The project was sparked in the course of
other research when we learned that there was
a Nottingham branch of the British anti-apartheid movement.
Now the movement had vital grassroots support all over
the UK in cities and boroughs of London, for example.
But Nottingham, unlike cities like Liverpool, Sheffield,
and Bristol, did not have its history documented
and shared for the public as well as for academic researchers,
but mainly for the public.
So we sought to remedy that and
to do it while it's still in living memory.
Paddy Tipping: "I've talked about the boycott of South African goods.
We must persuade local authorities to follow our action
and also persuade others to follow the action of the County Council,
which was the first council in this country
to disinvest from South Africa."
We put out a public call for contributors in spring last year,
shortly after the 30th anniversary
of Nelson Mandela's release from prison.
In 1990. We had
some wonderful contributors come forward who were activists
from the sixties right through to
the early 90s until the fall
of apartheid and beyond, actually 1994.
And have helped me with a great deal of fantastic imagery,
memorabilia, documentation that they've kept.
In the late 1960s,
In 1969, when the Springboks rugby team came to Britain,
I was asked to coordinate the Nottinghamshire
response to a game being played in Leicester.
But on the day itself,
we decided we were going to cut
the cable to the flood lights at the rugby ground.
We got into the ground behind
the tryline and waited until the Springboks were there,
and then we took out our banners at
a pre-arranged time and started telling them things.
And I told him in Afrikaans:
"Fokof terug na Suid -Afrika,
jou bleddie rassis."
And the looks on these guys faces of
astonishment at the kind of abuse they were getting
was only matched by
the positive support we got outside the ground.
So a mix, I mean in the ground,
people who cross because they wanted to see
the game, but outside the ground
we got a lot of people saying how positive they were.
And so we were supporting the people of South Africa against
this gruesome racist regime and
getting a lot of support from people in Britain.
So that was one memory.
"We unite today in support of the struggle in South Africa.
"This is part of our fight against apartheid."
If I named a couple of important themes right now,
the first one would have to be
the importance of solidarity work by trade unionists.
And there were two dimensions to that.
The first one is the long-term,
long haul systematic campaign work that the British AAM branch
in Nottingham and Mansfield and
Worksop did with trade unions over the years.
And secondly, there were a lot of
initiatives that trade unionists got going
themselves to support oppressed black workers in South Africa.
Coal and coal mining was
a really important nexus of solidarity in
this region for obvious reasons with
mining being so important to Nottinghamshire's history.
The miners were really quick to get behind
the campaigns as soon as they learned about
the reality of life
for black miners in South Africa and
the oppression that they suffered and the
dangers in their day-to-day work and life.
Well, I think Nottingham itself is great for
you know, it's a very multicultural place.
It has been a very multicultural place for a very long time.
You know, I mean, you could argue, it goes right back
to our deep history and the fact that the Vikings and
Anglo-Saxons had to live
together and put up with the Normans when they came along,
I think, yeah, it's location basically,
a crossing point between North and South has meant that
we've always been a place where lots and lots people
have had to get along with each other.
So yeah, I think we were very, very tolerant city overall.
Well this era is still within living memory.
So it's absolutely vital that we get the first-hand accounts
now rather than in 30 years time.
It was somewhat surprising to me that Nottingham
hadn't had this history recorded before.
But we're remedying that
and it's an important chapter
in the lineage of anti-racism protests.
And I think the events of last year with
Black Lives Matter have really underscored yet again
that this battle isn't over.
And anti-apartheid activism is
an important step in that history.
And unfortunately terribly resonant
last year and this year and ongoing.
As Nelson Mandela said,
when he was released from prison in 1990, 'the struggle continues'.
That's very much still the case.