The Anti-Apartheid Movement in Hackney
Note
Founded in the late 1970s, the Hackney Anti-Apartheid group was part of the network of groups campaigning against the apartheid regime at a local level. Members of the Hackney chapter campaigned for a consumer boycott of South African goods as well as protesting locally against international companies with large interests in South Africa. They persuaded Hackney Community Transport to stop using Shell petrol and talked the Hackney Kestrels speedway team out of attending a tour date linked to South Africa. The Hackney group promoted local appearances of visiting South African activists, and organised local demonstrations including the 300 strong march from Church Street down to the Britannia leisure centre in 1987.
The Hackney group was partly responsible for Hackney Council’s Anti-Apartheid declaration in 1985. Their close relationship with the Council’s Race Equality Unit meant that Hackney AAM meetings often happened at Hackney Town Hall. In 1984, ‘Morley House’ on Cazenove Road was renamed ‘Mandela House’ - recognising Nelson Mandela’s struggle against apartheid.
Anti-Apartheid in Hackney was well supported locally.Members of Halkevi Turkish Community Centre joined a picket of a Shell garage on 8 February 1988. On 1 March the AAM launched a boycott of Shell as part of an international campaign organised with groups in the USA and the Netherlands. Shell was the joint owner of one of South Africa’s biggest oil refineries and a lead company in its coalmining and petrochemicals industries.
[Content for this page originally appeared in the exhibition 'Forward to Freedom' at Hackney Archives in 2019, in collaboration with the AAM Archives. www.aamarchives.org]
The Hackney group was partly responsible for Hackney Council’s Anti-Apartheid declaration in 1985. Their close relationship with the Council’s Race Equality Unit meant that Hackney AAM meetings often happened at Hackney Town Hall. In 1984, ‘Morley House’ on Cazenove Road was renamed ‘Mandela House’ - recognising Nelson Mandela’s struggle against apartheid.
Anti-Apartheid in Hackney was well supported locally.Members of Halkevi Turkish Community Centre joined a picket of a Shell garage on 8 February 1988. On 1 March the AAM launched a boycott of Shell as part of an international campaign organised with groups in the USA and the Netherlands. Shell was the joint owner of one of South Africa’s biggest oil refineries and a lead company in its coalmining and petrochemicals industries.
[Content for this page originally appeared in the exhibition 'Forward to Freedom' at Hackney Archives in 2019, in collaboration with the AAM Archives. www.aamarchives.org]