Terry Bell lived a full life and was a warm, loving, and larger-than-life personality. He became a close comrade of mine on his return from exile in 1990, as we struggled to build the beginnings of a revolutionary socialist alternative. He had a shared history inside the congress movement with my father, Barney Desai, campaigning to successfully win him a seat on the Cape Town City Council in 1962.
In exile
Following a spell of detention, in 1966 Terry left the country and joined the ANC in Zambia, where he worked as the chief reporter on the Times of Zambia. Soon, he was banned by the South African state, which sought to extradite him. The Zambian state was able to arrange asylum for him in the UK, where he went on to study international affairs. Whilst studying, he began writing for the Daily Worker and Anti-Apartheid News.
It was in London where he met his life partner, Barbara Edmunds, who was a political activist in her own right. After another brief spell in Zambia, the ANC sent them to New Zealand, where, within a short space of time, they had managed to launch one of the most dynamic of Anti-Apartheid Movements (AAM). Simultaneously, Barbara had developed an expertise in early childhood development.
In 1980, they were invited by Oliver Tambo to establish a primary school for the children of exiles in Tanzania. They took up the offer with gusto, packed up their bags and with their children moved back to Africa, where Terry became the headmaster, and Barbara oversaw curriculum development. It was not long before they got into hot water for their criticism of the draconian punishment of the children at the school and their principled opposition to corporal punishment.
Back in London and out of favour with the ANC, in 1984, they came across the Socialist Workers Party. They threw themselves into titanic struggles that erupted around the attack on trade unions in the newspaper industry, where Terry was active as a journalist. Then the historic mine workers strike of 1984 broke out, and Terry and others of us who provided solidarity for the lengthy strike cut our teeth, so to speak.
By 1987, the resistance in South Africa reached insurrectionary proportions. Alexandra township was at the centre of the revolt. Five comrades, among them Moses Mayekiso, the Numsa GS and a declared independent socialist, were arrested and charged with high treason, the penalty for which was death. Terry, with the support of the SWP, which was pretty much at its strongest at that period, with a declared membership of 10,000, launched the Friends of Moses Mayekiso campaign. Terry was appointed the coordinator, and Barbara and her family were the support staff.
Despite stiff opposition from the AAM, the ANC and their trade union allies, the logic of the situation and the need for targeted international solidarity won the day. Numerous trade union leaders, left Labour Party MPs, and hundreds of trade union branches backed the campaign. Soon, the support grew international legs. It was undoubtedly critical in ensuring the defendants were found innocent by the end of the 18-month trial. Terry was perhaps at the height of his activism in this period.
Back home
He returned to South Africa in 1990 and threw himself into revolutionary socialist activism in Cape Town, where he helped lead the local branch of the International Socialists of South Africa. The frenetic pace of activity provided very little time to build a collective leadership, and Terry, finding himself increasingly at odds with the organisation’s political direction, left. He poured his incredible levels of energy into becoming a highly respected labour analyst and reporter, always privileging the worker militants rather than the trade union leaders. He also authored numerous books, the last of which was with Barbara.
Despite his fights with, and departures from, the ANC, the SACP and the South African group linked to the British SWP, Terry was never a man to bear a grudge and maintained constructive relationships with his erstwhile comrades for decades. In my last engagement with him in January of this year, he agreed to write for Zabalaza for Socialism and conduct educational work among the comrades. Indeed, the week before he died at the age of 83, he penned an impressive piece on imperialism.
He lived a life without having to compromise his revolutionary ideas. He died with his boots on.
Hamba Kahle Terry!
Rehad Desai is a South African socialist activist, a documentary filmmaker, and a member of ZASO.
