In the 1960s the ANC had been decimated. ANC leader Nelson Mandela and a significant number of those in the freedom movement were serving long life sentences. Others were either dead or in exile. The Apartheid Regime boasted that the ANC were defeated, that their racist regime would last a thousand years. Resistance was futile, they claimed. Oliver Tambo, the new ANC leader, saw that the regime’s propaganda had to be answered. From his base in Tanzania, he summoned a young ANC activist, Ronnie Kasrils. His task would be to go to London and recruit white activists to go into South Africa to carry out agitational work on behalf of the ANC. They wanted white people because they could move around racist South Africa freely.

Here we talk to two of those brave Recruits who went to South Africa as very young men in those bleak days, one of whom spent five years in a South African prison as a result. This is a unique insight into an important part of the struggle against racism and imperialism, have a listen.

Additional Reading

• For the forthcoming move on the London Recruits, see here: ⁠London Recruits



• For more information about the Recruits, see this excellent educational pack: ⁠London Recruits Educational Resource.pdf⁠



• Official website and the excellent book by Ken Keable: ⁠London Recruits: The Secret War Against Apartheid⁠

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