Kader Asmal June 23, 2011
Posted by irishelectionliterature in Human Rights.Tags: Irish Politics, kader asmal, The Irish Anti Apartheid Movement
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Saddened to hear of the death of Kader Asmal, known here mainly for his founding and activity in The Irish Anti Apartheid Movement.
Below a selection of posters from the Irish Anti Apartheid Movement. The address on the posters is that of Kader Asmal , co founder of the IAAM, who later became a minister in South Africas first post apartheid government. The IAAM were founded in 1963 and continued until the early 1990s.
(the following is from a speech made by Louise Asmal about the Irish Anti Apartheid Movement)
“We had very little funding that we did not raise ourselves – and here I should pay tribute to the many musicians who sang for us at concerts, and often turned down lucrative offers to tour South Africa as well. Poets like Seamus Heaney read for us, Sean O’Casey and Samuel Beckett were among the first signatories of a list of playwrights who refused to allow their plays to be performed in South Africa.
But of course it was the sports boycott which aroused the most passion and the most controversy. (1969-’70 Springbok rugby tour – 8000).
In 1984 Mary Manning, a young trade unionist working in a supermarket in Dublin, refused to register the sale of an Outspan grapefruit. She and 10 others who supported her were suspended, and went on strike for three and a half years. For those three and a half years we organized a Saturday picket outside the store, but management refused to respond to our letters and refused to meet us. In 1987 the Irish Government imposed sanctions on South African fruit and produce.“
You will see ‘Outspan’ and ‘Cape’ fruit refered to in one of the posters below.
The Cedar Lounge Revolution 
A great man. And I still think the Dunens Stores strikers may have been the most heroic figures in Irish life in the eighties.
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+ 1 . Along with the MacDonalds workers who tried to get Union recognition.
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I’m sure I’m not the only person who’s first memory of having any understanding of politics comes from my mum explaining why we couldn’t buy the Cape fruit when I was wee
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When i signed up to the TCD Anti-Apartheid Soc. and paid over my 40p membership, I’d little idea of what I was letting myself in for. I can safely say that Dr. Asmal got more work out of me than any -or all – of the people who were supposed to be teaching me.
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Sorry, the end fell off that – he was a great man.
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He did two states some service.
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I first met Kadar in London 1n about 1962 when he came along to our Connolly Association Branch to speak on South Africa. He studied there until he came to Dublin where I renewed our friendship.
Kadar was the dynamo of the Irish Anti Apartheir Movement, one of the most influential in the West during those long years of opression in his homeland.
But he should also be remembered for his contribution to advancing Irish society. He helped form the ICCL, gave lectures to the Wolfe Tone Society, the Republicial movement and wrote articles on workers rights for the Left press.
He apart from being a member of the banned ANC was a member of the banned South African Communist Party. The last time I spoke with him and Louise was at Mick O Riordan’s funeral
.
Ronnie Kasrils. a leader of the ANC and MK, speaking iin Connolly Books two weeks ago, in launching a book about his heroic wife, paid tribute to Kadar’s contribution. He quite rightly also mentioned the value of the Dunne’s strikers.
As is stated above he did two states some servive
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He showed a great deal of guts in being one of the founders of and key movers in the IICL during the heyday of the Heavy Gang. Interestingly the Dunnes strikers also got tarred with the subversive brush and spoke about police brutality and bullying from Special Branch, an aspect of their story which is often glossed over. Being anti-apartheid wasn’t the easiest position to take in Ireland at the time.
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Both a propos of this and of the recent discussion on the legacy of Stevie Coughlan, the Irish rugby team were touring South Africa when everyone else had given up. One player Gerry McLoughlin felt so strongly that this was the right thing to do that he was prepared to lose his teaching job in order to go to South Africa. He’s now a Labour councillor in Limerick.
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There’s a piece on politico about him. He appears to have no sense as to why going to SA would be the wrong thing to do.
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Curiously this appears neither on his website nor his Wikipedia entry.
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I strongly admire Kader Asmal, and not least because he was constantly in support of dialogue with SF and the Republican movement even when it was neither popular nor profitable in the South.
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Didn’t some prominent Fine Gael people leave the IAAM in protest at Sinn Fein people being allowed join?
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That rings a bell, but I’m thinking that generally he seemed to push a line if engagement and some strongly disagreed.
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I think Garrett Fitzgerald resigned as a patron….. if not some leading Fine Gaeler
The AAM was one of the most bradly based solidarity movements ever created in this country
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The South African Communist Party has issued the following
The SACP has learnt with shock and sadness of the untimely passing away of Prof Kader Asmal, a stalwart of our movement. The SACP sends its deepest condolences to family and friends, his relatives, colleagues and comrades in the movement broadly. This is indeed a sad loss.
Prof Asmal played an important role in our struggle to build a democratic, prosperous, non-racial and non sexist South Africa. He also played an important role in the transition especially in the process of drafting the constitution of the country.
He was an intellectual who loved robust debates and was always in search of new ideas in order to confront the greatest challenges confronting our country. Although we did not always agree with his ideas as the SACP however we respected his intellectual contribution in the task of reconstructing and developing our country.
Professor Asmal served the movement with dedication both as an NEC member and as Minister in Government responsible firstly for Water Affairs and Forestry and later Education. In his honour we need to build a new crop of young intellectuals committed to the non-racial, non-sexist and democratic South Africa.
We dip our red flag deep in honour of this hero of our people.
Issued by the SACP
Contact:
Malesela Maleka
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