Download PDFStruggle stalwarts Harold and Annmarie Wolpe were celebrated at a ceremony which was hosted by the Wits school of Governance for their significant roles they played towards the liberation of the oppressed in South Africa. Amongst the signatories who attended the event were Justice Dumisa Ntsebeza, Thandiwe Matthews, Peta Wolpe and Justice Albie Sachs.
Justice Ntsebeza as guest speaker went to acknowledge the contribution that was made by Wolpes towards the liberation struggle. He went on to say, “The pair was not having a permanent home as they were moving from [one] continent to the other as they were under prosecution by [the] apartheid regime.”
He particularly outlined the role that Annmarie played towards the advancement of women’s rights, “Annmarie was a representative of many women committed to progressive causes, an unacknowledged heroine of the era.”
Notwithstanding her comportment and feminist activism, Annmarie was well-known for fiercely resisting the practices of male-dominated left politics that did not allow women’s participation as unequivocal intellectual equals. She contributed to a ‘new wave’ of gender studies through her work in sociology, in particular her landmark scholarly contribution of a materialist analysis of gender subordination from a Marxian perspective, as well as ground policy report on gender and education in the transition era in South Africa.
The irresolution of oppressive gender-based violence remains a critical concern for South Africa and it is this dimension in particular that is brought to the fore through a focus on the life as a socialist feminist.
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