Country United Kingdom Publisher Merlin Press Media type Print Originally published 2012 Page count 348 Subject Apartheid | Language English Publication date 2012 Pages 348 ISBN 9780850366556 Editor Ken Keable | |
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London recruits the secret war against apartheid
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. London Recruits: The Secret War Against Apartheid shares a title with the upcoming film London Recruits directed by Gordon Main.
Contents
Synopsis
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. 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.
Reception
In the Buffalo News the book was described as a series of 'revealing, firsthand accounts' and was reviewed in the International Review of Social History from Cambridge University. 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 while a talk on the book was held at the Bishopsgate Institute.