Local AA groups

Local authorities all over Britain mounted ‘ten days of action against apartheid’, 16–26 June 1987. In the London Borough of Hounslow, the local council joined with Hounslow and Chiswick AA groups and community organisations to organise a programme of arts events and meetings. Hounslow Council said it was expressing its commitment to good race relations in the borough, as well as its opposition to apartheid. Other centres which took part in the ten days of action included Camden, Southwark and Lewisham in London, Glasgow, Aberdeen and Edinburgh in Scotland, and Manchester and Sheffield.

Leaflet advertising a meeting and film show to mark South Africa Freedom Day, 26 June 1987. The meeting was sponsored by Camden Council's Race and Community Relations Committee. It took place during the 'ten days of action against apartheid' called for by the AAM, 16–26 June.

Glenys Kinnock opened Sheffield’s Southern Africa Resource Centre in February 1988. The Centre provided educational resources on Southern Africa for the city’s schools and community groups, as well as a headquarters for Sheffield Anti-Apartheid Group. Sheffield AA was one of the most active of the AAM’s local groups throughout the 1980s. With Glenys Kinnock are the Provost of Sheffield, Rev. Frank Curtis, and the Centre’s Co-ordinator, David Granville.

Hammersmith and Fulham AA Group members held a year-long weekly picket of this Shell garage on Fulham Road in west London. The photograph shows health workers from Charing Cross Hospital at the protest. On 1 March 1987 the AAM launched a boycott of Shell as part of an international campaign organised jointly with groups in the USA and the Netherlands. Shell was joint owner of one of South Africa’s biggest oil refineries and a lead company in its coalmining and petrochemicals industries.

Leaflet publicising a memorial meeting for Steve Biko and a collection for South African refugees.

Leeds Women Against Apartheid was formed in 1986 to bring together women in support of their sisters in South Africa and Namibia. The group reached out to women’s organisations in West Yorkshire, raising funds for women in Southern Africa, boycotting apartheid goods and holding day schools publicising the situation of women under apartheid. It was linked to a women’s group in Soshunguve township, near Pretoria. This leaflet advertised an event with stalls, entertainment and discussion on International Women’s Day, 8 March 1988.

Leaflet advertising a Latin American music night to raise funds for the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) in 1988. The concert was organised by Camden AA Group and Kings Cross Labour Party in central London.

Young AAM supporters at a vigil for the Sharpeville Six in front of Nottingham Town Hall on 13 April 1998.