Local AA groups

Sheffield AAM arranged a special programme of ‘Freedom at 70’ events to mark Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday on 18 July 1988, as well as sending coaches of supporters to the national rally in London on 17 July. Events included a live video screening of the Wembley Mandela tribute concert, a five-a-side football competition and a party on 18 July.

Sheffield AA Group celebrated Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday with a 5-a-side football competition and a birthday party. Special events took place all over Britain as part of the AAM’s ‘Freedom at 70’ campaign. At the end of the campaign a poll showed that Nelson Mandela had become a household name in Britain and 70% of people  supported the call for his release.

All over Britain special events were held to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday. In the photograph, anti-apartheid supporters in Inverness display a giant card in the town’s shopping centre. At the conclusion of the AAM’s ‘Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70’ campaign, a poll showed that Nelson Mandela had become a household name in Britain and 70% of people  supported the call for his release.

Leaflet publicising a concert to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday organised by Nottingham AA Group. It featured La Danza Continua. Events like this were held all over Britain.

Many local AA groups produced regular members newsletters. This issue of Edinburgh AA Group’s newsletter reports on the Glasgow to London Freedom march and the campaign to save Robert McBride, sentenced to death in South Africa.

Flyer advertising a gig at the Assembly Rooms, Derby in September 1988. The concert was organised by Derby AA Group in partnership with the Afro-Caribbean community organisation, The Hadhari Project, which provided care for elderly people. The gig featured bands from Derby, Nottingham and Leicester, and was advertised throughout the East Midlands. Half the proceeds were given to the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College.

This edition of Merseyside AA Group’s newsletter reported on a concert celebrating Nelson Mandela’s birthday by the local community in Liverpool 8. The concert headlined Ministry of Love and the Bhundu Boys. The newsletter asked for support for the Sharpevile Six and publicised the group’s regular pickets of the local branch of Tesco and Shell garage.

Front cover of a booklet about the ‘Sisters of the Long March’, a South African theatre group that toured Britain, September–December 1988, to win support for South African workers in their long-running dispute with the British-owned company BTR Sarmcol. The Sisters were a seven-woman song and dance group from Natal. They took their show to over 20 venues all over the country. The year before, a theatre group set up by the BTR workers brought their play about the strike ‘The Long March’ to Britain. Both tours were sponsored by the British TUC and supported by the AAM.