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Leaflet publicising a demonstration on the day of the expected court hearing of the Sharpeville Six’s appeal on 10 September 1987. The hearing was delayed until November. The six, five men and one woman, were sentenced to death in December 1985 after joining a demonstration at which a black deputy mayor was killed. The appeal was rejected and they were held on death row for ten more months until they were reprieved in July 1988. The action was organised by the London AA Committee with support from trade unions and anti-racist groups.

SATIS (Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society) collected signatures to this Declaration demanding that the South African Government withdraw the death sentences imposed on the Sharpeville Six. The six, five men and one woman, were sentenced to death in December 1985 after joining a demonstration at which a black deputy mayor was killed. The Declaration was circulated in the run-up to the appeal against the death sentences, scheduled for 10 September 1987. The appeal was rejected but the six were reprieved in July 1988.

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.