Nimrod's role in building support for Marxism in Ireland.

A number of short reports found in the pages of our papers in the 1980's and 1990's which give some impression of the role Nimrod played in building support for Militant, the forerunners of the Socialist Party here.

Action Stations!

Militant, April 1986

Nimrod Sejake has once again been of great help to Labour Youth during March.

On March 12th he spoke at a Labour Youth public meeting in Drogheda on the situation in South Africa. After the meeting six young people gave their names to become members of LY.

Then on March 18th Nimrod travelled to Galway to help the Youth section with preparations for their public meeting on South Africa, taking place on Thursday 20th. The comrades leafleted a working class housing estate and on the night 23 young people from the estate attended the meeting. The discussion was very lively with many questions being asked.

South Africa meetings - report in Militant, September 1988.

"Real fighting stuff" - this is how one journalist described the series of very successful Young Socialist meetings held in Belfast, Derry and Ballymena. The meeting s brought good crowds and press coverage in all three areas.

The main attraction was Nimrod Sejake - an exiled South African revolutionary. Nimrod spoke on his own struggle in South Africa, the development of the Trade Union movement, COSATU (the strongest and most powerful union federation ever built in South Africa), the armed struggle carried out by the ANC and the possibilities of Nelson Mandela being freed by the government.

The public meetings revealed among the young people in Northern Ireland a hatred of the South African regime with many joining in the discussion. The main emphasis was on how the South African government can be defeated and what sort of government should replace it.

The understanding of the young people present, of the vicious nature of the apartheid and the need to build the fight against repression was graphically reflected in the collections - over Ł170, much of it being given by young people on low wages.

Extract from the Financial Appeal in the Sept. 1988 Militant.

Nimrod Sejake is 68 years of age since August. Since the 1950s in South Africa Nimrod has been fighting for socialism. Forced into exile for his revolutionary socialist views, his faith in the ability of the working class to transform society has never wavered, despite much personal hardship.

At the Socialist Summer Camp, Nimrod gave his savings, Ł300, to the Militant Fighting Fund.

Nimrod said he was confident that the Marxist tendency in Ireland, North and South, represents the genuine revolutionary socialist traditions of Connolly and Larkin in Ireland and of genuine Marxism internationally.

Articles by or about Nimrod

Belfast, June 18th 2004 - Nimrod Sejake - an Irish cde remembers him
The cwi is sad to announce the death of Nimrod Sejake, a life-long fighter against apartheid in South Africa, and a committed socialist. Nimrod died on 27 May 2004, aged 83 years. Forced into exile, Nimrod eventually arrived in Ireland in the 1980s. He became a supporter of the ‘Militant’, the forerunner of the Socialist Party (CWI affiliate), and joined the Marxist Workers’ Tendency of the ANC.
Read the rest of this note and the Irish Times obituary, 19/06/2004, here.
Workers' Power and the crisis of leadership Writing in Inqaba ya Basebenzi, the journal of the Marxist Workers' Tendency of the African National Congress, No. 12 Nov. 1983 - Feb. 1984.
Militant, September 1988 - Nimrod Sejake Retreat from the Freedom Charter
An interview with Nimrod from 2000,
Examples of Nimrod's role in building support for Marxism in Ireland.
A number of short reports found in the pages of our papers in the 1980's and 1990's which give some impression of the role Nimrod played in building support for Militant, the forerunners of the Socialist Party here.