Baruch Hirson (10 December 1921 – 3 October 1999) was a South African political activist, academic, author and historian, who was jailed for nine years in apartheid-era South Africa before moving to England in 1973. He was co-founder of the critical journal Searchlight South Africa, and in 1991 a critic of what he referred to as Stalinist methods used by the African National Congress (ANC).