https://themilitant.com/2019/06/29/joyce-meissenheimer-communist-fighter/
Joyce Meissenheimer: Communist fighter
??By Beverly Bernardo
Vol. 83/No. 24
July 8, 2019
Joyce Meissenheimer in Toronto in December 2007.
Militant/John Steele
Joyce Meissenheimer in Toronto in December 2007.
MONTREAL ??? Joyce Meissenheimer, 96, a member and cadre of the Communist
League in Canada for almost 50 years, died in Calgary June 7 of heart
failure. Before coming to Canada, Meissenheimer was a fighter against
the apartheid regime in South Africa for more than two decades. For the
last 20 years of her life, deteriorating health prevented her from
active participation in political life.
Born in 1922 in Capetown, South Africa, Joyce grew up under the
jurisdiction of the Coloured Affairs Department, one of the apartheid
government institutions depriving non-Caucasians of political rights. In
1937, at the age of 15, her father took her to her first demonstration
against racial segregation.
She married George Meissenheimer and they had four children ??? Martin,
Richard, Linda, and Laura. She became head of a parent-teacher
organization that campaigned against the Coloured Affairs Department.
From 1948 to 1961 Meissenheimer was the editor of the Torch, the
publication of the Non-European Unity Movement. Because the paper
exposed the injustices and brutalities rampant under the apartheid
system, supporters of the paper lived under constant police surveillance.
In 1961, Meissenheimer was ???banned??? ??? meaning she could not participate
in meetings of more than two people. Because of this stifling
restriction on her political activity, and that her husband was ill with
a heart condition, they decided to move to Vancouver in 1965.
She joined the League for Socialist Action, one of the predecessor
organizations of the CL. She threw herself into building the group???s
weekly Friday night forum series and took part in rising actions
opposing Washington???s war against the people of Vietnam and the Canadian
capitalist rulers??? complicity with it.
In 1969 Meissenheimer joined the fight to repeal Canada???s restrictive
abortion laws, leading to the Canadian Supreme Court???s ruling repealing
them in 1988. She continued to fight to extend access to family-planning
services for women, including abortion.
In 1977, Meissenheimer helped lead the successful political fight to
fuse the League for Socialist Action/Ligue Socialiste Ouvriere with two
other revolutionary organizations ??? the Revolutionary Marxist Group and
Groupe Marxiste Revolutionnaire. This led to the formation of the
Revolutionary Workers League, which changed its name to the Communist
League in 1989. She was a strong supporter of the CL???s efforts to get
the overwhelming majority of its membership into industry and the trade
unions.
She was a member of CL branches in Vancouver, Toronto and Montreal until
2001, when poor health forced her to move to live with her son Richard.
She remained in contact with the League, following its political work
and supporting its activities, for the rest of her life.
In This Issue
Front Page Articles ???US hands off Iran! End US economic war!
???US sanctions hit hardest against working people
???Speak out against bans on ???Militant??? in prisons!
???Vote to erase Calif. mural is blow to art, political rights
???Massive protests in Hong Kong push back hated extradition bill
??????We demand: End US colonial rule over people of Puerto Rico???
Feature Articles ???Victory in bakery???s lawsuit against ???racism??? smear by
Oberlin College
Also In This Issue ???Former ???wives,??? children of IS fighters held in
Mideast camps
???Workers at Gate Gourmet, Sky Chefs fight for contract
???Undocumented workers in NY win right to driver???s licenses
???Sudan military attacks protests demanding civilian government
???Celebrating 100 years ???on right side of history???
???Joyce Meissenheimer: Communist fighter
Books of the Month ???Building a party capable of leading workers to power
25, 50 and 75 years ago
?? Copyright 2019 The Militant?? -?? 306 W. 37th Street, 13th floor -?? New
York, NY 10018?? -?? themilitant@xxxxxx
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Voltaire
??? Those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.
???
??? Voltaire,
