Join us for a talk and book signing with author, anti-apartheid leader, and solidarity activist, Ronnie Kasrils. Ronnie Kasrils has served in post-apartheid South African governments as Deputy Minister of Defence, Minister of Water Affairs and Forestry, and Minister of Intelligence Services. He was a founding member of Umkhonto we Sizwe, the armed wing of the African National Congress, and is the author of an autobiography titled Armed and Dangerous.

Winner of South Africa’s top literary prize, the Alan Paton Award, Ronnie’s book, The Unlikely Secret Agent tells the thrilling true story of one woman’s struggle against the apartheid system. It is 1963. South Africa is in crisis and the white state is under siege. On August 19th, the dreaded Security Police descend on Griggs bookstore in downtown Durban and arrest Eleanor, the white daughter of the manager. They threaten to “break her or hang her” if she does not lead them to her lover, “Red” Ronnie Kasrils, who is wanted on suspicion of involvement in recent acts of sabotage, including the toppling of electricity pylons and explosions at a Security Police office in Durban.

But Eleanor has her own secret to conceal: she is, like Ronnie, a clandestine agent for the underground ANC and must protect her handlers and Ronnie at all costs.

Ronnie will discuss his book and the story of his and his late wife Eleanor’s involvement in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa, as well as his current efforts to challenge Israeli aparthied and build solidarity with the Palestinian people as a member of the Russell Tribunal on Palestine.

Co-sponsors: Institute for Policy Studies, Busboys & Poets, TransAfrica Forum, US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, and Monthly Review Press.