International Brigade Against Apartheid: Secrets of the People’s War That Liberated South Africa

Edited by Ronnie Kasrils with Muff Andersson and Oscar Marleyn.

First published by Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd in 2021, ISBN: 978-1-4314-3202-8, this Daraja Press edition is available in North America and East Africa

 

I thought I had a pretty good understanding of the global anti-apartheid movement until I read this extraordinary collection of essays. This book blew my mind!
Robin D.G. Kelly

We hear for the first time from the international activists who worked secretly for the ANC’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 smuggled 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.

ISBN Print: 978-1-990263-41-5
Publication Date: April 2022
Page Count: 384
Binding Type: Soft cover
Trim Size: 6in x 9in
Language: English
Colour: B&W
Print book available from: https://darajapress.com

USD $ 27.00

Clear

I thought I had a pretty good understanding of the global anti-apartheid movement until I read this extraordinary collection of essays. This book blew my mind!
Robin D.G. Kelly

We hear for the first time from the international activists who worked secretly for the ANC’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 smuggled 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 clandestine involvement, the book includes contributions from key people in the international anti-apartheid movement and its public mobilisation to isolate the apartheid regime.

These include worldwide campaigns like Stop the Sports Tours, boycotting of South African products and black American solidarity. The Cuban, East German and Russian contributions outlined those countries’ support for the ANC and MK. The public, global Anti-Apartheid Movement campaigns provide the dimensions from which internationalists who secretly served MK emerged.

Edited by Ronnie Kasrils with Muff Andersson and Oscar Marleyn.

First published by Jacana Media (Pty) Ltd in 2021, ISBN: 978-1-4314-3202-8, this Daraja Press edition is available in North America and East Africa.

Contents

Acknowledgements

ANC-MK Timeline

Foreword – Pallo Jordan

Introduction – Ronnie Kasrils

Declaration – Oliver Tambo’s Call on MK’s Tenth Anniversary, 16 December 1971

Nelson Mandela – MK and People of the World 1991

PART ONE: Clandestine Solidarity inside the Belly of the Beast

Fish Keitseng – The Underground Route

Michael Dingake – A True Internationalist

Fidelis Hove – Zimbabweans as Comrades-in-Arms

Jeremy Brickhill – The Secret History of Zimbabwean Support for Umkhonto we Sizwe

Ronnie Kasrils – Landing Guerrillas by Sea: The Aventura Episode

Alex Moumbaris – Arrest at the Border

Sean Hosey – When My Irish Luck Ran Out

Fatima do Rosário Cordeiro – Tribute to a Gallant Mozambican

Siphiwe Nyanda – Mozambique Panel Beaters & a Swazi Farmer

Aboobaker Ismail (Rashid) – Internationalists who Joined the People’s War

Bogaert & Van Hecken – From the Carnation Revolution to Special Ops

Oscar Marleyn – Stumbling towards Internationalism 1979–1991

Hélène Marinis Passtoors – Words and Blasts91

Klaas de Jonge – The Daring Escape of a ‘Damn F**king Foreign Terrorist

Saloojee, Smith, Andersson, Evans & Harper – The Truck Safari: 1 trip, 1 tonne

James Garraway – This is No Picnic, it’s War!

Pierre Koster – Of Fish Eagles and DLBs

Gordon, Godt & Craig – Crossing Borders

Andrea Meeson – In Each of Us Lives a Revolutionary, a Fighter for Better

John Spyropolous – The Adventures of a Wandering Greek

Mtintso & Ngculu – The Botswana Front and Solidarity

Judy Seidman – From the ‘Red Nest’ in Connecticut to Botswana

Ramila Patel – From Anti-Nazi League Britain to Botswana

Damian de Lange – African Internationalists in the Frontline Underground

Ivan Pillay – Stalwarts of Swaziland

June Stephen – Out of New York to Swaziland

Conny Braam – The Dutch Connection

Janet Love – Internationalists and Operation Vula

Douglas & Douglas – A Canadian Safe House for Operation Vula

Susan Grabek – A Patient Canadian

Clarence Kwinana – Helping Hands for Radio Freedom

Albertini – French Arms Smuggler in Custody had Mitterrand Fuming

Michael Lapsley – Tribute to Fellow New Zealander Reverend John Osmers

Roger Allingham – From English Farmer to SA Navy Commander Via MK

PART TWO: Solidarity Across the Globe

Christabel Gurney – The Role of the AAM Internationally

Abdul Minty – Birth of AAM, UN Committee, Luthuli’s Prize

E.S. Reddy – A Giant at the United Nations

Horst Kleinschmidt – International Defence and Aid Fund’s Silent Solidarity

Victoria Brittain – African Continental Solidarity Defied the Cold War

Oscar Monteiro – African Internationalism, a Mozambique Perspective

Peter Hain – Stop the Sports Tours

Protests on the Pitch – The Failed 1981 New Zealand Springbok Rugby Tour

Magnus Walan – Sweden to the Fore

Jan Vanheulekom – Viva ANC vs Hoera vir die Boer Hoera!

Koen Vanbrabandt – Belgian Shop Stewards Without Borders

Marc Bontemps – Oxfam and the Anti-Apartheid Movement

Chiara Torcianti – Red City, Black Resistance: Reggio Emilia and the ANC

Jacqueline Dérens – The French Connection

Alphaeus Hunton – African American Icon Defends Solidarity with Africa

Zeb Larson – USA Protest Began with the ‘Germ’ of a Movement

Mosie Moola – Anecdotes from India

Vladimir Shubin – The Soviet Union and Liberation Struggle in South Africa

Héctor Igarza Cabrera – Cuba Paid its Debt to History

Ronnie Kasrils – Turning Point at Cuito Cuanavale

Hans-Georg Schleicher – GDR Training of 1 000 MK Cadres

Declan Kearney – Ireland’s Firm Internationalism

Don’t Handle Them – The boycott of Grapefruit at Dunnes Stores, Ireland

Urko Aiartza – ‘Solidarity is the Tenderness among Peoples’

Ramzy Baroud – Palestinian & South African Solidarity

Kofi Hope – The Canadian Anti-Apartheid Movement

Dominic Bellissimo – Canadian Workers’ Modest Contribution

N. Barney Pityana – Black Consciousness & the World Council of Churches

Michael Lapsley – The ANC’s Church Front

Ronnie Kasrils – Epilogue: The Good Peoples

Index

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