David Ivon Jones
David Ivon Jones was a Welsh communist, newspaper editor, and political prisoner, most famous as a leading opponent of South African racial segregation and for being one of the first white activists in South Africa to fight for equal rights for black South Africans. Jones was also one of the founders of the Communist Party of South Africa, and in 1917 played a leading role in the formation of South Africa's first all-black trade union, the Industrial Workers of Africa. Later in life he became one of the first people to translate Vladimir Lenin's works into English. He also started some of the first night-classes for African workers, and in 1919 was convicted and imprisoned for publishing a leaflet supporting both communism and racial equality, in what was the first major court case against communism in South Africa's history. He is credited as being the most influential South African socialist of his time.
Upon first arriving in South Africa in 1910, Jones was a Christian liberal and became a supporter of the pro-segregationist party, the South African Labour Party, becoming their general secretary in 1914. However, shortly afterwards he resigned as the leader of the SALP in 1915, became a communist and an atheist, and spent the remainder of his life fighting against racial segregation, capitalism, and colonialism. In later life, he became a strong supporter of the Bolsheviks and their leader Vladimir Lenin, who in turn was impressed with Jones's reports of class and racial divisions in South Africa.
Jones was also a supporter of the Communist Party of Great Britain and is considered an iconic figure and hero by many socialist and anti-apartheid political parties, including the South African Communist Party, the Communist Party of Britain, and the African National Congress.
Early life, family and background
Childhood and family
David Ivon Jones was born on 18 October 1883, in Aberystwyth, Wales. His parents died when he was very young, leaving him to be raised by various family members. In both Aberystwyth and Lampeter, Jones worked as a grocer in the family business. The Jones family hailed from a poor and mountainous farming region of Wales called Mynydd-Bach, which had once been the centre of resistance by tenant farmers and squatters to attempts by local landowners to enclose common land. His grandfather, John Ivan Jones, was a leading campaigner for radical causes and Liberalism in Aberystwyth. It is believed that his grandfather's beliefs were a strong influence on David.Early religious beliefs
In his youth, Jones became strongly influenced by the beliefs of the former Unitarian minister George Eyre Evans, who inspired Jones to abandon his family's Calvinistic Methodist beliefs and adopt Unitarianism. In 1901, Jones moved to live in Lampeter where he encountered many differing views on Christianity before returning to his native Aberystwyth and joining the Unitarian congregation. Jones was often berated by his neighbours for his Unitarianist beliefs and confronted by religious opponents at his workplace and on the streets for his choice to join the people of the "Y Smotyn Du". Among his shop account records, it was discovered by historians that Jones had an interest in philosophy, often writing quotes by Immanuel Kant and Plato. Jones became the treasurer and secretary of the Aberystwyth Unitarian chapel, which soon developed into a centre for radical left-wing politics. The records of this chapel show that striking miners were invited by the congregation and that the congregation also raised money for Penrhyn quarrymen who had been locked out of work for three years. The chapel records also show that the congregation hosted Gertrude von Petzold who was famous for being the first woman to be ordained in Britain.According to researcher Islwyn ap Nicholas, Jones was at this point a "Christian humanist":
"Ivon appeared to be a Christian Humanist, unless this is a contradiction in terms. Indeed he was more of a humanist than anything else and he always stressed the social and economic teachings of Jesus".
Leaving Wales
At some point during his 20s, Jones contracted tuberculosis, a common disease in Wales in the early 20th century. Records from his chapel note that he left Cardiganshire "to seek health in New Zealand", following many people in his family who had migrated to British colonies. In 1907, Jones left Wales and then spent three years living in New Zealand. In 1920, he moved to the Orange Free State in South Africa, where he worked in a shop which was owned by two of his brothers.Activities in South Africa (1910–1920)
Arrival in Africa (1911)
David Ivon Jones arrived in South Africa in November 1910, seeking treatment for tuberculosis. Early after his arrival there, he became increasingly aware of the oppression of native black Africans, especially women, viewing their oppressed position in racist South African society as "slaves in everything but name". Although at this point in his life Jones still held many bigoted views towards Africans, witnessing the oppression of black people in South Africa triggered him to begin questioning his own views on race, and his views gradually became more ambivalent. Although he had not yet broken with segregation, his writings from mid-1911 record his gradual shift in attitudes towards black people, attacking people who used derogatory language against black workers.Further commenting on his early views on the mistreatment of black workers, Jones writes: "the white man only considers his marketable value. When he begins to find that he has responsibilities towards the black man other than sending him missionaries, there will be a changed South Africa'.
South African Labour Party - SALP (1911–1915)
In 1911, Jones welcomed the creation of the "South African Native National Congress", later becoming the African National Congress, viewing its creation as a step towards "national self-consciousness". Despite his sympathetic views for black Africans and the ANC, Jones was at this stage of his life a Liberal Christian activist, and in 1911 he joined a pro-segregationist political party called the "South African Labour Party". Although not yet an anti-capitalist and supporter of communism, he held a deep hatred towards South Africa's Randlords, the capitalists who monopolised the gold and diamond industries.The Witwatersrand uprising (1913)
During his time in the SALP, many events in South African politics would force him to reconsider his Liberal and Christian beliefs, and pushed him to become a revolutionary communist and an atheist. From May to June 1913, white miners near Witwatersrand rioted in protest over their working conditions before the riots were suppressed by the police and military. The strike started as a peaceful event at the New Kleinfontein mine, with miners angry and bitter over issues of work time and deaths by disease. Soon afterwards, martial law was declared to stop attempts by workers to start a general strike, events that further pushed Jones's political beliefs towards Marxist socialism. The government immediately sent troops to crush the strike and using dragoons to indiscriminately fire their guns towards fleeing civilians, killing 20 and wounding 200–400. The government's murder of unarmed and innocent civilians would plunge Johannesburg into further chaos, crowds rioted and burnt down the railway station and the Star newspaper. Rioters also looted the city centre, and anti-Indian violence began spreading across South Africa. Hearing of these events, Jones left his job as a clerk in a power station and dedicated himself to supporting unionised miners. The SALP also became a target of government oppression, with the party's printing machines destroyed and their offices raided by government troops. During this time, Jones barely escaped being arrested and deported.Turn towards communism and atheism (1914–1915)
In August 1914, Jones was elected the general secretary of SALP, during a time when its membership and popular support was rapidly expanding. The large increase in membership and support transformed the SALP, and the wave of new overwhelmingly white working-class members brought with them racist views towards black Africans, with many of these new members arguing that they should be paid more than black people. Many older SALP members agreed and the party stuck to its racist and pro-segregationist beliefs. While many of these new members moved further politically right-wing, some veterans of the party, including Jones, himself, began moving further left-wing.In 1914, Jones underwent a personal crisis, he became depressed and stopped attending church as often. He began collecting left-wing political and philosophical publications from Britain, including works by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Karl Kautsky, H. G. Wells, Leo Tolstoy, Ramsay MacDonald, and began studying a vast range of political philosophies, including Marxism. When he emerged from his depression, he found a new enthusiasm for political work and had completely abandoned his previous Christian beliefs.
Come the outbreak of the First World War, the SALP membership was split over whether or not to support the war, with many of those opposing WWI then co-founding the "War on War League" in September 1914. The War on War League claimed to be an independent body of anti-war activists that worked within the SALP, and although Jones did not join them he did share their views. His firm opposition to WWI, along with his growing socialist and atheist beliefs heavily influenced by British socialist publications, led him to resigning as the SALP general secretary in September 1915 and he became the leader of a breakaway group called the International Socialist League. After leaving the SALP, Jones dedicated the remainder of his life to promoting racial equality and fighting against both colonialism and capitalism.
He became the first editor of the ISL's weekly newspaper, The International, which he used to support Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks and to later in his life use to explain the importance of Russia's 1917 February and October revolutions.