Trade unionists

Members of the actors’ union Equity called for the resignation of Equity President Derek Bond after he performed for whites-only audiences in South Africa. Bond campaigned to reverse Equity’s support for the cultural boycott. Equity members picketed the first night of a play at Theatre Royal, Nottingham, in which Bond played a starring role.

At the height of the AAM campaign for sanctions in the mid-1980s, many local organisations produced their own campaign material. This pamphlet published in east London by Tower Hamlets Solidarity and Tower Hamlets Trades Council was a comprehensive campaign guide for trade unions, local authorities, community organisations and individuals.

These healthworkers asked Portsmouth Area Health Authority to phase out the purchase of South African and Namibian produce in January 1986. When the management refused, they refused to handle tinned food from South Africa supplied for patients’ meals. Area Health Authority van drivers and 130 other workers joined the boycott action. They were supported by the public service workers union NUPE, health workers union COHSE and transport workers union TGWU.

Lenny Henry and David Yip were among the 200 entertainers at the launch of Performers Against Racism on 26 January 1986. They pledged to boycott all links with apartheid South Africa. The launch was triggered by a referendum in the actors union Equity seeking to relax the cultural boycott. Performers against Racism called for the boycott to be extended to films and video as well as radio and television.

Programme for the AAM conference for trade unionists held on 1 March 1986. The conference focused on disinvestment and trade sanctions. It was attended by around 450 delegates representing 37 trade unions and 29 trades councils.

As local anti-apartheid groups mushroomed in the mid-1980s, they formed regional committees and alliances with local trade union organisations. This briefing for trade unionists was produced by the Yorkshire and Humberside AAM Committee with the support of the Yorkshire Region of the TUC.

Leaflet advertising a May Day fundraising social for the AAM organised by Haringey AA Group and Haringey Trades Union Council on 3 May 1986. The evening included live music sponsored by the Musicians Union and a speaker from the African National Congress.

In 1986 the British National Union of Mineworkers and the AAM launched a new campaign to stop South African coal imports into the UK. Coal imports to Western Europe rose sharply in the mid-1980s. Coal became South Africa’s second biggest export earner after gold. 30,000 copies of this leaflet were distributed to trade unionists at May Day rallies in 1987, asking them to take action to stop the trade.