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Leaflet publicising a concert to celebrate Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday organised by Nottingham AA Group. It featured La Danza Continua. Events like this were held all over Britain.

By July 1988 60 political prisoners were under sentence of death in South Africa. They included young ANC militants, trade unionists and community activists. Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society (SATIS) focused on pressing the British government to intervene with South Africa not to carry out the executions. This leaflet advertised a weekly picket of the British Foreign Office.

Jonas Savimbi, leader of the South African-backed Unita organisation in Angola, was met with widespread protests when he visited London in July 1988. An advertisement was placed in the Independent newspaper and demonstrators picketed the Royal Institute of International Affairs, which hosted a meeting for Savimbi. The British Foreign Office gave assurances that Savimbi would not be officially received.

Many local AA groups produced regular members newsletters. This issue of Edinburgh AA Group’s newsletter reports on the Glasgow to London Freedom march and the campaign to save Robert McBride, sentenced to death in South Africa.

Flyer advertising a gig at the Assembly Rooms, Derby in September 1988. The concert was organised by Derby AA Group in partnership with the Afro-Caribbean community organisation, The Hadhari Project, which provided care for elderly people. The gig featured bands from Derby, Nottingham and Leicester, and was advertised throughout the East Midlands. Half the proceeds were given to the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College.

This edition of Merseyside AA Group’s newsletter reported on a concert celebrating Nelson Mandela’s birthday by the local community in Liverpool 8. The concert headlined Ministry of Love and the Bhundu Boys. The newsletter asked for support for the Sharpevile Six and publicised the group’s regular pickets of the local branch of Tesco and Shell garage.

‘Sisters of the Long March’ toured Britain, September–December 1988, to win support for South African workers in their long-running dispute with the British-owned company BTR Sarmcol. The Sisters were a seven-woman song and dance group from Natal. They took their show to over 20 venues all over the country. The year before, a theatre group set up by the BTR workers brought their play about the strike ‘The Long March’ to Britain. Both tours were sponsored by the British TUC and supported by the AAM.