Bram Fischer - Professional and Political Activies

Professional and Political Activies

Fischer joined the South African Communist Party (SACP) in the 1940s and soon rose to leadership positions within the party. The SACP had a close relationship with the African National Congress (ANC) and in 1943, Fischer co-authored revisions to the constitution of the ANC. In 1946 he was charged with incitement arising out of his position as a leader of the SACP and the African Mine Workers' Strike of that year.

Alongside Issy Maisels and others, Fischer played an integral role on the defense team in the Treason Trial of 1956–1961 where Mandela and many other anti-apartheid activists were acquitted on 29 March 1961. In his autobiography, Mandela affectionately recalls Fischer reading the left wing publication New Age at his table during the trial proceedings.

Fischer led Nelson Mandela's legal defense team at the Rivonia Trial of 1963–1964. By a coincidence, Fischer had not being present at the raid on Liliesleaf, although he had in fact been part of the trusted Rivonia inner circle. A number of documents seized by authorities were in his handwriting.

Mandela and co-defendants were sentenced to life imprisonment sentence instead of the death penalty, which the state prosecutor Percy Yutar had been asking for. This was considered a victory for the defence. International pressure also played a role. At this time, Fischer's role as leader of the SACP was unknown even to his closest white friends.

After the verdict, Bram Fischer visited the Rivonia trial prisoners on Robben Island to discuss the question of an appeal in their case. Wishing not to protect the prisoners, he did not tell them of his wife’s death one week earlier. After the meeting, Mandela learned about Mrs Fischer's death and wrote to Fischer, a letter that his prison guards never delivered. A few days later Fischer was himself arrested, held in solitary confinement for three days and then released. On 23 September 1964, he was again arrested and joined the 12 white men and women facing charges of being members of the now illegal South African Communist Party.

Fischer was arrested in September 1964 and charged with the crime of membership of the SACP. He was released on bail to handle a patent case in London. He applied for bail to attend to his case. In his appeal to Court in the bail application he stated:

"I am an Afrikaner. My home is in South Africa. I will not leave my country because my political beliefs conflict with those of the Government."

Fischer returned to South Africa to face trial despite pressure put in him to forego his £5,000 bail and go into exile. One day, after proceedings began, he did not arrive at Court and instead sent a letter to his counsel, Harold Hanson which was read out in court. He wrote:

"By the time this reaches you I shall be a long way from Johannesburg and shall absent myself from the remainder of the trial. But I shall still be in the country to which I said I would return when I was granted bail. I wish you to inform the Court that my absence, though deliberate, is not intended in any way to be disrespectful. Nor is it prompted by any fear of the punishment which might be inflicted on me. Indeed I realise fully that my eventual punishment may be increased by my present conduct..."

"My decision was made only because I believe that it is the duty of every true opponent of this Government to remain in this country and to oppose its monstrous policy of apartheid with every means in his power. That is what I shall do for as long as I can..."

"What is needed is for White South Africans to shake themselves out of their complacency, a complacency intensified by the present economic boom built upon racial discrimination. Unless this whole intolerable system is changed radically and rapidly, disaster must follow. Appalling bloodshed and civil war will become inevitable because, as long as there is oppression of a majority, such oppression will be fought with increasing hatred."

Fischer went underground to support the liberation struggle against apartheid. In doing so, went against the advice of Mandela, who had advised him to support the struggle in the courtroom, "where people could see this Afrikaner son of a judge president fighting for the rights of the powerless. But he could not let others suffer while he remained free. Bram did not want to ask others to make a sacrifice that he was unwilling to make himself."

Fischer was struck off the advocate's roll in 1965 in a trial completed in his absence. Advocates Harold Hanson, Sydney Kentridge and Arthur Chaskalson defended him at the hearing.