Women

T-shirt produced for SWAPO Women’s Council. SWAPO women members worked with the AAM Women’s Committee to collect goods needed by women living in SWAPO camps in Angola.

Pauline Webb was a Methodist minister who began her career in the church’s Overseas Division and worked for the Methodist Missionary Society. In 1968 she attended the seminal Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Uppsala, Sweden, which led to the setting up of the Programme to Combat Racism. She served as Vice-Moderator of the WCC and later became Head of Religious Programmes at the BBC World Service. She was a strong supporter of the Anti-Apartheid Movement and spoke at numerous meetings and conferences, including the AAM’s first women’s conference in 1976.  

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

Chitra Karve was an Anti-Apartheid Movement staff member from 1986 to 1989 and helped organise the 1988 Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70 campaign. She was a member of the AAM Women’s and Black Solidarity Committees, and was Chair of the latter. After the formation of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) in 1994 Chitra was elected to ACTSA’s Executive Committee. She is currently Chair of ACTSA.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2014.

Chitra Karve was an Anti-Apartheid Movement staff member from 1986 to 1989 and helped organise the 1988 Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70 campaign. She was a member of the AAM Women’s and Black Solidarity Committees, and was Chair of the latter. After the formation of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) in 1994 Chitra was elected to ACTSA’s Executive Committee. She is currently Chair of ACTSA.

In this clip she recalls how the AAM Women’s Committee publicised the role played by women in opposition to apartheid within South Africa.

Jan Clements taught English as a volunteer in Angola. She was one of the founders of the Anti-Apartheid Women’s Committee and became the Secretary of the London Anti-Apartheid Committee, that coordinated the activities of local London AA groups. In 1984 she worked with Archbishop Trevor Huddleston on organising an interfaith colloquium on apartheid. She later joined the staff of the International Defence and Aid Fund, supporting the families of political prisoners in South Africa, and visited Robben Island in the early 1990s to assess the needs of prisoners on their release. She now works as a lawyer on the Guardian newspaper.

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

Elaine Unterhalter was born in South Africa and became active in politics through the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS). She left South Africa in 1975 to study in the UK, and became involved in her local Anti-Apartheid group in Hackney, north London. She was a founding member of the AAM Women’s Committee in 1981 and remained one of its leading activists until the mid-1980s, when she began to work more directly with the ANC in exile.

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

Elaine Unterhalter was born in South Africa and became active in politics through the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS).  She left South Africa in 1975 to study in the UK, and became involved in her local Anti-Apartheid group in Hackney, north London.  She was a founding member of the AAM Women’s Committee in 1981 and remained one of its leading activists until the mid-1980s, when she began to work more directly with the ANC in exile.

In this clip she talks about the importance of the AAM Women's Committee.