South African campaigner condemns Israel

by Theo Russell

Ronnie Kasrils, a veteran South African freedom-fighter, denounced Israel at a showing of  Oliver Tambo’s London Recruits docudrama at Palestine House in London last week. The former South African Minister for Intelligence and a founding member of Umkhonto we Sizwe (the ANC’s armed wing during the struggle against Apartheid) focused on the global struggle against Israeli genocide. And he recalled that “in 1961, as apartheid South Africa responded to worldwide criticism for the 1960 Sharpeville massacre, prime minister Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of the apartheid system, declared that ‘Israel, like South Africa, is an apartheid state’, and that, in fact, Israel was ‘far worse than us’.
“When I visited the West Bank in 2004 and 2007” Kasrils said “I was immediately taken back to apartheid South Africa, but I could see that the violence was actually far worse than what we saw in South Africa. The treatment of political prisoners is beyond description. Even Nazi Germany, unlike the Israeli Zionists, didn't boast and brag about its genocidal actions”.
“Genocide was practised in South Africa by the Dutch settlers, who massacred thousands of indigenous San people in the late 18th century” Kasrils said referring to the VOC, the Dutch East India Company, that officially endorsed the total eradication of the San, who it classed as an inferior category of humans who were already doomed to extinction. But later on, particularly under the British, the African population was converted into a proletariat to provide cheap labour for the mines and the farms. Under this system, the blacks were kept down and repressed, but as they were needed as workers, they weren't indiscriminately or systematically killed. That's what makes Israel by comparison such a depraved, morally bankrupt state”.
Kasrils was confident that the global struggle against the genocidal Israeli state can be won.
“Make no mistake, we can win this fight through international solidarity in support of Palestine, just as the international boycott and sanctions helped the South African people to win their freedom.
“Israel is an artificial state created by Britain, where the Zionist ideology emerged and the Balfour Declaration was issued. This state has to be dismantled and restored to the Palestinian people”.
He described the Palestinian Authority as a “sell-out” and said “they made a major error by entering into the Oslo Peace Process”.
The struggle for Palestine was a global struggle, as evidenced by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s Munich Security Conference speech in February denouncing the “godless communist revolutions and anti-colonial uprisings which had rolled back 500 years of the great Western empires”. 
“The aim now” said Kasrils “is to put the clocks back on the liberation struggles of the past century, and to restore complete hegemony for the US, Britain and France. Their eyes are on the Congo and Sudan, for their minerals, and on Iran and Cuba for their regional importance”.
Kasrils said “What is the commonality between Iran and Cuba, and why should we defend them? It is that just as Cuba stands by Venezuela in spite of its own difficulties, Iran stands by its solidarity with the people of Palestine and Lebanon”.
On South Africa Kasrils said “The key objective for the South African people was a non-racial unitary state. “However while we overcame apartheid, in its place we failed to demand economic power and control. That's where the compromise was made – you can have your own vote per person, but we have the capital”.
Referring to the recent wave of xenophobia against foreign migrant workers from other African states, he said “There were two elements involved to: firstly, corrupt rule by those more interested their own wealth rather than solving the problems of their own people, and secondly, internal political forces seeking to destabilise South Africa. We also need to struggle against those who have taken power seeking their own advancement, and we've had our own in South Africa”.

The British volunteers who fought apartheid

by Theo Russell

A major new documentary has just been released and is now showing at community cinemas around the country. But The London Recruits is unlike any other documentary I've seen. In fact it is more nail biting than any thriller film I've seen, and extremely powerful and moving. It tells the story of the British volunteers who were recruited to travel to South Africa to distribute propaganda for the African National Congress (ANC), and to deliver funds.
The operation was mounted at an extremely difficult time for the struggle against the Western backed and armed Apartheid regime, when the ANC had been driven completely underground.
The regime's police were extremely brutal and anyone arrested was likely to face beatings, torture, and possible "accidental" death or execution for any involvement with the ANC. Its spies were everywhere, even in the black townships - and by the way even London was crawling with them at the time.
The ANC realised that the most urgent task was to tell the black masses that they and the struggle were still alive.
Under the leadership of Oliver Tambo, the ANC's leader in exile, and Ronnie Kasrils, a founding member of Umkhonto we Sizwe, they developed the technique of "bucket bombs" which scattered hundreds of ANC leaflets in areas where black South Africans congregated. Eventually they were able to set off multiple bombs on the same day in the main South African cities on the same day, creating an upsurge in the struggle and panic among the authorities. Some of the 'recruits' fell into the hands of the regime and faced torture and prison sentences.
The film expertly combines interviews, archive footage and re-enactments, but it needs to be pointed out that while Chris Hani – the leader of the South African Communist Party and chief of staff of uMkhonto we Sizwe (the ANC's armed wing) who was assassinated by a fascist Polish immigrant in 1993 – was played by an actor.
There is an excellent website for the film - londonrecruits.com/ - which also has a map of local screenings in England and Wales, and if you click on ‘GET INVOLVED’ you can receive updates on screenings and future releases. Catch this film if you can – it’s the best I’ve seen for several years.

George Johannes remembered

Peter Hain speaking

 by New Worker correspondent

A celebration of the life of African National Congress (ANC) and communist activist and former ambassador to the Holy See, George Johannes took place last week at the South African High Commission in London's Trafalgar Square.
Chitra Karve, chair of Action for Southern Africa, paid tribute to George, saying that he had "contributed to the liberation of our beloved country with distinction and dignity".
    Peter Hain, a former leading Anti Apartheid Movement (AAM) activist and Labour government minister, said the George had been on the BOSS (apartheid South African intelligence service) list for kidnapping or murder, pointing out that several leading anti-apartheid members had been murdered and he himself had received a deadly letter bomb in London.
    Hain said that for years the British AAM "was in a minority, criticised, besieged, infiltrated and targeted", and recalled that in 1996 Margaret Thatcher called Nelson Mandela a terrorist. Years later, when she attended Mandela's speech to both houses of parliament, Hain described seeing her "scuttling to her seat".
    Former ANC UK spokesperson and High Commission political attache Nad Pillay said that George studied at the University of Cork and formally joined the ANC in 1976 after his return to Africa.
He underwent military training, and worked on intelligence and security under the name Joseph Louw. He then worked in Angola and Zambia before moving to London.
    "George travelled across the UK for the ANC and was known, if I remember correctly, as something of a 'Trot-basher', Nad recounted. "I look forward to raising a glass in memory of George Johannes, persistent in adversity, a comrade in the struggle"
    A message from the Secretary General of the African National Congress said "Comrade George's work for Radio Freedom, Umkhonto we Sizwe (the armed wing of the ANC), and at the ANC's Penton Street office in London, were landmarks in his life of struggle."
    Another message from Cheryl Carolus, the first London High Commissioner after apartheid, described George as "a trusted colleague, a wise advisor and friend, and a respected member of the African National Congress and the South African Communist Party".
    A group of singers led by vocalist Queen Patience sang a selection of beautiful and very moving songs in George's memory.
    During his time working at the South African High Commission in London from 1998 to 2005, as Political Counsellor and then Deputy High Commissioner, George became a member of the New Communist Party. He is still remembered by many NCP members as an inspiring and energetic comrade and a very attractive and lively personality.

The London Recruits at Marx House

Ronnie Kasrils sets the scene

 by Neil Harris

Last Saturday comrades and friends returned to the historic Marx Memorial Library in London to raise funds for a special film about a very special group of people.

I suppose one of the great struggles of my life was the struggle against Apartheid in South Africa – preserving minority white rule by using great violence over the majority of people in the country.

In 1962 the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC), including Nelson Mandela, were imprisoned at the Rivonia trial for life. The underground was effectively broken up and many ANC activists were forced into exile.

Oliver Tambo, Joe Slovo and Yousef Dadoo tasked Ronnie Kasrils to organise underground operations from London to restart the struggle back in South Africa.

To that end, young idealistic white people were recruited from left-wing organisations and trades unions to go to South Africa. There they did some extraordinary things; they posted out letters to thousands of people, distributed leaflets they had smuggled in, set off explosive devises that scattered leaflets over crowds of people in public places, left hidden tape recorders to relay speeches and anti-apartheid messages to the people.

These may have been stunts but they were very dangerous and were widely reported at the time. They kept the flame alive until the underground could reorganise.

And now there has been a book written about The London Recruits, as well as a website and even exhibitions. The recruits have got together (they never knew each other at the time) and there may even be a film.

The evening started with a brief scene-setter from Ronnie Kasrils, who organised everything from a dusty office above Goodge Street in London, and went on to become Deputy Defence Minister and later Minister for Intelligence in the new non-racial South African government.

We also heard from various “London Recruits” in the audience, who described what they did and the effect this had on them. One of them described how he set up tape recorders and amplifiers in South Africa. Another, Ken Keable, recruited from the Young Communist League (YCL), went to Johannesburg to send out 1200 letters and was responsible for putting the book together.

Mary Chamberlain, travelled with her partner as an emigrating, newly married couple, who brought with them 22 tea chests of belongings to set up their new home. Only the chests had false bottoms containing 7000 anti-apartheid pamphlets to be posted out a few at a time.

 Kathreen Solahi (formerly Levine) was a young student studying anthropology who had previously made trips to Tanzania. She was sent to Zambia from where she made numerous trips across the border to South Africa, smuggling people and leaflets.

Quietly and without fuss she described making regular trips with cargoes of weapons hidden in a false fuel tank, to be buried or hidden for collection later. These were trips made cross country, where there were no roads in an age before satnavs. They crossed the Zambesi river where on one side was South West Africa, a South African colony, and on the other the white settler state of Rhodesia, which was just as hostile.

She told us how they camped out on the 200 mile journey, in constant fear of breaking down or being discovered.

Because this was serious, “London Recruits” were captured, tortured and imprisoned, even though the majority made it through and back safely.

There were also tales (well known) of exploits carried out by people who weren't in the audience; the setting up of the notorious travel company "Africa Hinterland", which operated safari tours into South Africa for tourists. They were unaware that the specially adapted vehicles contained caches of weapons and ammunition under the floorboards beneath their feet.

There were tales of two volunteers who were captured and imprisoned by the South African authorities and managed to escape by carving out replica keys made of wood in the prison workshop. They just walked out!

It was an incredible evening, a privilege to spend it in the company of a special group of people who made a difference, however small or big.

But this was serious; South Africa was a country divided by race to the extent that on one occasion when an abandoned child was found, it couldn't be admitted to hospital for four days while investigations took place to work out what race it was.

Where a workman was sent to prison for five years for writing “Free Mandela” on his mug at work.

And I suppose the most important weapon that the “London Recruits” were able to use against Apartheid was that they were all white – they were able to turn the authorities prejudices against them.