Posters

Poster advertising the Nelson Mandela Freedom March, 12 June–17 July 1988. Twenty-five freedom marchers, one for each year of Mandela’s imprisonment, walked nearly 600 miles from Glasgow to London. They were seen off at a rally in Glasgow on 12 June by ANC President Oliver Tambo. Along the way they held meetings and events calling for Mandela’s release. 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.

Poster for the rally held in Hyde Park, London on Sunday 17 July as the culmination of the AAM’s ‘Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70’ campaign. A crowd of 250,000 heard Archbishop Desmond Tutu, SWAPO Secretary General Andimba Toivo ja Toivo, Commonwealth Secretary General Shridath Ramphal and actor Richard Attenborough call for Mandela’s release. After the rally an overnight vigil was held outside South African House to see in Mandela’s birthday on 18 July.

Poster advertising a concert held to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday on 18 July 1988. The concert featured the Zimbabwean group the Bhundu Boys, calypsonian David Rudder and Orchestra Marrabenta from Mozambique. It took place at The Academy, a major rock venue in Brixton, home of one of London’s biggest black communities.

‘Sisters of the Long March’ 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. 

Poster advertising a meeting about South African and Namibian political prisoners on 11 October, the day designated by the UN as a day of solidarity with Southern African political prisoners.

Poster publicising a lobby of parliament held during the final stages of negotiations for Namibian independence. Its aim was to keep up the pressure on the South African government not to renege on its agreement and to highlight the need for continuing support for liberated Namibia. Hundreds took part and attended a House of Commons meeting addressed by SWAPO leaders and former Labour Foreign Secretary David Owen. Many local AA groups lobbied MPs in their constituencies.

The AAM campaigned to stop the 1990 rebel cricket tour of South Africa, led by Mike Gatting, picketing over 40 county cricket matches involving members of the team. This poster advertises a demonstration at the NatWest Final held at Lords cricket ground on 2 September 1989.  The tour was cut short by protests inside South Africa and made a big financial loss.

In February 1989 the Anti-Apartheid Movement launched the ‘Boycott 89’ campaign to intensify the boycott of products of apartheid. The material produced for the campaign included a video, Fruits of Fear, and leaflets focusing on Cape and Outspan products, as well as major supermarket chains like Tesco. The centrepiece was the Boycott Bandwagon, a converted double-decker bus, which visited over 140 towns, cities and villages during the year.