Ron Press

This is not an obituary. Nor was it a planned part of our current Communist University series on Philosophy et cetera.

Ron Press passed away on 28 October 2009 in Bristol, England. His funeral will take place in England on 5 November 2009. He was born in 1929. Ron Press was a lovely man, and a hero. Here is how he described himself, in 2007, for the Internet:

“[Dr] Ronald Edwin Press was born 1929. He studied to become a Chemical engineer. Ron Press contributed to the struggle by providing much-needed technical expertise. Press was affiliated with the African National Congress (and the MK, ANC armed wing) and the South African Communist Party. He helped to smuggle equipment and weapons into South Africa and he was involved in the movement's 'Technical Committee' which created a variety of devices that were used in operations against the apartheid state. He also contributed to the setting up of secret communications networks (ANC & MK) that were operational in the late 'eighties.

“Press was one of those convicted in the Treason Trial (1956). Before the trial he was the Secretary of the Textile Workers' Industrial Union, but during the trial was served with an order banning him from all gatherings and confining him to Johannesburg for five years. He was Accused No. 60, however, the indictment was squashed in 1959 and after the trial Press went into exile in the UK. He continued to assist in operations against the Apartheid State (indicated above). Press is now living in Bristol in the UK. He was a secretary to the Bristol AAM at a stage and was made a life member of the Bristol Trades Union Council.”

There is a lot more that can be said about Ron Press. His autobiography is on the ANC web site (click here) and on the CU CD. Ron also left two CDs full of material compiled by himself, of which the CU has copies. Ron used to write poems for us and we carried all of them. All of the poems should be in the CU archives (click here for a list of links). Then there are the recollections of his friends and comrades. He was loved.

The document by the late Ron Press linked below is from the Internet, picked up in a Google search, at http://www.hartford-hwp.com/archives/10/013.html. It is about the philosophy of science, and the science of politics, so it fits right in with our current course.

Click on this link:

New Tools for Marxists, Ron Press, 1994 (5075 words)