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The June/July issue reported on Nelson Mandela’s State of the Nation address to Parliament on 24 May, following his inauguration as President on 10 May. It recorded the lifting of the UN arms embargo and accession to the OAU and the Commonwealth. AAM members who served as election observers told their election stories. A centre spread looked at ANC policies on job creation, land and health. AA News stressed the need for continuing solidarity to help South Africa and the Southern African region overcome the legacy of apartheid.

The last issue of AA News announced plans to set up a successor organisation to the AAM at a conference on 29 October. Its aims would be to campaign for peace and democracy throughout Southern Africa, especially in Angola and Mozambique; to work for reconstruction in the region; and to build ‘people to people’ solidarity. Frank Chikane warned the new South African government against accepting a military culture. Joe Slovo set out plans to confront South Africa’s housing crisis. Margaret Ling reported on the ‘Mozambique Now!’ campaign in the run-up to Mozambique’s October election. 

Brian Hurwitz grew up in South Africa and came to Britain in the late 1970s. He joined the Anti-Apartheid Movement as a local group activist, campaigning for a consumer boycott and for the release of Southern African political prisoners. As a qualified solicitor, he was a founder member of Lawyers Against Apartheid. After 1994, Brian went back to South Africa and worked for the Land Claims Commission. Since his return to Britain in 1999, he has been active in ACTSA (Action for Southern Africa).

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of a research project on the British Anti-Apartheid Movement and South Africa’s transition to majority rule, conducted by Dr Matt Graham (History programme, University of Dundee) and Dr Christopher Fevre (International Studies Group, University of the Free State) See https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13619462.2021.1976154

Mark Guthrie came to Britain from South Africa as a teenager in 1976 and joined the Anti-Apartheid Movement soon after his arrival. As a law student and member of Manchester University Senate in 1983, he proposed that the university should give an honorary degree to Nelson Mandela. He was later active in Camden Anti-Apartheid Group and was a founder member in 1987 of Lawyers Against Apartheid, serving as its Secretary and later its Chair until it was dissolved in 1994.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of a research project on the British Anti-Apartheid Movement and South Africa’s transition to majority rule, conducted by Dr Matt Graham (History programme, University of Dundee) and Dr Christopher Fevre (International Studies Group, University of the Free State). See https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13619462.2021.1976154

Colin Adkins was a student activist at the University of Essex, where he joined the university Anti-Apartheid Society and was later elected as President of the Student Union. He was the Anti-Apartheid Movement’s trade union and labour movement organiser from 1987 to 1990. He later worked as an organiser for trade unions including Unite and the education union NASUWT.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of a research project on the British Anti-Apartheid Movement and South Africa’s transition to majority rule, conducted by Dr Matt Graham (History programme, University of Dundee) and Dr Christopher Fevre (International Studies Group, University of the Free State). See https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13619462.2021.1976154

Allison Barrett was born in South Africa and came to Britain as a child. She was an activist in Tyneside Anti-Apartheid Group from the early 1980s and represented it on the AAM National Committee. Tyneside AA Group included artists and designers and set up an anti-apartheid choir, which performed at the Edinburgh Festival. In 1988, it hosted the South African dance group ‘Sisters of the Long March’. Allison was a sculptor, who made a head of Nelson Mandela, sold to raise funds for the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of a research project on the British Anti-Apartheid Movement and South Africa’s transition to majority rule, conducted by Dr Matt Graham (History programme, University of Dundee) and Dr Christopher Fevre (International Studies Group, University of the Free State) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13619462.2021.1976154

Tony Dykes first became involved in Southern Africa in 1979 when he joined the staff of the World University Service, which arranged international scholarships for black South Africans. As a London Borough of Camden councillor from 1982 he supported the Council’s policy of boycotting South African products. After he became Council Leader in 1986 he worked closely with the Anti-Apartheid Movement, providing event venues and supporting its campaigns. He served as the Director of ACTSA from 2007 to 2018.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of a research project on the British Anti-Apartheid Movement and South Africa’s transition to majority rule, conducted by Dr Matt Graham (History programme, University of Dundee) and Dr Christopher Fevre (International Studies Group, University of the Free State) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13619462.2021.1976154

Iain Whyte volunteered at Christian Action as a school student in London and attended the first meeting of the Boycott Movement in June 1959. He was a student at Glasgow University in the early 1960s and joined Glasgow Anti-Apartheid Committee. He was later ordained as a Church of Scotland minister and served as the Scottish Anti-Apartheid Movement’s Religious Liaison Officer and the convenor of the Church of Scotland’s Africa Committee. Iain has researched and written on enslavement and the abolitionist movement and more recently campaigned for solidarity with Palestinians.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of a research project on the British Anti-Apartheid Movement and South Africa’s transition to majority rule, conducted by Dr Matt Graham (History programme, University of Dundee) and Dr Christopher Fevre (International Studies Group, University of the Free State) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13619462.2021.1976154