Trade unionists

London AA Committee flyer publicising a concert at The Fridge, Brixton in December 1988. It featured Jonah Moyo and Devera Ngwena from Zimbabwe and was sponsored by the journalists trade union NUJ.

The Alex Five were civic leaders in Alexandra Township charged with sedition after they set up the Alexandra Action Committee. One of the five was trade union leader Moses Mayekiso. 5,000 of these postcards were distributed in Britain with support from the British Confederation of Shipbuilding and Engineering Unions. After a long trial the five were acquitted in April 1989. The TUC sent an observer to the trial.

AAM supporters held a prayer vigil on the steps of Kingston Guildhall to show their opposition to a proposal by Kingston Council to invest pension funds in South Africa. Kingston Trades Council presented a petition to the Council asking it to reconsider.

Still from a film advertisement promoting the boycott of South African goods, made by the TUC. The ad was shown in cinemas throughout Britain. It won the Gold Lion Award at the 34th Cannes International Advertising film Festival.

Trade unionists from Teesside and Hartlepool protested against the unloading of South African coal at Teesport in north-east England on 11 May 1989. British miners and other trade unionists were at the forefront of the campaign against imports of South African coal. By the late 1980s the international campaign meant that it was often sold at a discounted price.

Tjeluvuyo Mgedezi was one of three mineworkers sentenced to death in May 1987. The British National Union of Mineworkers circulated a petition calling for his release to its members. It distributed 20,000 copies of this leaflet and publicised the case in its journal. In May 1989 the sentence was commuted to a long term of imprisonment. 

Flyer advertising an exhibition exposing the working conditions of South African mineworkers. The exhibition was produced by Manchester City Council in conjunction with the National Union of Mineworkers and the AAM. It was one of many initiatives by the NUM and local AA groups in the north of England to stop the import of South African coal and support mineworkers in South Africa.

William Ntombela was one of several South African trade unionists sentenced to death in 1989. The British shopworkers union USDAW launched a petition for his release, signed by 5,000 members.  In the photograph USDAW General Secretary Garfield Davies (left) displays the petition. Partly as a result of the campaign the sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.