Jeremy Cronin

Jeremy Cronin (born 12 Sep 1949) is a South African writer, author, and noted poet. A longtime activist in politics, Cronin is a member of the South African Communist Party is a member of the National Executive Committee member of the African National Congress. He presently serves as the South African Deputy Minister of Transport.

Early life

Cronin was brought up in a middle-class white Roman Catholic family in Rondebosch in Cape Town, South Africa. During adolescence he considered the idea of entering the priesthood. After a year's military service, which he spent conscripted in the South African Navy, in 1968 Cronin won a bursary to study at the University of Cape Town, where he became a member of the Radical Student Society and was subsequently recruited into the (banned) South African Communist Party (SACP).

In the early 1970s, Cronin studied his masters in Philosophy in France and returned to South Africa, where he began lecturing in the Philosophy department of the University of Cape Town.

Activism and imprisonment

Cronin's work in the propaganda unit of the SACP brought him to the attention of the South African Bureau of State Security; he was arrested on charges under the Terrorism and Internal Security Acts and tried in the Cape Town Supreme Court in September 1976. The charges included conspiring with members of the African National Congress (also a banned organisation) and the SACP, and preparing and distributing pamphlets on these organisations' behalf. Cronin pleaded guilty to all charges and was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment (1976–1983), which he served in Pretoria. His wife Anne Marie died of a brain tumour during his imprisonment.

Poetry

Cronin's first book of poetry, Inside, was published in 1984 following his release from prison. He has recently published a new collection of his poetry, titled More Than A Casual Contact (2006). He wrote a poem called Motho Ke Motho Ka Batho Babang.

Collected poems

• More than a Casual Contact (2006)
• Inside and Out (1999)
• Even the Dead: Poems, Parables and a Jeremiad (1997)

Politics

Following Cronin's release from prison he began working with the United Democratic Front (UDF) founded in 1983 where he worked as the editor of its theoretical journal called Isizwe (The Nation). He was also involved in various kinds of popular education, but in the late 1980s, increased harassment from the security forces forced him and his wife to leave South Africa and move first to London, and subsequently to Lusaka in Zambia, where he worked closely with Joe Slovo for the ANC/SACP alliance. He delivered the Chris Hani memorial lecture titled Why South Africa will never be like Zimbabwe in Durban on 4 May 2008. On May 10, 2009, President Jacob Zuma appointed him Deputy Minister of Transport.

Political Writings

• "The national democratic struggle and the question of transformation", 1986
• "Inside which circle, a reply to Colin Bundy, 1989
• " For the sake of our lives: Guidelines for the creation of people's self-defence units", 1991
• "Dreaming of final showdown - a reply to Jordan and Nzimande", 1992
• "A Mass-Driven Transformation", 1994
• "Challenging the neo-liberal agenda in South Africa",1995
• "Tragic lessons of the Algerian Revolution", June 1995
• "A Patriotic Bourgoisie?", May 1996
• "Masakhane and Socialism", November 1996
• "Let us build together", November 1996
• "Thinking about the Concept "National Democratic Revolution", 1996
• " We Need Transformation Not A Balancing Act", 1997
• "The New Imperialism", May 1997
• "Labour landslide and the Left", June 1997
• "More than ever - SACP perspective on the Alliance", December 1997
• "Communist Manifesto, 150 years", February 1998
• "Chris Hani", 1999
• "Transforming Legislatures into Tributes of the people", July 1999
• "Morality is relevant in economic policy", 2000
• "Review of The UDF- History of the United Democratic Front 1983-1991", 2000
• "Liberation movements, governance and bureaucratisation", November 2001
• "Post-Apartheid South Africa: A Reply to John S. Saul", December 2002
• "Here Comes The Sun - drawing lessons from Slovo's No Middle Road, January 2003
• "Preparations to celebrate the first decade of freedom, June 26 2003
• "Contemporary challenge for left progressive forces in Africa and Europe", September 2003
• "Living in Joe Slovo", 11 July 2005
• "Neo-liberalism, reformism, populism and ultra-leftism", 28 August 2005
• "The people shall govern - class struggles and post-1994 state in South Africa, 2005
• " The SACP, eighty-five years of unbroken communist struggle in South Africa", 17 July 2006
• "the role of revolutionary intellectuals", 2006
• "Joe Slovo – Democracy and Socialism",18 January 2007
• " A post-1994 South African state", 2007
• "In defence of the new ANC", 18 February 2008
• "Netshitenzhe misses the point", 12 June 2009
• "For the SACP recall of President Mbeki is not an obsession", 18 June 2008
• "The present economic crisis in the world capitalist system - and prospects for the left", 28 January 2009
• "Debunking Dalai Lama", 1 April 2009
• "Defend the parastatal sector!", 2 September, 2009
• "Some thoughts on the global economic crisis", 7 September 2009
• "The future of the state", 23 October 2009
• "Should we nationalise the mines?", 18 November 2009
• "Nationalisation debate...more and more curious",December 2009
• "Let us close ranks against factionalism. Let us close ranks against corruption", 17 March 2010

External links

• Interview with Jeremy Cronin by Dr Helena Sheehan, 2002.