London Recruits

The history of the antiapartheid movement brings up images of boycotts and public campaigns in the UK, but another story went on behind the scenes, in secret. This is the story of the foreign volunteers and their activities in South Africa, how they acted in defiance of the apartheid government and its police on the instructions of the African National Congress (ANC). From the transportation of weapons to the passage of ANC fighters into South Africa, this account describes the many risks taken by the volunteers—many of whom were young communists, Trotskyists, or independent socialists who traveled from the UK, Ireland, the Netherlands, and the United States—to join the cause.