Dorothy Pizer
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Dorothy Pizer.
British Jewish working-class anti-racist activist, secretary and publishing worker. She was the supporter, collaborator and partner of Pan-African activist and Communist George Padmore in the 1940s and 50s when major foundational challenges to British colonial rule were being mounted. Publishing was one of the main strategies adopted by the group of black intellectuals involved in this struggle.[1] Her skills therefore played a crucial part in this move for freedom and self-determination in Africa.
She was always treated as Padmore's wife, although he had a former wife, Julia Semper. Dorothy sometimes used the name Pizer Padmore or Padmore. Their shared flat at 22 Cranleigh St, Camden, London, 1941-57, was a mecca for visiting African activists including Kwame Nkrumah.
A plaque commemorating Padmore was put up at their flat in 2011. Selma James, the widow of another influential Trinidadian C.L.R. James, said at the unveiling that "Every anti-colonial activist organizing against British imperialism came [here]... George and Dorothy would give dinners to all the people who came to them. They were in the struggle together for many years – dedicated internationalists and socialists.” [2]
Pizer planned to write Padmore's biography. She collected notes for this in 1959 when in Accra with his ashes.
Works
George Padmore "In collaboration with Dorothy Pizer", How Russia Transformed her Colonial Empire: a challenge to the imperialist powers. London: Dobson,1945.
External Links
- photo of Pizer with Padmore and Richard Wright in Ghana at http://beineckeroom26.library.yale.edu/2010/07/
- photo of commemorative plaque outside her home: http://www.camdennewjournal.com/news/2011/jun/blue-plaque-pays-tribute-pan-africanist-george-padmore
References
- ^ Polsgrove, Carol. Ending British Rule in Africa: Writers in a Common Cause. Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2009.
- ^ http://www.camdennewjournal.com/news/2011/jun/blue-plaque-pays-tribute-pan-africanist-george-padmore.