Women

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.

Over 500 women demonstrated outside the South Africa Embassy on International Women’s Day, 8 March 1986. They called for the release of Theresa Ramashamola, sentenced to death by the apartheid regime, and sanctions against apartheid. They also demanded immediate independence for Namibia.

A group of women prominent in British public life delivered a message to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher condemning her refusal to impose sanctions against South Africa on 19 June 1986. The call was part of the AAM's intensified campaign for sanctions in the run up to the meeting of Commonwealth leaders in London in August 1986. Among them were Glenys Kinnock, Social Democratic Party President Shirley Williams and Brenda Dean, General Secretary of the printworkers trade union SOGAT.

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 a meeting held in Leeds Civic Hall in July 1986.

Poster reproducing a banner celebrating the role of women in the liberation struggle. The banner was made to commemorate Liz Hollis, a young AAM staff member who died tragically in 1986.

Resource pack showing how black women in South Africa and Namibia were doubly oppressed under apartheid by both racism and sexism. The pack also stressed the special problems of Namibian women.

The Sharpeville Six were sentenced to death in December 1985 because they were present at a protest where black collaborators were killed. One of the six was a woman, Theresa Ramashamola. After huge international protests the death sentences were commuted in July 1988.