Childhood and family

David Ivon Jones was born on 18 October 1883, in Aberystwyth, Wales.^[7][8] His parents died when he was very young, leaving him to be raised by various family members.^[9] In both Aberystwyth and Lampeter, Jones worked as a grocer in the family business.^[9] The Jones family hailed from a poor and mountainous farming region of Wales called Mynydd-Bach, which had once been the centre of a guerrilla war of small farmers and squatters fighting against attempts by English landowners to enclose common land.^[7] His grandfather, John Ivan Jones, was a leading campaigner for radical causes and Liberalism in Aberystwyth. It is believed that his grandfather's beliefs were a strong influence on David.^[10][11]

Early religious beliefs

In his youth, Jones became strongly influenced by the beliefs of the former Unitarian minister George Eyre Evans, who inspired Jones to abandon his family's Calvinistic Methodist beliefs and adopt Unitarianism.^[5] In 1901 Jones moved to live in Lampeter where he encountered many differing views on Christianity before returning to his native Aberystwyth and joining the Unitarian congregation.^[12] Jones was often berated by his neighbours for his Unitarianist beliefs and confronted by religious opponents at his workplace and on the streets for his choice to join the people of the "Y Smotyn Du" (The Black Spot).^[9][12] Among his shop account records, it was discovered by historians that Jones had an interest in philosophy, often writing quotes by Immanuel Kant and Plato.^[9] Jones became the treasurer and secretary of the Aberystwyth Unitarian chapel, which soon developed into a centre for radical left-wing politics.^[9][5] The records of this chapel show that striking miners were invited by the congregation and that the congregation also raised money for Penrhyn quarrymen who had been locked out of work for three years.^[9] The chapel records also show that the congregation hosted Gertrude von Petzold who was famous for being the first woman to be ordained in Britain.^[9]

According to researcher Islwyn ap Nicholas, Jones was at this point a "Christian humanist:

"Ivon appeared to be a Christian Humanist, unless this is a contradiction in terms. Indeed he was more of a humanist than anything else and he always stressed the social and economic teachings of Jesus".^[9]

Leaving Wales

At some point during his 20s, Jones contracted tuberculosis, a common disease in Wales in the early 20th century.^[9] Records from his chapel note that Jones left Cardiganshire "to seek health in New Zealand", following many people in his family who had migrated to British colonies.^[9][2] In 1907 Jones left Wales and then spent three years living in New Zealand.^[13][3] In 1920 Jones moved to the Orange Free State in South Africa where he worked in a shop which was owned by two of his brothers.^[9]

Arrival in Africa (1911)

David Ivon Jones arrived in South Africa in November 1910, seeking treatment for tuberculosis.^[5][9] Early during his arrival in South Africa, Jones became increasingly aware of the oppression of native black Africans, especially women,^[14] viewing their oppressed position in racist South African society as 'slaves in everything but name'.^[9] Although at this point in his life Jones still held many bigoted views towards Africans, witnessing the oppression of black people in South Africa triggered him to begin questioning his own views on race, and his views gradually became more ambivalent.^[14] Although he had not yet broken with segregation, his writings from mid-1911 record his gradual shift in attitudes towards black people, attacking people who used derogatory language against black workers.^[14]

Further commenting on his early views on the mistreatment of black workers, Jones writes: "the white man only considers his marketable value. When he begins to find that he has responsibilities towards the black man other than sending him missionaries, there will be a changed South Africa'.^[14]

South African Labour Party - SALP (1911–1915)

In 1911, Jones welcomed the creation of the "South African Native National Congress", later becoming the African National Congress (ANC), viewing its creation as a step towards 'national self-consciousness'.^[14][15] Despite his sympathetic views for black Africans and the ANC, Jones was at this point in his life a Liberal Christian activist, and in 1911 he joined a pro-segregationist political party called the "South African Labour Party" (SALP).^[2][16] Although not yet an anti-capitalist and supporter of communism, he held a deep hatred towards South Africa's Randlords, the capitalists who monopolised the gold and diamond industries.^[17]

Turn towards communism and atheism (1914–1915)

In August 1914, Jones was elected the SALP's general secretary, during a time when its membership and popular support was rapidly expanding.^[19][16] The large increase in membership and support transformed the SALP, and the wave of new overwhelmingly white working-class members brought with them bigoted views towards black Africans, with many of these new members arguing that they should be paid more than black people. Many older SALP members agreed and the party stuck to its racist and pro-segregationist beliefs.^[19] While many of these new members moved further politically right-wing, some veterans of the party, including Jones, himself began moving further left-wing.^[19]

In 1914, Jones underwent a personal crisis, he became depressed and stopped attending church as often.^[20] He began collecting left-wing political and philosophical publications from Britain, including works by Karl Marx, Friedrich Engels, Karl Kautsky, H. G. Wells, Leo Tolstoy, Ramsay MacDonald, and began studying a vast range of political philosophies, including Marxism.^[20] When he emerged from his depression, he found a new enthusiasm for political work and had completely abandoned his previous Christian beliefs.^[20]

Come the outbreak of the First World War, the SALP membership was split over whether or not to support the war, with many of those opposing WWI then co-founding the "War on War League" in September 1914.^[20] The War on War League claimed to be an independent body of anti-war activists that worked within the SALP, and although Jones did not join them he did share their views.^[20] His firm opposition to WWI, along with his growing socialist and atheist beliefs heavily influenced by British socialist publications, led him to resigning as the SALP general secretary in September 1915 and he became the leader of a breakaway group called the International Socialist League (ISL).^{[19][2][3][16]} After leaving the SALP, Jones dedicated the remainder of his life to promoting racial equality and fighting against both colonialism and capitalism.

He became the first editor of the ISL's weekly newspaper, The International, which he used to support Vladimir Lenin and the Bolsheviks and to later in his life use to explain the importance of Russia's 1917 February and October revolutions.^[3][16][2]

Support for black Africans (1915–1920)

After leaving the South African Labour Party (SALP) in 1915, Jones dedicated the remainder of his life to supporting both communism and supporting racial equality between black and white workers. In 1917, he became the moving figure in establishing South Africa's first-ever all-black trade union, a short-lived organisation known as the Industrial Workers of Africa (IWA).^[16][21] He wrote agitation leaflets for the IWA, addressed to the Bantu, calling for racial equality and proletarian solidarity, however when he could not find a translator the work of translating the leaflets fell upon undercover police spies who had been sent to infiltrate the IWA.^[22] The IWA took part in many strikes and industrial disputes in 1918; however, the organisation was crushed via a combination of government repression and police infiltration.^[23]

Becoming increasingly aware of the potential of black South Africans in the labour movement, Jones prompted the International Socialist League (ISL) to start publishing socialist works in native African languages, demanding equal status for Black Africans in South African workplaces, and challenging colonial racism.^[16] During this time in his life, the importance of racial equality between the black and white proletariat became the central focus of his writings. Statements such as the following published by Jones in The International became common sights within his writings.

"An Internationalism which does not concede the fullest rights which the Native working class is capable of claiming will be a sham. One of the justifications for our withdrawal from the Labour Party is that it gives us untrammelled freedom to deal, regardless of political fortunes, with the great and fascinating problem of the Native."^[16]

Due to ill health, Jones resigned from his position in the ISL in 1919 and briefly worked in Mozambique, where he contracted malaria.^[21]

Life in Russia

After briefly visiting his home country of Wales, Jones was invited to the 1921 Third Congress of the Communist International held in Moscow,^[21] as a delegate from South Africa, alongside political activist Sam Barlin.^[28][27] On 12 July, at the Third Congress of the Communist International, Jones proposed that the congress:

"resolves to further the movement among the working masses of Africa ... and desires the Executive to take a direct initiative in promoting the awakening of the African Negroes as a necessary step to the world revolution".^[27]

Further elaborating on his views on communism and black Africans, he said:

"They (black Africans) are ripe for communism. They are absolutely propertyless. They are stripped of every vestige of property and caste prejudice. The African natives are a labouring race, still fresh from ancestral communal traditions. I will not say that the native workers are well organised, or have a great conception of communism or even trade unionism, as yet. But they have made several attempts at liberation by way of industrial solidarity. They only need awakening. They know they are slaves, but lack the knowledge how to free themselves ... The solution of the problem, the whole world problem is being worked out in South Africa on the field of the working-class movement".^[27]

After hearing Jones's speech, the congress agreed that he should represent South Africa as a consultant to the Comintern executive committee. Due to his failing health, Jones remained in Moscow and was not able to attend the founding congress of the Communist Party of South Africa (SACP) near the end of July.^[27] Despite his not being present at the founding congress to his failing health, the party still recognised Jones as a founding member.^[29][3] Distancing himself from frontline political activism due to his failing health, Jones dedicated his time to learning Russian and became one of the first people to translate much of Lenin's writings into English.^[27] He also wrote many articles for publications in Britain, America, and for South African communists. Writing in February 1922 for The Communist Review, the journal of the Communist Party of Great Britain (CPGB), Jones expressed his support for the Bolshevik's support for radical peasants in the fight against the Russian Orthodox Church.^[27] His writings in 1924 show that he was actively encouraging English-speaking socialists to read and study the works of Vladimir Lenin, alongside other Russian political figures, including Martov and Plekhanov.^[30] The years of political turmoil had taken a toll on Jones's health, and so the Comintern dispatched him to Yalta to recover from another tuberculosis attack.^[31] Writing to South African communist leader WH Bill Andrews, Jones said: "We stand for Bolshevism, and in all minds Bolshevism stands for the Native worker."^[31]

In July 1923, Jones wrote an article titled "Africa Awakening" in support of the creation of a "World Negro Congress", and further urged white activists in Belgium, Britain and America to put special emphasis on the liberation of African people from racism and capitalism.^[32]

In a final political testament written on his deathbed, Jones urged his fellow communists to continue supporting revolution against imperialism and capitalism, and to "carry out the great revolutionary mission imposed on colonies in general and South Africa in particular with revolutionary devotion and dignity, concentrating on shaking the foundations of world capitalism and British imperialism".^[31][33]

Soon afterwards, Jones died on 13 April 1924 from tuberculosis.^[31][3]