-depth analysis.

In 1946 he produced a Strike Bulletin for the African Miners' Strike. After the strike both he and his wife were arrested, charged with sedition and convicted of aiding an illegal strike. He wrote extensively for the African Communist; edited Fighting Talk, a paper of ex-servicemen; contributed articles to a number of political journals; and was responsible for much of the propaganda issued by the liberation movement.

In 1999 his political memoirs: Memory Against Forgetting, a life in South African politics between 1938 and 1964, were published.

He played a leading part in the committee led by the ANC for the preparation for the Congress of The People and it was he who drafted the . This started with the words "Let us speak of freedom" and became the basis for rallying the people behind the ANC, both inside and outside South Africa.

Late in 1956, Rusty and 150 others were arrested and charged with Treason. The infamous Treason Trial lasted for more than 4 years after which all the accused were discharged, without guilty verdicts.

In 1960, the took place, and he and his wife were both among those arrested and detained under the state of emergency that followed. He was not released until five months later when the state of emergency was lifted. As a result of his political activity, both he and his wife were banned in 1960. They became subject to various restrictions on their movements and rights to meet with others.

In 1962 he was placed under house arrest and allowed out only on weekdays between 6:00am and 6:00pm. His close association with and others led up to the police raid on Lilliesleaf Farm, Rivonia, where he and 10 other prominent ANC leaders were arrested on 11th July 1963. Rusty was held in solitary confinement for ninety days, and eventually charged together with Nelson Mandela, in what became the . At the end of the trial, the remaining men were all found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment, however he was found not guilty and discharged.

He was immediately re-arrested and later released on bail. When the police came to arrest his wife she escaped and together, they left South Africa, illegaly crossing into , leaving their children in the care of their eldest daughter and her husband.

Rusty and his wife eventually made their way to England, where their children joined them one by one. Rusty worked as an architect in London. After retiring, he lived in Herefordshire and then moved to Oxford.

In 1987, he conducted a series of seminars on the history of South Africa's liberation struggles, for the ANC in Moscow. This was to "men and women of the Soweto generation, training to be guerrilla fighters".

In 1989 he spent a year at the ANC's Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College in helping to establish a school of politics.

Both Rusty and Hilda were awarded honorary degrees from the University of Natal, in 1999. This followed the publication of Rusty's acclaimed personal account of the unwritten history of South African politics between 1938 and 1964.

The Legacy

Rusty is survived by his wife, 4 children, 7 grand children and two great grand children. The freedom struggle owes Rusty, one of the unsung heroes, a great deal.

His family remember him for his commitment to principles based on reason, not prejudice. His integrity and honesty, regardless of the personal cost and his modest and at times self-effacing approach, will be the things that live on long after the death is forgotten.

/ CV; RUSTY (Lionel) BERNSTEIN.

BORN: Durban. 1920.

EDUCATION: Durban Preparatory High School. C1927 - 31 King Edward VI1 - Johannesburg. 1932 - 34. Hilton College - Pieterm aritzburg.1935 - 36. University of Witwatersrand: 1937 - 41.

QUALIFICATIONS: M atriculation 1st Class, with 2 distinctions. 1936 Diploma in Architecture. (Wits). 1941.

OCCUPATION: Architect in private practice in Johannesburg - interrupted by sundry disagreements with South African Government, bouts of fu ll time political work and army service. From 1964, architect in private practices in England until retirement 1990.

WAR SERVICE: Gunner in 1/6 Field Regiment, South African A rtille ry in Italian Campaign. C1943 - 46

POLITICS: Member Labour League of Youth and South African Labour Party. C1937 - 40. Secretary of LLY. C1939-40.

Member, Communist Party of South Africa from C1938; fu ll time Party o f f i c i a l and s e c re ta ry o f Johannesburg D i s t r i c t C1941 -4 3 .

Founding member of underground South African Communist Party and member of C e n tra l C o m a ittee u n t i l C1991.

Founding member, South African Congress of Democrats C1954 - 62.

Member o f ANC in e x ile : fro m 1964.

Member of Editorial Board of 'Fighting Talk', C1948 until its suppression, and of 'African Communist', 1959 - 90.

POLITICAL CAREER: 1946: Produced Strike B ulletin for African Miners' Strike; arrested, charged with sedition, and convicted of aiding an illegal strike.

195?: participated in jo in t Congress meeting which sponsored the Congress o f th e P eople and Freedom C h a rte r; member of th e COP working Committee, and drafter of Call to the COP and of Freedom C h a rte r.

1956: arrested on charge of treason arising from COP; on tria l spasmodically u ntil 1961.

1960: Detained approx. five months without charge during State of Emergency.

C1961: banned from a ll political gatherings and activities; placed under house arrest.

Pa g e 3 1963: Arrested at Rivonia; charged with Sabotage together with Mandela and others after ninety days solitary; found not guily, re-arrested in court, recharged, and bailed.

1964: le ft the country ille ga lly while on bail; thereafter architect in exile in United Kingdom.

1990: A year at ANC's Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College (SOMAFCO) on project to establish a school of politics.

P a g e 4 1963: Arrested at Rivonia; charged with Sabotage together with Mandela and others after ninety days solitary; found not guily, re--arrested in court, recharged, and bailed.

1964: left the country illegally while on bail; thereafter architect in exile in United Kingdom.

1990: A year at ANC's Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College (S0MAFC0) on project to establish a school of politics.

P a g e 4

Collection Number: A3299 Collection Name: Hilda and Rusty BERNSTEIN Papers, 1931-2006

PUBLISHER:

Publisher: Historical Papers Research Archive Collection Funder: Bernstein family Location: Johannesburg ©2015

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This document is part of the Hilda and Rusty Bernstein Papers, held at the Historical Papers Research Archive, University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa.