 | |
| Author | Ken Keable |
|---|---|
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Apartheid South Africa |
| Published | Pontypool |
| Publisher | Merlin Press |
Publication date | 2012 |
| Media type | |
| Pages | 348 |
| ISBN | 9780850366556 |
| 323.168 | |
London Recruits: The Secret War Against Apartheid is a 2012 book edited and compiled by Ken Keable, with an introduction by Ronnie Kasrils and a foreword by Pallo Jordan. It inspired a documentary film, London Recruits, [1] directed by Gordon Main. [2]
The book details the secret activities of foreign volunteers, especially from the United Kingdom and the rest of Western Europe, who worked covertly to assist the African National Congress during apartheid. Ronnie Kasrils, a South African young communist, met with George Bridges, London Secretary of the Young Communist League in 1967 and began the process of reviving the ANC presence in South Africa through propaganda. These volunteers were mostly young communists, socialists and Trotskyists. The book reveals work done by volunteers, such as the transport of anti-apartheid leaflets and cassettes from London to counter the South African government's own overseas propaganda machine. A number of the activists were students at the London School of Economics and Political Science, including Ronnie Kasrils. [3] [4] Ronnie Kasrils subsequently became a leader of the armed struggle and a minister in Mandela's cabinet.
In the Buffalo News the book was described as a series of "revealing, firsthand accounts" [5] and was reviewed in the International Review of Social History from Cambridge University. [6] The first film made about the Recruits was made by Disobedient Films' Leah Borromeo and Katharine Round for an exhibition called Disobedient Objects at the V&A Museum in London [7] while a talk on the book was held at the Bishopsgate Institute. [8] A documentary film of the book is being produced by Barefoot Rascals and should be released in 2023.[ citation needed ]
The South African Communist Party (SACP) is a communist party in South Africa. It was founded in 1921 as the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA), tactically dissolved itself in 1950 in the face of being declared illegal by the governing National Party under the Suppression of Communism Act, 1950. The Communist Party was reconstituted underground and re-launched as the SACP in 1953, participating in the struggle to end the apartheid system. It is a member of the ruling Tripartite Alliance alongside the African National Congress and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and through this it influences the South African government. The party's Central Committee is the party's highest decision-making structure.
Ciskei, officially the Republic of Ciskei, was a Bantustan for the Xhosa people, located in the southeast of South Africa. It covered an area of 7,700 square kilometres (3,000 sq mi), almost entirely surrounded by what was then the Cape Province, and possessed a small coastline along the shore of the Indian Ocean.
Joe Slovo was a South African politician, and an opponent of the apartheid system. A Marxist-Leninist, he was a long-time leader and theorist in the South African Communist Party (SACP), a leading member of the African National Congress (ANC), and a commander of the ANC's military wing uMkhonto we Sizwe (MK).
The National Intelligence Agency (NIA) was the previous name of an intelligence agency of the South African government. Currently it is known as the Domestic Branch of the State Security Agency. It is responsible for domestic and counter-intelligence within the Republic of South Africa. The branch is run by a Director, who reports to the Director-General of the State Security Agency. The Director is also a member of the National Intelligence Co-Ordinating Committee (NICOC).
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Craig Michael Williamson, is a former officer in the South African Police, who was exposed as a spy and assassin for the Security Branch in 1980. Williamson was involved in a series of events involving state-sponsored terrorism. This included overseas bombings, burglaries, kidnappings, assassinations and propaganda during the apartheid era.
Ronald Kasrils is a South African politician, Marxist revolutionary, guerrilla and military commander. He was Minister for Intelligence Services from 27 April 2004 to 25 September 2008. He was a member of the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC) from 1987 to 2007 as well as a member of the Central Committee of the South African Communist Party (SACP) from December 1986 to 2007.
The Bisho massacre occurred on 7 September 1992 in Bisho, in the then nominally independent homeland of Ciskei which is now part of the Eastern Cape in South Africa. Twenty-eight African National Congress supporters and one soldier were shot dead by the Ciskei Defence Force during a protest march when they attempted to enter Bisho to demand the reincorporation of Ciskei into South Africa during the final years of apartheid.
The Little Rivonia Trial was a South African apartheid-era court case in which several members of the armed resistance organization Umkhonto we Sizwe faced charges of sabotage. The accused were: Laloo Chiba, Dave Kitson, Mac Maharaj, John Matthews and Wilton Mkwayi. A confederate of theirs, Lionel Gay turned state witness, and in return, the prosecution dropped the charges against him.
The National Executive Committee (NEC) of the African National Congress (ANC) is the party's chief executive organ. It is elected every five years at the party’s national conference; the executive committee, in turn, elects a National Working Committee for day-to-day decision-making responsibilities. At the NEC's head is the president of the ANC, and it also contains the other so-called "Top Seven" leaders : the deputy president, chairperson, secretary-general, two deputy secretaries-general and treasurer-general.
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Olivia Anne Marie Forsyth , agent number RS407 and codename "Lara", is a former spy for the apartheid government in South Africa. Having attained the rank of lieutenant in the Security Branch of the South African Police (SAP), Forsyth defected to the African National Congress (ANC) and was incarcerated at Quatro prison camp in northern Angola. Following her escape, Forsyth spent six months hiding in the British embassy in Luanda.
Boerehaat is an Afrikaans word that means "ethnic hatred of Boers" or Afrikaners as they became known after the Second Boer War. The related term Boerehater has been used to describe a person who hates, prejudices or criticises Boers or Afrikaners.
Mary Chamberlain is a British novelist and historian. She has been largely collected by libraries worldwide.
Alexandre Moumbaris is a political activist and former political prisoner. He was born in Egypt to Greek parents, grew up in Australia, lived and worked in the UK, was imprisoned in South Africa and now lives in France. He is known for his political activism against the apartheid régime in South Africa in the 1970s, and his subsequent incarceration in, and 1979 escape from, Pretoria Local Prison with Tim Jenkin and Stephen Lee. He returned to France after his escape.
Operation Vula was a secret domestic programme of the African National Congress (ANC) during the final years of apartheid in South Africa. Initiated in 1986 at the ANC headquarters in Lusaka and launched in South Africa in 1988, its operatives infiltrated weapons and banned ANC leaders into the country, in order to establish an underground network linking domestic activist structures with the ANC in exile. It was responsible for facilitating the only direct line of communication between ANC headquarters and Nelson Mandela, who at the time was imprisoned and was discussing a negotiated settlement with the government on the ANC's behalf. The operation was disbanded in 1990, after its existence had been publicly revealed and eight of its leaders charged under the Internal Security Act with terrorism and plotting an armed insurrection.
The 48th National Conference of the African National Congress (ANC) took place from 2 to 7 July 1991 at the University of Durban–Westville in Durban, KwaZulu-Natal. It was the first national conference of the ANC since the organisation was banned by the apartheid government in 1960 and marked the ascension of Nelson Mandela to the ANC presidency, which since 1967 had been held by Oliver Tambo.
London Recruits is a 2024 Drama Documentary Thriller South African/Welsh co-production, written and directed by Welsh director/producer, Gordon Main. It is inspired by the true story of how the ANC recruited volunteers in Britain in the 1960s and 70s, at the height of apartheid, to travel to South Africa for undercover missions. The film features interviews with surviving recruits, ANC Comrades and South African security forces, interspersed with archive footage and dramatic reenactments.