London Recruits
 | |
| Author | Ken Keable |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Subject | Apartheid South Africa |
| Published | Pontypool |
| Publisher | Merlin Press |
Publication date | 2012 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| 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]
Synopsis
[edit]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.
Reception
[edit]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 was released in 2024.[9]
References
[edit]- ^ "London Recruits".
- ^ "London Recruits (2016)". IMDb.
- ^ Alex Duval Smith (30 June 2012). "Secret London activists who became anti-apartheid's unsung heroes". the Guardian.
- ^ Ken Keable (23 August 2012). "When London became the recruiting centre in the battle against apartheid". the Guardian.
- ^ "Schechter offers counternarrative to issues of day". www.buffaloNews.com.
- ^ Muskens, Roeland (August 2013). "International Review of Social History - London Recruits. The Secret War against Apartheid. Compiled and edited by Ken Keable with an introduction by Ronnie Kasrils and a foreword by Z. Pallo Jordan. Merlin Press, Pontypool 2011. 248 pp. Ill. £15.95. - Cambridge Journals Online". International Review of Social History. 58 (2): 341–344. doi:10.1017/S0020859013000412. S2CID 146229705.
- ^ "London Recruits - The secret war against apartheid". vam.ac.uk.
- ^ "Shaking things up! - The ANC's London Recruits: The Secret War Against Apartheid". bishopsgate.org.uk.
- ^ "'London Recruits' Lifts the Lid on True Story of Courageous British Volunteers in Fight Against Apartheid". Variety. 26 February 2024. Retrieved 24 June 2024.