Local authorities

Nelson Mandela asked the British local authorities that had campaigned for a free South Africa to build partnerships for a post-apartheid programme of reconstruction and development, when he spoke at Glasgow City Hall in October 1993.

Poster for a concert to raise funds for the ANC election campaign in South Africa’s first democratic election in April 1994. The concert was organised by Nottingham anti-apartheid supporters and was supported by Nottingham City Council. It took place in the Marcus Garvey Centre, an Afro-Caribbean community centre in Nottingham’s Lenton district, and featured the Zimbabwean group, the Bhundu Boys.

David Blunkett is the Labour  MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough. As Leader of Sheffield City Council in 1981 he launched a Declaration pledging that the Council would boycott South African goods, withhold use of sporting and recreational facilities from events involving South African participants and encourage positive teaching about Africa in Sheffield schools. In 1983 Sheffield Council hosted the inaugural meeting of Local Authority Action Against Apartheid.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of a project by students at Sheffield Hallam University in 2013.

David Blunkett is the Labour  MP for Sheffield Brightside and Hillsborough. As Leader of Sheffield City Council in 1981 he launched a Declaration pledging that the Council would boycott South African goods, withhold use of sporting and recreational facilities from events involving South African participants and encourage positive teaching about Africa in Sheffield schools. In 1983 Sheffield Council hosted the inaugural meeting of Local Authority Action Against Apartheid.

In this clip David Blunkett describes the link between combating racism in Sheffield and opposing apartheid in South Africa. 

 

Mike Pye was a Sheffield Labour Councillor from 1984 to 2010. As lead spokesperson on anti-apartheid issues, he steered through the Council policies on boycotting South African goods and barring artists who had performed in South Africa from Sheffield City Hall. He helped set up Local Authorities Against Apartheid (LAAA) and chaired its National Steering Committee from 1984 to 1994.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2013.

 

 

 

Mike Pye was a Sheffield Labour Councillor from 1984 to 2010. As lead spokesperson on anti-apartheid issues, he steered through the Council policies on boycotting South African goods and barring artists who had performed in South Africa from Sheffield City Hall. He helped set up Local Authorities Against Apartheid (LAAA) and chaired its National Steering Committee from 1984 to 1994.

In this clip Mike Pye explains how Sheffield City Council used a section of the Local Government Act that called on local authorities to foster good race relations as legal justification for not awarding a contract to Shell.

Talal Karim came to Britain from Bangladesh in 1971 and supported anti-apartheid campaigns as a student at Warwick University. He later became a Labour councillor in the London Borough of Islington and a member of its Race Equality Committee. He represented Islington Council on Local Authorities Against Apartheid (LAAA) and was one of the main movers behind the Council’s Declaration on Southern Africa, and support for the African National Congress (ANC) and South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO).

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2013.

 

 

 

 

Talal Karim came to Britain from Bangladesh in 1971 and supported anti-apartheid campaigns as a student at Warwick University. He later became a Labour councillor in the London Borough of Islington and a member of its Race Equality Committee. He represented Islington Council on Local Authorities Against Apartheid (LAAA) and was one of the main movers behind the Council’s Declaration on Southern Africa, and support for the African National Congress (ANC) and South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO).

In this clip Talal Karim remembers how he checked that there were no South African products on sale in the Council’s staff canteen.