Marks (21 March 1903 – 1 August 1972)[1] joined the South African Communist Party (SACP) in 1928, at the age of 25.
[2] In 1934 rumours arose that he was a police informer and this may have been the reason he lost his position as party secretary in 1934-35.
[4] As supporter of party secretary Lazar Bach, who was recalled to the Soviet Union and killed there in 1936, Marks was also summoned to Moscow, but managed to bungle his exit and never arrived there.
[4] Expulsions from the party were generally suspensions rather than actual expulsions and by 1945 he managed not only to rejoin the party but to become the head of the African Mine Workers' Union, in spite of the fact that he had no previous experience of union work.
[4] Marks was elected as president of the Transvaal African National Congress in 1951,[5] but later lost this position to Nelson Mandela.