Local AA groups

Leaflet advertising a rally at Manchester City Hall on the anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre. The meeting was organised by Manchester City Council, the Anglican Diocese of Manchester and Manchester AA Group.

Leaflet advertising the launch of City of London AA Group’s non-stop picket calling for the release of Nelson Mandela. CLAAG supporters kept up a 24-hour picket of the South African embassy for nearly four years from 19 April 1986 until Mandela’s release on 11 February 1990. The picket attracted hundreds of enthusiastic young activists.  CLAAG was formed as a branch of the AAM in 1982, but internal arguments led to its disaffiliation in February 1985.

This issue of the City of London AA Group’s newsletter advertised a torchlight protest at the group’s non-stop picket of the South African embassy on the day of the AAM’s March and Festival for Freedom at Clapham Common. The newsletter highlighted the upsurge of resistance to apartheid by school students in South Africa since 1984 and the brutal repression of young children by the South African police. CLAAG was formed as a branch of the AAM in 1982, but internal arguments led to its disaffiliation in February 1985.

Leaflet advertising a May Day fundraising social for the AAM organised by Haringey AA Group and Haringey Trades Union Council on 3 May 1986. The evening included live music sponsored by the Musicians Union and a speaker from the African National Congress.

Leaflet asking Dundonians to boycott South African goods. The leaflet publicised a day of action in Edinburgh on 22 March and a picket of Dundee-based supermarket chain William Low on 29 March. It also advertised a demonstration outside Dundee District Court to support two Dundee AA Group members for allegedly obstructing the police during the group’s weekly picket of Tesco in the Wellgate Shopping Centre. The Group set up the Wellgate Two Defence Campaign to protest against the arrests. The two were later acquitted.

Islington AA Group supporters asked shoppers to boycott South African products outside Sainsbury’s in Holloway Road, north London, on 14 June 1986.

Flyer advertising a meeting to commemorate the tenth anniversary of the 1976 Soweto uprising at the Co-op Hall, Doncaster. Speakers included representatives of the ANC, SWAPO, the rail union NUR and local branch of the Labour Party Young Socialists. The flyer asked supporters to attend the AAM’s national Festival for Freedom, assembling in Hyde Park on 28 June.

Leaflet advertising a fundraising gig at a north London trade union centre on 27 September 1986. The event was organised by Haringey AA Group and sponsored by the London Borough of Haringey’s Community Arts and Entertainment Department.