Learning from Robben Island

“With the victory of the present struggle, political control must pass from a government that rules in order to further only the interests of the capitalists, to one that is representative of the people: ‘The People shall govern.’” Never intended for publication, Govan Mbeki’s prison writings, collected here, originated and were preserved in Robben Island prison. They were meant to be read by other prisoners. Their aim: to educate politically. They are remarkable documents that provided activists with a distillation of practical lessons about political organisation, learned in the most testing conditions. 'Learning from Robben Island' includes extended historical, political and economic analyses that are vital to any assessment of the intellectual history of the South African left. And they are pages in a truly international literature – a record throughout the ages of the creativity and indomitability of people imprisoned for their beliefs.