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This conference was part of a campaign launched by the AAM and the British National Union of Mineworkers to stop imports of South African coal into Britain. It was attended by over 500 delegates, including 120 from branches of the NUM. South African miners leader Cyril Ramaphosa was prevented from attending by the South African government. In September 1986 West Germany, Portugal and the UK blocked a European Economic Community proposal to ban South African coal. In the late 1980s coal was South Africa’s second biggest export earner.

The memorial meeting for Steve Biko held on Sunday 13 September 1987 marked the tenth anniversary of his death in detention. A packed congregation at Notting Hill Methodist Church in west London heard readings by Muslims, Jews and Christians and an address by Barney Pityana. The event was organised by the AAM’s Multi-Faith Committee and SATIS (Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society).

Leaflet publicising a conference for trade unionists and Labour Party members organised by Birmingham AA Group in 1987.

Letter from Reading Anti-Apartheid Campaign to local trade union branches advertising a meeting calling for the release of South African political prisoners.

Newsletter of Reading Anti-Apartheid Campaign. Issue 7, dated September 1987, focused on the South African National Mineworkers strike and called for an international boycott of South African coal. It also highlighted a strike by Namibian copper miners.

Reading Anti-Apartheid Campaign leaflet asking local people to take action in support of the campaigns for the reprieve of the Sharpeville Six, sentenced to death in South Africa, and the release of trade unionist Moses Mayekiso, one of five people charged with sedition. The leaflet also advertised the Shell boycott and the AAM’s national ‘Sanctions Now!’ demonstration on 24 October 1987.

In September 1987 a conference in Harare heard testimony from children who had been tortured by the South African security forces. Over 200 health workers, lawyers, social workers and representatives of student, trade union, religious and women’s organisations from 45 countries met children from within South Africa and exiles living in the frontline states. The conference was organised by Bishop Ambrose Reeves Trust (BART). In the photograph Glenys Kinnock listens to one of the witnesses.

The AAM made Tesco its main target in the consumer boycott campaign after Tesco reneged on a pledge to stop sourcing ‘own label’ products from South Africa. Tesco continued to sell South African tinned fruit, as well as well as expanding its lines of South African fresh fruit and vegetables. This leaflet was produced for a special day of action on 26 September 1987.