Saturday 18th July is International Nelson Mandela Day, a celebration of Mandela’s life and legacy in fighting apartheid and social injustice.

The UK trade union and labour movement were heavily involved in campaigning against the apartheid regime in South Africa and for the release of Mandela from prison. As a result, the TUC Library contains a large collection of material documenting the activities of the TUC, unions and other groups. The image above shows just a small selection of the pamphlets, leaflets and flyers in the collection.

The document below was one of many produced by the TUC in the 1980s on the subject. “Beating Apartheid”, published in 1986, set out the TUC’s plans to organise campaigns and demonstrations, boycott South African goods, support victimised South African trade unionists and campaign for British companies and pension funds to disinvest from South Africa.

Publication from the TUC, 1986, setting out its campaign plans for opposing apartheid.