Free Mandela

Badge produced for the AAM’s ‘Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70’ campaign in 1988.

Display box for the badge produced for the ‘Nelson Mandela Freedom at 70’ campaign. The AAM aimed to get 1,000,000 people in Britain wearing the badge on Mandela’s 70th birthday, 18 July 1988.

Mug produced for the AAM’s ‘Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70’ campaign.

Carrier bag publicising the ‘Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70’ campaign

Stickers for the AAM’s 1988 ‘Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70’ campaign. At Wembley Stadium on 11 June rock stars played to a capacity audience in a concert that was broadcast around the world. Next day 25 freedom marchers set off from Glasgow on a 5-week march stopping at 32 towns and cities. On 17 July over 50,000 people joined the marchers on the last leg of the march to Hyde Park, where a crowd of a quarter of a million people heard Desmond Tutu call for Mandela’s release. The campaign was the biggest ever organised by the Anti-Apartheid Movement. It projected Nelson Mandela as the future leader of a non-racial South Africa in the eyes of people throughout the world.

All over Britain special events were held to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday. In the picture, children in Bristol cut a birthday cake. 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.

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.