A Tribute
Deirdre Levinson Bergson (1931-2023) passed away at the age of 91 in New York City, surrounded by her family. She remained a loyal supporter of APDUSA since the birth of the organisation. We pay tribute to her courage.
Born and educated in Britain, Deirdre arrived in South Africa in 1956 for a lecturing stint at the University of Cape Town (UCT). In Cape Town she encountered the politics of the Unity Movement of South Africa (UMSA). This encounter gave new meaning to her rebel instincts against inequality and social injustices. UMSA politics captured her worldview, answered her search for political clarity and further steeled her convictions. In reflections on her life, she always underscored the life-changing impact of interactions she had with the founders of the Movement.
After leaving South Africa in 1961, she eventually settled in New York City. She taught English literature at New York University and Queens College, among other academic appointments. As time went by, she also volunteered to teach in the USA’s prisoner education programme. Deirdre’s expertise and passion in English literature centred on Shakespeare, with her contributions in this field earning her the praise of prominent literary scholars like Edward Said. She was not only an acclaimed novelist but also an internationalist fighting in solidarity with insurgent movements of the dispossessed and oppressed across the world, including the Palestinian liberation movement.
Deirdre maintained contact with APDUSA comrades since those first encounters, as recipients of her prolific letters can attest. In the late 1960s, she was instrumental in aiding IB Tabata and NT Honono garner political support for our cause among the radical left in the United States. More recently, when a self-seeking academic distorted an interview with her in a slanderous thesis against the organisation, Deirdre wrote an insightful essay to shred the lies that this falsifier peddled as scholarly research. Her rebuttal bears testimony to her resolute politics and her devotion to research on par with the highest standards of scientific inquiry.
The hopes in humanity’s socialist future that inspired Deirdre’s life of progressive internationalism shall live on in our fight for a new world.