Women

One of many posters published by the Anti-Apartheid Movement to publicise the campaign for the release of political prisoners in South Africa and Namibia.

Leaflet asking AAM supporters to protest outside the South African Embassy on the opening day of the trial of Albertina Sisulu in 1983.

1984 was designated the Year of the Women by the African National Congress. This meeting in Hampstead Town Hall, organised by Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society (SATIS), the AAM Women’s Committee and SWAPO Women’s Solidaity Campaign, was one of the events held to mark the year. It highlighted the harsh conditions suffered by South African and Namibian women political prisoners.

The AAM Women’s Committee highlighted women’s role in the anti-apartheid struggle by celebrating South Africa Women’s Day, 9 August. This leaflet publicised a fundraising party in Haringey Women’s Centre, north London, in 1984.

South Africa Women’s Day was marked by a packed and enthusiastic meeting in Hackney Town Hall on 9 August 1984. The meeting was organised by the ANC’s London Women’s Committee. Left to right: ANC Women’s Section representatives Florence Maleka and Felicia Mzamo, Labour MP Joan Lestor and Glenys Kinnock. 1984 was designated the Year of the Women by the African National Congress.

Women demonstrators picketed British Nuclear Fuels plant near Preston in north-west England on 2 November 1984. Earlier in the year a group of women peace activists were gaoled after they gained entry to the BNFL’s plant at Capenhurst, Cheshire. The November picket was one of four protests at BNFL installations in Scotland and northern England. The coordinated demonstrations were part of a national week of action on Namibia organised by the AAM and Namibia Support Committee, 27 October–2 November 1984. In the 1970s and 1980s Britain imported Namibian uranium in contravention of UN resolutions declaring that South Africa’s occupation of Namibia was illegal.

Poster produced for the campaign for a boycott of South African goods. The text reads: ‘Fruit is mostly picked by black women and children in South Africa and Namibia. 60% of canned fruit and vegetables exported by South Africa is consumed by Britain and the EEC. Watch out for fresh fruit sold under the label of CAPE and OUTSPAN.’

From its formation in 1980 the AAM Women’s Committee stressed the role of South African women in opposing apartheid. This recruitment leaflet quotes the song sung by women on the Federation of South African Women’s anti-pass demonstration at the government buildings in Pretoria in 1956.