Local AA groups

This leaflet was produced as part of a citywide London campaign to persuade Sainsbury’s to stop stocking South African goods. The London AA Committee set up a special boycott group which met Sainsbury’s directors to put the case for a boycott. Sainsbury’s claimed to have reduced their South African products to less than 1 per cent of total sales.

Many local AA groups formed links with trade union branches. In 1986 Brent AA group circulated this leaflet to local unions asking them to affiliate and asking trade unionists to join as individual members.

Leeds Women Against Apartheid was formed in 1986 to bring together women in support of their sisters in South Africa and Namibia. The group reached out to women’s organisations in West Yorkshire, raising funds for women in Southern Africa, boycotting apartheid goods and holding day schools publicising the situation of women under apartheid. It was linked to a women’s group in Soshunguve township, near Pretoria.  This leaflet advertised a meeting held in Leeds Civic Hall in July 1986.

‘Boycott South Africa!’ flyer advertising the first meeting of Milton Keynes AA Group. The meeting was held in a local church, with a speaker from the national Anti-Apartheid Movement. 

Chesterfield AA Group’s newsletter advertised a Day of Action including mass leafletting of the town centre, a slide show by a local miner who had recently visited South Africa and street theatre. It set out facts about apartheid and explained why the AAM was campaigning for sanctions against South Africa. Chesterfield AA Group was set up in February 1986.

Like many of the larger local AA groups, Aberdeen AA group published an annual report of its activities for local members.

Chelmsford AA newsletter telling AA members that Chelmsford Borough Council was about to become the first council controlled by the SDP-Liberal Alliance to withdraw its account from Barclays Bank. The letter asked members to write to their local councillor and to their trade union, church or community group calling for withdrawal. It asked them to attend the Council meeting on 8 October 1986.

Bristol City Council’s decision in 1986 to stop imports of South African coal through the Port of Bristol was opposed by some trade unionists who feared job losses in the docks. In this newsletter Bristol AA Group argued that trade union concerns should be taken into account. It suggested that the Port’s management should seek alternative imports and that steps should be taken to ensure South African goods were not diverted to other ports.