October 2009 - ECC25 Concert, South Africa

Tom is joining the members of his former band 'Bright Blue' at the Spier Amphitheatre near Capetown in South Africa for 'ECC25'.  This is a 3 day festival to celebrate the End Conscription Campaign (ECC) launched 25 years ago. The event celebrates the diversity and richness of the campaign and its cultural milieu, recalling its values and achievements.  Visit the events website here.

History of the ECC

The ECC was an anti-Apartheid movement launched in October 1984 to oppose the compulsory military conscription of white South Africans into the then South African Defence Force (SADF). At that stage all white South African men were required by law to serve an initial two year period in the SADF.

Conscripts at that time were required to serve on the border of the then South West Africa (now Namibia), and some fought and took part in cross-border in countries raids in countries such as Angola. White conscripts were also controversially deployed in South African townships against protesting fellow black South Africans. As a result, many conscripts saw the SADF as propping up Apartheid and refused to serve.

However, a failure to report for duty could result in a prison sentence of up to six years. Despite this, tens of thousands of conscripts refused to serve in the SADF. Some became Conscientious Objectors and went to jail, many others left South Africa to avoid conscription, while avoided military service by hiding from the military police within South Africa.

For more information check out the official website here.