At this moment of political opportunism, greed and corruption in both the private and public sectors, we need role models to remind us of who we are, where we have come from and the price many have paid to bring us here. Ruth First is such a model.
As a communist and a feminist she would certainly have been a strong opponent of current abuses of power and of the two forms of violence which rank South Africa among the worst societies in the world today: the structural violence of social inequality which blocks so much human potential and the direct violence of rape and sexual abuse of women. As a woman born to white middle class power and privilege, she is an exemplar of turning that power and privilege against itself to serve the interests of the poor and the oppressed.
She did so as a journalist and as a scholar. As an investigative journalist she was incredibly productive, at one time producing up to 15 stories a week, many of them about the exploitation of black workers. For instance in 1947 she investigated and exposed the brutal treatment and forced confinement of labourers on the potato farms of Bethal.
She did so as a journalist and as a scholar. As an investigative journalist she was incredibly productive, at one time producing up to 15 stories a week, many of them about the exploitation of black workers. For instance in 1947 she investigated and exposed the brutal treatment and forced confinement of labourers on the potato farms of Bethal.
For the full www.journalism.co.za piece on Ruth First - by Jacklyn Cock, Sociology Department, University of the Witwatersrand - click here: http://www.journalism.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=1317&Itemid=0
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