Local AA groups

Members of Notting Hill AA Group asked shoppers to boycott South African gold in Kensington High Street, West London, as part of the AAM’s Month of Action against apartheid gold sales in December 1990.

Southwark AA Group supporters picketed a Shell garage in South London in 1990. After Nelson Mandela’s release, the AAM kept up its campaign for a boycott of Shell and for sanctions to pressure the South African government to agree a genuinely democratic constitution.

Leaflet distributed by Hackney AA Group, telling local residents that Mandela’s release did not mean the immediate end of apartheid. It asked them to continue to boycott South African products.

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 with women from the African National Congress and South West Africa People’s Organisation in 1990.

This festival was organised by Glasgow North-West AA Group as part of Glasgow’s 1990 European City of Culture celebrations. It featured African and Asian dance and the Zambian band Masusu.

Flyer advertising a party and evening of dance music to raise funds for the ANC in March 1990. The evening featured ‘Beat the Border’ with Ugandan musician Geoffrey Oryema.

Cheltenham AA Group’s spring 1990 newsletter advertised a national AAM march on 25 March, as well as the London demonstration against the poll tax on 31 March. It welcomed the release of Nelson Mandela, but reflected the general public’s feeling that apartheid was ended by cancelling future meetings because of low attendance.

Flyer for a rock concert organised by Cheltenham AA Group and sixth form students at Bournside High School, Cheltenham in February 1990. The students set up an anti-apartheid group which held a week of events to raise awareness of apartheid culminating in a debate on sanctions against South Africa in November 1989. The concert raised funds for multiracial schools in South Africa.