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Originally published: Auckland Park, South Africa: Jacana Media, 2010.
We hear for the first time from the international issue secretly worked for the INC's armed wing, Umkhonto we Sizwe(MK), in the struggle to liberate South Africa from apartheid rule. They acted as couriers, provided safe houses in neighbouring states and within South Africa, helped infiltrate combatants across borders, and smuggles tonnes of weapons into the country in the most creative ways. Driven by a spirit of international solidarity, they were prepared to take huge risks and face great danger. The internationalists reveal what motivated them as volunteers, not mercenaries: they gained nothing for their endeavours save for the self-esteem in serving a just cause. Against such clandestin...
ANC members found it very difficult to escape police surveillance after the Rivonia trial ... in 1963-64. But white people from outside South Africa - being unknown and unsuspected - could move about freely to do things for the ANC. London Recruits tells of the secret work they did: how they were recruited, their activities in South Africa and neighbouring countries, their motives and how they feel about it in retrospect."--Back cover
During the years of apartheid rule in South Africa, Ronnie Kasrils was actively involved with the banned ANC, its military wing Umkhonto we Sizwe and the South African Communist Party. Hunted by the security police, he was described by them as 'Armed and Dangerous'. This is his riveting first-hand account of the tense and dramatic years of the liberation struggle followed by his role in the first ten years of a democratic South Africa in which he first served as Deputy Defence Minister (1994 to1999) and then as Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry (1999 to 2004). Originally published in 1993, the book was republished in 1998 with eight additional chapters.
Now in its fourth edition, Armed and Dangerous is the first-hand account of Kasrils's years in both the liberation struggle and in government. Kasrils gives an insider's account of the workings of Umkhonto weSizwe, the armed wing of the ANC. Nicknamed 'The Red Pimpernel' by the South African press and public for slipping in and out of South Africa in disguise to run secret missions, Kasrils narrowly escaped arrest in several close shaves with security forces. Following the arrests of Mandela and other ANC leaders, he fled into hiding overseas, became one of the key commanders of Umkhonto weSizwe and set up training camps in Tanzania, Cuba and elsewhere. Armed and Dangerous is dedicated to the Born Frees, the generation born after the attainment of a democratic South Africa in 1994, to help them understand the struggle and carry on where we left off to make South Africa a better place for all who live in it.
Ronnie Kasrils's memoir reflects on compelling questions as to what turned a white youngster from a modest background into a lifelong revolutionary of note. A tiny minority who abandoned a life of privilege was the antithesis of conventionality and toeing the line. What made those such as Kasrils break all the rules and confront white power with such courage, unbridled spirit, and yearning for the truth? This is a challenging and fascinating conundrum but Kasrils will claim he is no aberration of history. The answers to that question, which unravel through twenty years, will beguile readers as he peers back with endearing frankness into the origins and experiences of his formative years. A Y...
The unique model of apartheid, colonization, and military occupation that Israel imposes on the Palestinians, along with myriad violations of international law, have made Palestine the moral cause of a generation. Yet many people continue to ask, "what can we do?"Generation Palestine helps to answer this question by bringing together Palestinian and international activists in the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement. The movement aims to pressure Israel until it complies with International Law, mirroring the model that was successfully utilized against South African apartheid.With essays written by a wide selection of contributors, Generation Palestine follows the BDS movement's model of inclusivity and collaboration. Contributors include Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Ken Loach, Iain Banks, Ronnie Kasrils, Professor Richard Falk, Ilan Pappe, Omar Barghouti, Ramzy Baroud, and Archbishop Attallah Hannah, alongside other internationally acclaimed artists, writers, academics, and grassroots activists.
Ruth First and Joe Slovo, husband and wife, were leaders of the war to end apartheid in South Africa. Communists, scholars, parents, and uncompromising militants, they were the perfect enemies for the white police state. Together they were swept up in the growing resistance to apartheid, and together they experienced repression and exile. Their contributions to the liberation struggle, as individuals and as a couple, are undeniable. Ruth agitated tirelessly for the overthrow of apartheid, first in South Africa and then from abroad, and Joe directed much of the armed struggle carried out by the famous Umkhonto we Sizwe. Only one of them, however, would survive to see the fall of the old regim...
'A tour de force of an extraordinary half-century of campaigning for justice' – Helen Clark, former New Zealand Prime Minister and United Nations Development Chief Peter Hain – famous for his commitment to the anti-apartheid struggle – has had a dramatic 50-year political career, both in Britain and in his childhood home of South Africa, in an extraordinary journey from Pretoria to the House of Lords. Hain vividly describes the arrest and harassment of his activist parents and their friends in the early 1960s, the hanging of a close family friend, and the Hains' enforced London exile in 1966. After organising militant campaigns in the UK against touring South African rugby and cricket ...
Within the already heavily polarised debate on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, parallels between Israel and apartheid South Africa remain highly contentious. A number of prominent academic and political commentators, including former US president Jimmy Carter and UN Special Rapporteur John Dugard, have argued that Israel's treatment of its Arab-Israeli citizens and the people of the occupied territories amounts to a system of oppression no less brutal or inhumane than that of South Africa's white supremacists. Similarly, boycott and disinvestment campaigns comparable to those employed by anti-apartheid activists have attracted growing support. Yet while the 'apartheid question' has become ...