Trade unionists

In March 1986 members of the British NUR set up Rail Against Apartheid to mobilise support among British railwaymen for the South African Rail and Harbour Workers Union (SARHWU). This report by two Rail Against Apartheid members who visited South Africa on a fact-finding mission was written in the aftermath of SARHWU’s three-month strike in 1987 during which six South African railworkers were shot dead by police. The report details the practical support given by the NUR to SARHWU and Rail Against Apartheid’s involvement in wider AAM campaigns for the isolation of apartheid South Africa.

British railworkers union General Secretary Jimmy Knapp with Zola Zembe from SACTU. They joined a protest outside the South African Embassy on 6 April 1987.

In 1987 six transport workers were shot dead by police during a strike called by the South African Railway and Harbour Workers Union (SARHWU). This leaflet asked trade unionists and others to contribute to the SARHWU solidarity fund and called for the closure of South African Airways offices in Britain.

There was widespread support among British trade unionists for striking miners in South Africa and Namibia in September 1987. AAM supporters and the British NUM held daily protests outside the London headquarters of Anglo-American, Consolidated Goldfields and other South African mining conglomerates. Over £75,000 was raised for the miners.

South African coal exports to Western Europe rose steeply in the mid-1980s. In 1986 West Germany opposed the inclusion of coal in a sanctions package imposed by the European Economic Community. The British National Union of Mineworkers was at the forefront of the campaign to stop UK imports of South African coal. In 1987 it held a joint conference with the AAM and produced a special Coal Campaign Bulletin.

Leaflet publicising a conference for trade unionists and Labour Party members organised by Birmingham AA Group in 1987.

Letter from Reading Anti-Apartheid Campaign to local trade union branches advertising a meeting calling for the release of South African political prisoners.

Newsletter of Reading Anti-Apartheid Campaign. Issue 7, dated September 1987, focused on the South African National Mineworkers strike and called for an international boycott of South African coal. It also highlighted a strike by Namibian copper miners.