Local AA groups

Leaflet publicising a conference organised by the London AA Committee and Haringey Trades Council to build support for anti-apartheid campaigns in north London in 1988. The conference included workshops for healthworkers, teachers, trade unionists, church people, community workers and journalists.

Robert McBride was sentenced to hang for setting off a bomb in Durban in July 1986. This leaflet advertises a meeting calling for clemency. After an international campaign led by his mother, Doris McBride, the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

Programme for a conference about apartheid organised in Basingstoke in November 1988. The conference featured workshops led by representatives of Christian Aid, ANC and SACTU, as well as a session on South African music. It was part of a month of events, including filmshows and a debate on sanctions between a representative of the AAM and the local Conservative MP, Sir Ian Lloyd.

Many new local AA groups were formed after the publicity surrounding the AAM’s Nelson Mandela tribute concert at Wembley Stadium in June 1988. This leaflet publicised a performance by the women’s group ‘Sisters of the Long March’ and announced the formation of two new AA groups in north-east England at Wansbeck and Chester le Street.

Badge produced by anti-apartheid supporters in Guernsey, Channel Islands.

Card with design featuring Nelson and Winnie Mandela.

AAM supporters held a prayer vigil on the steps of Kingston Guildhall to show their opposition to a proposal by Kingston Council to invest pension funds in South Africa. Kingston Trades Council presented a petition to the Council asking it to reconsider.

In 1989 Bristol AA Group set up a Southern Africa Resource Centre to provide educational resources on Southern Africa and encourage links between groups in the south-west of England and the frontline states. The project was funded by individual donations.