War Resisters' International remembers the End Conscription Campaign

The War Resisters' International and Ceasefire Campaign international conference “Small Actions, Big Movements: the Continuum of Nonviolence” was held from 4-8 July, in Cape Town. The End Conscription Campaign (ECC) physical exhibition was on display throughout the conference in the Cape Town City Hall. The exhibition is normally housed at the South African History Archive (SAHA) and was on loan for the WRI conference.

In October 1984, the End Conscription Campaign was born to voice unified opposition to increased state militarisation and the conscription of all white South African men into military service in apartheid South Africa. 30 years later, SAHA reflects on the history of the ECC in a virtual exhibition of posters, photographs and documents from that time. The virtual exhibition to documents how this campaign provided a voice for young white South Africans opposed to an increasingly militant apartheid state.

This exhibition was part of a nationwide commemoration of the 25^th anniversary of the launch of the ECC. The display brings together a rich collection of materials including evocative ECC struggle posters from the time.

The End Conscription Campaign brought together a number of men and women who campaigned tirelessly to protest against mandatory conscription – risking arrest, detainment and interrogation.

The ECC exhibition at the War Resisters International conference Capetown, July 2014.

Offset litho poster in black and white with illustrations of three soldiers from newspaper cuttings, issued by the End Conscription Campaign (ECC) in 1986. SAHA archive AL2446_0318