po060. ‘Free Nelson Mandela!’, 1980

Poster produced for the AAM campaign for freedom for Nelson Mandela in response to a petition launched by the South African Sunday Post in 1980. A declaration calling for Mandela’s release was endorsed by MPs, trade unions, playwrights, musicians and academics in Britain. The AAM distributed thousands of badges, leaflets and stickers calling for Mandela’s release. The following year Glasgow became the first British city to award him the freedom of the city. In the 1980s buildings, streets and public gardens all over Britain were renamed in his honour.