SOUTH AFRICAN CONGRESS OF TRADE UNIONS (SACTU)

Message delivered at the funeral of the late
Comrade Ronnie Press

5th November 2009

We have come here today to pay humble tribute to one of the Movements great heroes, one of whom may not always be spoken of, but one whose contribution to the National Liberation of South Africa, the working class and the international Communist and trade union movement will be a shining example for generations to come.

He was by nature and profession a teacher one who imparted his brilliant intellect and scientific knowledge amongst the working class and student community as a whole. More directly his mind played a critical role in formulating decisions that needed to be taken within SACTU the South African Communist Party (SACP) and the African National Congress

His approach was humble, something he had acquired working with leadership of the ANC and SACP and in particular from someone he had deep admiration, the late President of ANC Comrade Oliver Tambo.

His inspiration for struggle was born out of the concentration camps of Sachsenhausen in the East of Germany inspired by a young girl who had given her life ion the fight against fascism. In his own words “this was for me a lesson in humility and reverence, to die so young so brave and so determined in the fight against fascism.” These hallmarks were to influence Comrade Ronnie throughout his life, both at work but also in struggle.

His joining of the Congress of Democrats in 1953 and became active from 1954 thrusting him into what he described as “joining the human race”. This was to shape him and whom we have got to know for more than 50 years of the rest of his life.

This shaping lead him naturally to align his life and his energies to the working class, not only in South Africa but internationally.
When the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) held its founding Congress in March 1955, Ronnie served the tea and white bread rolls. As he said “this was a noble task allocated to those members of the Congress of Democrats fired up with the desire to see the end of Apartheid.
It was a job I was particularly suited for after all I had a degree in Chemical Engineering and a PH.D. in Chemistry and I cam from a family where trade unionism was a way of life.”

At the famous Congress of the People in June 1955 where the Freedom Charter was adopted which today continues to guide the policy decisions of the African National Congress, Ronnie was under the speaker platform looking after the set of car batteries that drove the public address system. He equally read at the Congress the message from the Peoples Republic of China. This was the diversity of Comrade Ronnie and ability to play so many roles and never allowing the mantle of leadership to change is nature or outlook.

At the historic march of Women to Pretoria in August 1956 against the Pass Laws, Comrade Ronnie was the taxi driver for the leadership. He stood a few metres away from Comrade Lillian Ngoyi as she delivered the famous challenge to the Apartheid regime in front of the thousands of women who had gathered at the Union Buildings, “you have touched the women- you have touched a rock. You will die.” As Ronnie said “the air rang with silence”.

His contribution in SACTU spanned the period when he became the General Secretary of the Textile Workers Industrial Union in 1956 up until the phasing out and phasing in of SACTU into COSATU in 1990.

Time will not allow to day to speak of his immense contribution to SACTU but it was in SACTU that he established a life long political friendship with some of the most outstanding African working class leaders on the Continent of Africa. It introduced him to the international working class movement and between 1956 and the 1990’s he travel the world representing the organized working class.

But to Comrade Ronnie as a person, since this occasion is about him not just the organizations he so well represented. It was logical that he would end up being charged with high treason in the famous 1956 treason trail alongside Nelson Mandela. As he said after he was issued with the warrant of arrest, “My immediate reaction was one of curiosity and then a feeling that they were not being serious.”

His commitment to people is reflected not only in his political work but in his family life. In January 1957 he married Sibyl Sack. A women that he stood by throughout his life especially in the most difficult periods when she suffered physically, he supported her throughout. He cared for her in the same way that he cared for the working class, with patience, dedication and commitment.
When he asked her to marry him he said she must understand”the people come first”. Later he was to say “The passage of years revealed a different underlying reason.” His parents told him that unless they got married in Shull, instead of the registry office, they would not get presents. In protest at having to get married in a suit and in Shull he wore bright green socks. Significantly today he had requested that it be a Green funeral with bright colours. The link between his marriage and death symbolized in the colour green.

He was a teacher, informed by Marxist Leninist principles. Through he approached any subject under discussion in a dialectical manner. Objective reason; cause and effect; unity of opposites, his mind worked as a Marxist mind would. Steadfast in a principled manner he would debate his point informed by ideology and theory. His was not to be found discussing individuals but rather theory and practice. Debate he could, and was not afraid of disagreement understanding that to be part of the solution making process. His joining of the SACP in 1955 was the beginning of a deepening of his convictions in changing the world to a more egalitarian society.

In SACTU his contribution in and outside of NEC meetings was both theoretical and practical. When things were hard you could see it on his face. He did not like debate that led nowhere or argument that was not objective. He wrote for Workers Unity, the organ of SACTU prolifically. The major discussions about the future of SACTU in 1982, in a revolutionary council meeting was historic. It lead major progress and direction and the founding of Cosatu in December 1985.

For those who worked with him, he would always greet you with the wry smile and his high pitched voice. It was welcoming and reflected Comradeship and friendship an invitation to talk.

He loved children and would always be ready with a small gift when the children of the movement where around. He understood them and what their basic needs where for that particular moment.

In conclusion to those who gave Comrade Ronnie support in his period of exile in England and in particular Bristol our sincere appreciation and thanks. He developed the Bristol Anti- Apartheid Movement and its National structure. His personal Comradeship with those from the CPGB and Labour Party are now over but it is the quality of what has been built that must be the foundation to continue the struggle.

To you Comrade Ronnie thank you for keeping the Red Flag flying and for your major contribution to the organized working class and SACTU. In honour of you and the entire leadership of SACTU and its members we have begun the process of the writing of the SACTU history book in which you are a special part.

Go well dear Comrade, may your soul rest in Peace