Youth Activism and Solidarity: The Non-Stop Picket against Apartheid

259 Pages·2017·3.08 MB·English

by  Gavin Brown and Helen Yaffe

Youth Activism and Solidarity
From April 1986 until just after Nelson Mandela’s release from prison in
February 1990, supporters of the City of London Anti-Apartheid Group
maintained a continuous protest, day and night, outside the South African
Embassy in Central London. This book examines how and why a group
of children, teenagers and young adults made themselves ‘non-stop against
apartheid’, creating one of the most visible expressions of anti-apartheid sol-
idarity in Britain.
Drawing on interviews with over 90 former participants in the Non-Stop
Picket of the South African Embassy and extensive archival research using
previously unstudied documents, this book offers new insights to the study
of social movements and young people’s lives. It theorises solidarity and the
processes of adolescent development as social practices to provide a theo-
retically informed, argument-led analysis of how young activists build and
practise solidarity.
Youth Activism and Solidarity: The Non-Stop Picket against Apartheid
will be of interest to geographers, historians and a wide range of other so-
cial scientists concerned with the historical geography of the international
anti-apartheid movement, social movement studies, contemporary British
history and young people’s activism and geopolitical agency.
Gavin Brown is an Associate Professor in the School of Geography, Geology
and the Environment at the University of Leicester, UK. He is a cultural,
historical and political geographer with an interest in protest movements,
solidarity, and the geopolitics of sexual orientation and gender identity.
Helen Yaffe is a Lecturer in Economic and Social History at the University of
Glasgow. She has focussed on Cuban economic history, political economy,
Latin American development and the history of economics.
Routledge Spaces of Childhood and Youth Series
Edited by Peter Kraftl and John Horton
The Routledge Spaces of Childhood and Youth Series provides a forum for
original, interdisciplinary and cutting-edge research to explore the lives of
children and young people across the social sciences and humanities. Re-
flecting contemporary interest in spatial processes and metaphors across
several disciplines, titles within the series explore a range of ways in which
concepts such as space, place, spatiality, geographical scale, movement/
mobilities, networks and flows may be deployed in childhood and youth
scholarship. This series provides a forum for new theoretical, empirical and
methodological perspectives and groundbreaking research that reflects the
wealth of research currently being undertaken. Proposals that are cross dis-
ciplinary, comparative and/or use mixed or creative methods are particu-
larly welcomed, as are proposals that offer critical perspectives on the role
of spatial theory in understanding children and young people’s lives. The
series is aimed at upper-level undergraduates, research students and aca-
demics, appealing to geographers as well as the broader social sciences, arts
and humanities.
Published:
Young Entrepreneurs in Sub-Saharan Africa
Edited by Katherine Gough and Thilde Langevang
Children, Young People and Care
Edited by John Horton and Michelle Pyer
Youth Activism and Solidarity: The Non-Stop Picket against Apartheid
Gavin Brown and Helen Yaffe
Youth Activism and Solidarity
The Non-Stop Picket against Apartheid
Gavin Brown and Helen Yaffe
First published 2018
by Routledge
2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN
and by Routledge
711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017
Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa
business
© 2018 Gavin Brown and Helen Yaffe
The right of Gavin Brown and Helen Yaffe to be identified as
authors of this work has been asserted by them in accordance with
sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or
reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical,
or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including
photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or
retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.
Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks
or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and
explanation without intent to infringe.
British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British
Library
Library of Congress Cataloguing-in-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book has been requested.
ISBN: 978-1-138-82886-5 (hbk)
ISBN: 978-1-315-73806-2 (ebk)
Typeset in Times New Roman
by codeMantra
This book is dedicated to all those who fought against the
injustice of apartheid in South Africa and internationally.
A number of key protagonists in our story – Norma, David
and Steve Kitson – and former supporters of the Non-Stop
Picket have died over the years. We remember them all,
but would particularly like to pay tribute to five comrades who
died while we were undertaking our research:
Solomon Odeleye (1955–2012)
Andrew Privett (1965–2012)
Zolile Hamilton Keke (1945–2013)
Ken Bodden (1950–2013)
Jacky Sutton (1965–2015)
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Contents
List of figures ix
Acknowledgements xi
List of abbreviations xiii
1 South Africa and Britain in the 1980s 1
2 A non-stop protest in a non-stop world 20
3 Becoming non-stop 47
4 Being non-stop against apartheid 72
5 Defending the right to protest 103
6 Being unruly 126
7 Growing up through protest 147
8 ‘Until Mandela is free …’ 173
9 Lessons and reflections 196
Bibliography 221
Index 239
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List of figures
2.1 City Group leaflet advertising the launch of the Non-Stop
Picket, 19 April 1986. Source: Gavin Brown. 42
3.1 Fight Racism! Fight Imperialism! banner in front of South
African House, photographer unknown. Source: City Group. 49
3.2 City Group Singers perform on the Non-Stop Picket.
Source: Photographer: Jon Kempster. 53
4.1 Arrest of protester during first anniversary rally,
19 April 1987, photographer unknown. Source: City Group. 91
4.2 Rally for the third anniversary of the Non-Stop Picket,
April 1989. Source: Gavin Brown. 94
5.1 City Group postcard recording Councillor Bob Crossman,
Mayor of Islington, lighting the brazier on the Non-Stop
Picket, January 1987. Source: City Group. 108
5.2 Norma Kitson and David Yaffe defy the police ban on
the Non-Stop Picket, 2 July 1987, photographer unknown.
Source: City Group. 119
6.1 City Group poster produced for the No Rights? No Flights!
campaign, 1988. Source: City Group. 136
7.1 Young picketers at the Surround the Embassy protest,
16 June 1988. Source: Photographer: Jon Kempster. 161
8.1 Picketers celebrate Mandela’s release, 11 February 1990.
Source: Photographer: Jon Kempster. 178