MARCH 1964
The men and women arrested in the Rivonia raid, with those joining them in trial, are at the centre of a government attempt to crush all resistance to white supremacy in South Africa. They would not face trial at all in any rational society; they are leaders of a popular struggle for the defeat of racial rule, for the recognition of rights regarded as natural wherever a common humanity is acknowledged. Their struggle is the struggle of all men for freedom; their trial is the trial of all men who want to be free.
Most of them face long - perhaps indefinite - periods in prison. Some - it is understood that the prosecution intends pressing for the penalty - face death by hanging. What happens to them is not their business alone; it is not even merely the business of all South Africans. It is the business of everyone everywhere who believes in the right of human beings to fight for the right to govern themselves. International pressure has before now, as in the treason case of 1956-61, helped men and women put on trial by the South African Government for resistance to racial despotism. Without such pressure, it is doubtful if the accused would have been able to defend themselves properly and gain eventual acquittal. Recently, however, the law has been so mutilated as to make of it a parody of justice. International opinion must act again, now, to ensure the release of the accused.
Signatories
The Bishop of Accra
O.V. Alegasan
Kingsley Amis
Louis Aragon
The Hon. David Astor
W.H. Auden
Dr. Hastings Banda
Herve Bazin
Simone de Beauvoir
Zvi Berinson
Svetlana Beriosova
Isaiah Berlin
Professor Max Born
John Braine
The Bishop of Bristol
George Brosok
Dave Brubeck
H. Brugmans
Professor Alan Bullock
Sir Hugh Casson, FRIBA
Professor Frede Castberg
Felix Candela
Abdelkader Chanderli
Babubhai M. Chinai
M.J. Coldwell
George Devine
Morarji R. Desai
Isaac Deutscher
Professor D.J. Enright
Geraint Evans
Howard Fast
Sudhir Ghosh
Professor Walter Gropius
Sir Tyrone Guthrie
Peter Hall
Hans Haekkerup
John Heartfield
Barbara Hepworth
Professor Heyrovsky
Professor Hromaka
David Holbrook
Bernard Hollowood
Trevor Huddleston
Sir Julian Huxley
Hafiz Mohammed Ibrahim
Joris Ivens
Dr. Erich Kastner
Kankuro Kaneshige Karandach
Sir Firoz Khan Noon
R.M. Kawawa
Jomo Kenyatta
Benedictine Kiwanuka
Arthur Koestler
Professor Fuad Koprulu
Professor A. Kornberg
Professor Tadeusz Kotarbinski
Professor H.A. Krebs
Dr. Fazil Kuchuk
Basant Kunwari
Sir Allen Lane
Doris Lessing
Stig Lindberg
Lord Listowel
Alen Lomax
Professor George Lukacs
Compton Mackenzie
Archibald Macleish
H. Mahtab
Kingsley Martin
Hermann Mannheim Obe
Tom Mboya
Karl Maisel
Asoka Mehta
Lakshmi Menon
Otto Nathan
Dr. Joseph Needham
D.M. Needham
Sean O'Faolain
Fritz Oellers
Einar Olgeirsson
Borge Outze
Frank Owen
A.B. Patel
Father Pire
Harold Pinter
Vladimir Pozner
Chester Pugsley
Salvatore Quasimodo
Kodanda Rao
Satyajit Ray
Paul Robeson
Eslanda Robeson
William Robson
Sir Lalita Rajapakse
Sir Benegal Rau
Bishop Ambrose Reeves
Dr. Nir Refalkes
Bertrand Russell
Samir Rifai
Paul Rotha
Reverend Michael Scott
A.K. Sarkar
Nathalie Sarraute
Alan Sillitoe
Upton Sinclair
A.D. Shroff
Hukam Singh
Prince Souvanna Phouma
The Rt. Reverend Mervyn Stockwood
Reverend Dr. Donald Soper
Basil Spence
Professor Max Sorenson
A.M. Tariq
Michael Tippett
The Hon. J.T. Thorson
Lionel Trilling
Henry Torres
Kenneth Tynan
Stanley Unwin
Dame Janet Vaughan
A.B. Vajpayee
Sophia Wadia
John Wain
Angus Wilson
Charles Wheeler
Helene Weigel
Leonard Woolf
Kenneth Younger
Richard Doll
Biron Roy
Ernst Busch
A.M. Findlay
Frode Jacobsen
Bertil Ohlin
J. Bognar
Bror Hjorth
Professor Steniger
Stuart Garson
Dr. A.K. Gani
Professor Dr. Carl Ebert
Jose Alonso
Ilya Ehrenburg
His Holiness the Dalai Lama