Speaker boxes against Apartheid - the secret war

'London Recruits: the secret war against Apartheid' (Merlin Press 2012) is the fascinating story of people travelling from Britain to South Africa to carry out clandestine operations in support of the African National Congress and the movement against the racist South African state in the late 1960s and early 1970s. It was a period during which the movement within South Africa had been hit by severe state repression. To raise the profile of the resistance, white activists were recruited in England to fly to South Africa with leaflets and other materials concealed under the false bottoms of their suitcases. Their typical mission was to distribute them in busy urban locations using a small gunpowder device which blew the leaflets up in the air for the winds to scatter to passers by, with a timer to ensure they could get away. The devices were tested on Hampstead Heath and in Richmond park by Ronnie Kasrils and others. Kasrils, who set up the London end of the underground network, was a…

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