The Anti-Apartheid Movement in Hackney
Note
Founded in the late 1970s, the Hackney Anti-Apartheid group was part of a network of groups campaigning against the apartheid regime at a local level. The group campaigned for Well Street Tesco and other local supermarkets not to stock South African goods and held a regular picket of the Shell garage in Upper Clapton Road, as part of the campaign to make Shell close its operations in South Africa. It persuaded Hackney Community Transport to stop using Shell petrol and Hackney Speedway to include a ‘no South Africa visits’ clause in its contracts. The group promoted visits from South African anti-apartheid activists, like women from the ANC Women’s League, who spoke at a meeting in Hackney Town Hall in 1984 attended by over 1000 people. In June 1987 the group joined with other community organisations to organise a Week of Action Against Apartheid, culminating in a festival at the Britannia Leisure Centre.
Anti-apartheid campaigns won wider support from Hackney community organisations, especially from the Turkish and Afro-Caribbean communities. In 1989 they set up Hackney Community Against Apartheid. Representatives of the Hackney Ethnic Minority Alliance and the local NALGO branch took part in the 1988 600-mile Nelson Mandela Freedom March from Glasgow to London. Hackney Empire put on fundraising concerts and in 1987 hosted the South African striking BTR workers show ‘The Long March’.
The Anti-Apartheid Movement had strong backing from Hackney Council. The Council was a founder member of Local Authorities Against Apartheid and in December 1984 it issued an Anti-Apartheid Declaration pledging itself to end all links with the apartheid regime. In 1984, ‘Morley House’ on Cazenove Road was renamed ‘Mandela House’ – recognising Nelson Mandela’s role in the struggle against apartheid.
[Content for this page was provided by Christabel Gurney of the AAM Archives, www.aamarchives.org, and a collaborator on the exhibition 'Forward to Freedom' at Hackney Archives in 2019]
Anti-apartheid campaigns won wider support from Hackney community organisations, especially from the Turkish and Afro-Caribbean communities. In 1989 they set up Hackney Community Against Apartheid. Representatives of the Hackney Ethnic Minority Alliance and the local NALGO branch took part in the 1988 600-mile Nelson Mandela Freedom March from Glasgow to London. Hackney Empire put on fundraising concerts and in 1987 hosted the South African striking BTR workers show ‘The Long March’.
The Anti-Apartheid Movement had strong backing from Hackney Council. The Council was a founder member of Local Authorities Against Apartheid and in December 1984 it issued an Anti-Apartheid Declaration pledging itself to end all links with the apartheid regime. In 1984, ‘Morley House’ on Cazenove Road was renamed ‘Mandela House’ – recognising Nelson Mandela’s role in the struggle against apartheid.
[Content for this page was provided by Christabel Gurney of the AAM Archives, www.aamarchives.org, and a collaborator on the exhibition 'Forward to Freedom' at Hackney Archives in 2019]