Trade unionists

TUC General Secretary Norman Willis with shopworkers leader Garfield Davies and Rodney Bickerstaffe, General Secretary of the public sector workers union NUPE, at the AAM’s stall at the 1992 TUC annual congress.

ANC representative Mendi Msimang with Labour MP John Prescott at the trade union congress in September 1993. The TUC gave its full backing to the ANC’s Votes for Freedom campaign and asked British unions to donate to the ANC’s election fund. It also asked affiliated unions to support their sister unions in South Africa.

Bill Morris, General Secretary of the British transport workers union TGWU, presented a cheque for £20,000 to the ANC’s UK representative Mendi Msimang at the trade union congress in September 1993. The donation was for the ANC’s election fund, which had a £1 million target in Britain. The shopworkers union USDAW, the Fire Brigades Union, civil servants union CPSA, Manufacturing Science and Finance (MSF) and the general workers union GMB all made big donations.

Report of a seminar on the role of British trade unions in post-apartheid solidarity. The report reprinted the address of keynote speaker Jay Naidoo, former General Secretary of the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and a Programme of Action for the British trade union movement.

After agreement was reached on 27 April 1994 as the date for one person one vote elections in South Africa, the AAM campaigned to ensure the elections were free and fair. Its Countdown to Democracy programme focused on voter education. This leaflet asked for donations for a special Education for Democracy in South Africa Fund, supported by the main British teacher unions and the National Union of Students.

In June 1994 the AAM held an Extraordinary General Meeting which decided to set up a new movement of solidarity with the peoples of Southern Africa. This appeal for support was signed by leading British trade unionists.

Glasgow District Council local government workers joined this scheme to make regular donations to the ANC’s Solomon Mahlangu Freedom School (SOMAFCO) in Tanzania. The school was set up for the children of ANC supporters forced to flee South Africa.

The AAM campaigned in Britain for support for black workers in South Africa, and especially for the recognition of independent trade unions by British-owned South African companies. This badge was distributed among British trade unionists.