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Women’s Activism in the British Anti-Apartheid Movement, 1986–1994

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View the page of Kate Law

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Kate Law examines the liminal space between anti-racist and feminist activity through a case-study of Leeds Women Against Apartheid.

Image courtesy of interviewee. August 12, 2024

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This video is an interview discussing the group "Leeds Women Against Apartheid," a small but dedicated activist group from Leeds that engaged in the struggle against apartheid in South Africa. The interview features Kate Law, who conducted research on this group, emphasizing that their activism was practical and focused on tangible solidarity actions, rather than political processes.

She explains that the group originated in the 1980s when its members, frustrated with the focus on internal politics in the Leeds Anti-Apartheid Movement, sought to create a more action-oriented group. They organized fundraising events and raised material aid for anti-apartheid efforts, connecting local activism in Leeds with the international struggle against apartheid.

The group approached their activism in ways that accommodated women's domestic responsibilities, allowing for practical participation in fundraising and solidarity through community events. Law underscores the broader context of women's exclusion from leadership within progressive movements, illustrating that these dynamics persist even within anti-apartheid activism.

The interview also highlights her upcoming research project focusing on Dame Shirley Bassey and the Welsh anti-apartheid movement, examining how the singer was racialized within that context. Law's work aims to reveal the intersection of gender, race, and activism within these historical movements, advocating for a deeper understanding of women's roles in such contexts.

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Here are five key points from the video:

1. **Focus on Leeds Women Against Apartheid**: The speaker's research highlights the significant yet often overlooked role of a small group of women activists in Leeds who organized against apartheid. They formed their own group in the 1980s, motivated by a desire for more direct and applied forms of activism, as they were frustrated with the internal politics of the leading anti-apartheid organization.

2. **Applied Action and Solidarity**: The group effectively connected local actions in Leeds to the global struggle against apartheid. They organized material aid drives, encouraging people to donate goods to support those affected by apartheid, and engaged in various activities such as skill auctions and public awareness campaigns, ensuring that their activism was accessible and relevant to women's lives.

3. **Intersection of Feminism and Anti-Racism**: The Leeds Women Against Apartheid serves as a case study illustrating the intersection between feminist and anti-racist movements. The research challenges the notion that participation in anti-apartheid activism was gender-neutral, showing that women often felt marginalized and sought to create spaces that acknowledged their contributions and unique perspectives.

4. **Gender Dynamics in Social Movements**: The speaker discusses a broader pattern of gender exclusion in historical narratives of social movements, noting that women's activism has been systematically overlooked. The Leeds Women Against Apartheid's formation reflects a proactive response to this exclusion, emphasizing the need for women to have a voice in decision-making processes and a presence in historical accounts.

5. **Future Research Directions**: The speaker emphasizes ongoing research into local anti-apartheid activism and its gender dynamics. They also discuss their future project involving the Welsh anti-apartheid movement and artist Shirley Bassey's controversial performance in South Africa, reflecting on the complexities of race, gender, and national identity within broader anti-apartheid efforts.

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Here are some key quotes from the video :

1. **Introduction to Research**:
- "The research I'm gonna be talking about today is based on an article I published in 2023 in the historical journal, which is Open Access."

2. **Group Identification**:
- "So, who were Leeds Women against Apartheid? ... a dedicated nucleus of activists... never more than 10 in numbers, but that small size doesn't belie who they were and what they did."

3. **Motivation for Action**:
- "They felt there wasn't enough applied action. And so they decided to, to form a group to do applied action."

4. **Focus on Solidarity**:
- "For them, they felt that solidarity had a quantifiable basis that could be expressed through the collection of material aid."

5. **Innovative Fundraising**:
- "Instead of bidding on secondhand tat, why don't you bid for a firsthand skill?"

6. **Gender Dynamics in Activism**:
- "So they basically say women are not less political than men, they just engage with politics in different ways."

7. **Critique of Historical Marginalization**:
- "The exclusion of women from history has been two things. It's been programmatic and it's been inadvertent."

8. **Women’s Activism Visibility**:
- "Scant attention's been paid, and my article is the first attempt to try and gender the history of the movement."

9. **Local Actions Reflecting Global Issues**:
- "What they did was they would say to people in Leeds, even though South Africa's over 7,000 miles away, you can support the struggle against apartheid by donating goods."

10. **Structural Issues in Movements**:
- "the spaces of progressive politics are not necessarily gender friendly."

These quotes highlight the themes of women's activism, community organization, and the challenges of gender representation within broader social movements, particularly in the convideo of the struggle against apartheid.

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Here are a few articles that discuss similar themes of activism, gender roles, and historical movements, particularly in relation to apartheid and community organizing:

1. **"Women and Resistance in South Africa"** - This article examines the role of women in the anti-apartheid struggle, highlighting grassroots activism and the unique challenges faced by women in a predominantly male-led movement.

2. **"Grassroots Feminism: Women’s Movements in Southern Africa"** - A study reviewing various grassroots movements led by women across Southern Africa, focusing on their strategies, challenges, and contributions to broader social justice causes.

3. **"The Role of Women in the Anti-Apartheid Movement"** - This article presents an overview of women's contributions to the anti-apartheid movement, discussing various organizations and notable figures who played pivotal roles in activism.

4. **"Beyond Politics: Women’s Activism in Leeds during Apartheid"** - A focused exploration of local activism in Leeds, emphasizing the initiatives taken by women-led groups in support of global anti-apartheid efforts.

5. **"Intersectionality in the Anti-Apartheid Movement"** - A scholarly piece analyzing how gender and race intersected within the anti-apartheid movement, discussing the implications for women activists and their visibility in historical narratives.

6. **"Community Networks and Solidarity: The Leeds Anti-Apartheid Movement"** - An exploration of community organizing in Leeds, detailing how local groups engaged in international solidarity and support for anti-apartheid efforts, including the role of women in those networks.

7. **"Dame Shirley Bassey: Race, Gender, and Activism"** - This article delves into the complexities of racialization within the convideo of British activism, exploring Dame Shirley Bassey’s contributions and the implications of her public persona on perceptions of race and gender.

These articles provide insights into the themes of women's activism, community organizing, and the intersection of gender and race in historical movements similar to those discussed in the interview with Kate Law regarding "Leeds Women Against Apartheid."

X-TIMESTAMP-MAP:LOCAL=00:00:00.000,MPEGTS=900000

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The research I'm gonna be talking about today is based on

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an article I published in 2023 in the historical journal,

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which is Open Access.

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So anyone who might be listening

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to this can can read it for free.

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So, who were leads Women against Apartheid?

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So there were a small group of women, a,

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a dedicated nucleus of activists,

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as I framed them in my article,

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never more than than 10 in numbers,

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but that small size doesn't belie who they were

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and what they did.

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So there are a group of women located in Leeds

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who were involved in the international struggle against

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Apartheid, and they

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organized as women.

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So initially they were all affiliated

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to the leads anti-Apartheid Movement Group.

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Um, and in the 1980s, they were a bit frustrated with

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what they felt was a focus on, process

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and internal politics at meetings.

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They felt there wasn't enough applied action.

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And so they decided to, to form a group

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to do applied action.

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So to have tangible expressions of international

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solidarity, I guess like a lot of academics, I was,

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I should have been doing other work.

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Um, I'm actually writing a book at the moment about,

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access to contraception during apartheid.

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And I was looking at the role

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of international organizations

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and organizations who, lobbied groups like the UN

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and the Women's Anti-Apartheid movement came up.

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And I found

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that there was a group called Leads Women against

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Anti-Apartheid, whose papers are archived at Leeds

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University in a fabulous resource called Feminist

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Archive North.

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And I should have been doing other work,

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and I just thought, I'll just order a few

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papers, I'll look through them.

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And I was really fascinated

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by the way they decided to organize.

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And, and what do I mean by that?

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Well, they were very focused, as I've said,

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on applied forms of action.

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And for them, they felt

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that solidarity had a quantifiable basis

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that could be expressed through the collection

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of material aid.

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So what they did was they would say to people in Leeds,

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even though South Africa's over 7,000 miles away,

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you can support the struggle against apartheid

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by donating goods, which we will then send overseas.

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So they were able to connect, you know, the micro,

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like everyday living in Leeds with the macro,

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the broader struggle against apartheid, I think

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Leeds Women Against Apartheid, a really interesting

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case study for the intersection between anti-racist

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and feminist activist groups.

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And sort of the intersection between those two groups.

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Their members were generally drawn from sort of,

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left wing pressure groups, like a lot

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of them were affiliated with other groups such as a campaign

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for nuclear disarmament.

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Um, some of them were politically active, in,

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in the Labor Party, for instance.

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So they were part of a broader sort of left wing movement

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of sort of Yorkshire in the 1980s.

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And, you know, one thing we must,

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we must remember at this time, you know, the shadow of the,

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so-called Yorkshire Ripper,

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still haunted leads in this period.

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There's a book by his story called Roger Field House,

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which is sort of a general history

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of the British antia partying movement.

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In many ways, it's fabulous, it's 600 pages long,

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but obviously in such an overview,

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you can't do everything in detail.

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And one thing that Fieldhouse overlooks definitely

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is the role of women in the movement more broadly.

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So I think 600 pages,

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and I think about three pages, are devoted to, to women as,

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as a, a special interest group.

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And Fieldhouse focuses on the 1980,

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organization.

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So in 1980, a national committee of women were set up

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because basically women were saying, look,

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women are really involved in antia parte activism

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through grassroots organizing that the everyday politics

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of expressing solidarity,

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but they're not involved in executive decision making.

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So we need a separate women's committee.

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So that's happening in London at this time

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and leads Women against Apartheid founded in 1986,

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so a few years later.

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But definitely part of this movement.

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And I think when I'm, you know,

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I'm a women's historian when I'm teaching women's history,

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I, I go back to an article now that's that's,

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that's pretty old, 1989 by Gisela Bach,

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and she says that the exclusion

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of women from history has been two things.

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It's been programmatic and it's been inadvertent.

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So, you know, if we're, if we are thinking charitably,

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we can say the activities of

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of these women have just been overlooked.

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But if we're a bit more critical, we can say, well,

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actually it's part

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of a broader pattern in which the activities

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and activism of women is generally downplayed in the

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history of the movement.

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So yeah, scant attention's been paid,

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and my article is, is the first attempt to try

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and gender the history of the movement.

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The article looks at everyday politics

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through a case study of leads women against apartheid

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to look at the micropolitics of solidarity on a local level.

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Um, you know, and

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and my research very much reflects the way

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that leads women against apartheid themselves were

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structured and the way they came into being.

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So 1986,

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they break away from the leads anti-apartheid movement.

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Um, and they do this

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because they want to focus on applied forms of activism.

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So they're a bit sick with a focus on procedure that,

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leads anti-apartheid movement focus on.

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And what they do is they develop a strategy

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very much in line with sort of the politics

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of second wave feminist organizing of the 1970s.

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So they basically say women are not less political than

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men, they just engage with politics in different ways, often

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because, you know, they might be at work

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more often than not, they've got domestic duties

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that they have to take care of.

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So maybe women can't go

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to every single anti-apartheid movement meeting or demo,

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but that doesn't mean they're less political.

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That doesn't mean they're less engaged.

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So they develop a type of politics that accommodates

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what they call one-off support activities.

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Um, so they do things like material aid drives.

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Um, they have a stall in Leeds where they,

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you know, every Saturday they have a stall

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where they're trying to persuade people not

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to buy South African goods, you know, not

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to buy apples from the Western Cape, et cetera.

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Um, they had toiletry drives.

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Um, they were very creative

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and perhaps the most creative thing they did was they held a

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series of skills auctions.

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Um, and they, they, in their literature,

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they say something like, instead

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of bidding on secondhand tat, why don't you bid

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for a firsthand skill?

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And they offer this really interesting range of things like,

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you can bid to have your oven cleaned, you can bid

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for guitar lessons, you can bid

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for someone to cut your hair.

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So I, I would imagine that this, these were skills

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that they had within the group that they would auction

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after to try and raise the most money.

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Um, and I think one thing that's really interesting,

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they all that they also organized, discos

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children's parties as well,

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whether they'd have like a big bouncy castle.

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Um, so women could go

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and the kids could go on the bouncy castle,

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then they would have like South African activists

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and academic giving talks about apartheid.

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So I think they just, they fundamentally understood the

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natures and rhythms of women's life in this period.

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Um, you know,

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and these activities are all great for fundraising,

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but you know, they're fun and enjoyable.

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And I think, you know, sometimes if,

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if political activity, you know, is fun

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and enjoyable, it's seen as less serious, less committed.

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Um, and obviously that's not the case.

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It's just a different way

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of expressing international solidarity.

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Well, firstly, it acknowledges the problem

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of gender in progressive social movements.

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So I think there's often an assumption that if, you know,

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you are involved in a progressive, you know,

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often left wing social movement,

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that these are welcoming spaces to everyone and,

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and, you know, that's, that's just not the case.

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Um, as I've said,

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leads Women Against Apartheid was formed

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because women felt they didn't have a voice within in the

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main sort of stream of the movement.

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And I, I, I can, I'd like to give one example about this.

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So in 1990, to celebrate International Women's Day

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leads Women against Apartheid

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and the leads Antia apartheid movement apply

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to Leeds Council for Money to, to organize an event.

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The council says, okay,

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but you've gotta run this event together.

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So they give them the money, but then leads Antia Apartheid

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movement, refuse to work with leads,

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women against apartheid.

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So it's supremely ironic, is it not

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that an event celebrating International Women's Day,

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the women's group in the city is excluded from that

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because the, you know,

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the main group won't, won't work with them.

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And I think that's just one sort of example that shows,

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you know, progressive politics,

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the spaces of progressive politics

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and not necessarily gender friendly.

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Yeah. But in terms of future research, so,

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you know, I would, I would say my work is, is part

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of a new wave of, history

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that is interested in looking at anti party

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activism on the local level.

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So there's really excellent work done by two historians

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who if you've not interviewed, you should interview them.

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Um, Chris Graham at Dundee University?

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No, Matt Graham at Dundee University

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and Chris Fever at the International Studies Group in

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South Africa, Blum Fonte.

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And they've done a big large scale oral history project.

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They've interviewed 50 activists across the UK

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who are involved in antia partite activity,

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and they've published a series

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of really interesting articles on anti-apartheid activism,

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in Scotland in in particular.

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I think moving forward, my work shows us something

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tells us something, it reminds us about the structural

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sexism of the anti-apartheid movement.

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You know, whilst the fight against apartheid was the main

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goal, any discussion of sexual inequality

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Within the movement itself was seen as secondary and,

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and was seen as sort of an unwanted distraction.

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Um, from, you know, the, the, the main business,

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the real meat IE winning the international struggle against

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apartheid moving forward,

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I'm currently working on a project about,

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Dame Shirley Bassey and the Wel Shanti Apartheid movement.

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So in the early 1980s,

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Shirley Bassey defies the cultural boycott

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and plays Sun City in the banter stand of Bwana.

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Um, and she claims that she's not broken the boycott

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because Bwana is, an independent homeland.

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But as many historians have acknowledged, it was a site of,

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and I'm using Laura Evans's framing here, a site of flimsy,

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political independence.

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So I, I look at the wel apartheid movements campaign

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to boycott Bassi.

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And I think what this work does,

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it follows on from my work on leads women against apartheid.

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It shows the way in which a woman such as Bassi becomes

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racialized by the Welsh Apartheid movement.

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Uh, unfortunately the misogynoir

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that abounds in the movement.

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Um, so I think it's an interesting continuation

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of my work on leads women against apartheid.

00:00 - The research I'm gonna be talking about today is based on an article I published in 2023 in the historical journal, which is Open Access. So anyone who might be listening to this can can read it for free. So, who were leads Women against Apartheid?

00:14 - So there were a small group of women, a, a dedicated nucleus of activists, as I framed them in my article, never more than than 10 in numbers, but that small size doesn't belie who they were and what they did. So there are a group of women located in Leeds who were involved in the international struggle against Apartheid, and they organized as women.

00:42 - So initially they were all affiliated to the leads anti-Apartheid Movement Group. and in the 1980s, they were a bit frustrated with what they felt was a focus on, process and internal politics at meetings. They felt there wasn't enough applied action. And so they decided to, to form a group to do applied action. So to have tangible expressions of international solidarity, I guess like a lot of academics, I was,

01:19 - I should have been doing other work. I'm actually writing a book at the moment about, access to contraception during apartheid. And I was looking at the role of international organizations and organizations who, lobbied groups like the UN and the Women's Anti-Apartheid movement came up. And I found that there was a group called Leads Women against Anti-Apartheid, whose papers are archived at Leeds

01:54 - University in a fabulous resource called Feminist Archive North. And I should have been doing other work, and I just thought, I'll just order a few papers, I'll look through them. And I was really fascinated by the way they decided to organize. And, and what do I mean by that? Well, they were very focused, as I've said, on applied forms of action.

02:20 - And for them, they felt that solidarity had a quantifiable basis that could be expressed through the collection of material aid. So what they did was they would say to people in Leeds, even though South Africa's over 7,000 miles away, you can support the struggle against apartheid by donating goods, which we will then send overseas. So they were able to connect, you know, the micro, like everyday living in Leeds with the macro,

02:52 - the broader struggle against apartheid, I think Leeds Women Against Apartheid, a really interesting case study for the intersection between anti-racist and feminist activist groups. And sort of the intersection between those two groups. Their members were generally drawn from sort of, left wing pressure groups, like a lot of them were affiliated with other groups such as a campaign for nuclear disarmament. some of them were politically active, in,

03:24 - in the Labor Party, for instance. So they were part of a broader sort of left wing movement of sort of Yorkshire in the 1980s. And, you know, one thing we must, we must remember at this time, you know, the shadow of the, so-called Yorkshire Ripper, still haunted leads in this period. There's a book by his story called Roger Field House, which is sort of a general history of the British antia partying movement.

03:51 - In many ways, it's fabulous, it's 600 pages long, but obviously in such an overview, you can't do everything in detail. And one thing that Fieldhouse overlooks definitely is the role of women in the movement more broadly. So I think 600 pages, and I think about three pages, are devoted to, to women as, as a, a special interest group. And Fieldhouse focuses on the 1980, organization.

04:26 - So in 1980, a national committee of women were set up because basically women were saying, look, women are really involved in antia parte activism through grassroots organizing that the everyday politics of expressing solidarity, but they're not involved in executive decision making. So we need a separate women's committee. So that's happening in London at this time and leads Women against Apartheid founded in 1986, so a few years later.

04:56 - But definitely part of this movement. And I think when I'm, you know, I'm a women's historian when I'm teaching women's history, I, I go back to an article now that's that's, that's pretty old, 1989 by Gisela Bach, and she says that the exclusion of women from history has been two things. It's been programmatic and it's been inadvertent. So, you know, if we're, if we are thinking charitably, we can say the activities of

05:25 - of these women have just been overlooked. But if we're a bit more critical, we can say, well, actually it's part of a broader pattern in which the activities and activism of women is generally downplayed in the history of the movement. So yeah, scant attention's been paid, and my article is, is the first attempt to try and gender the history of the movement. The article looks at everyday politics

05:54 - through a case study of leads women against apartheid to look at the micropolitics of solidarity on a local level. you know, and and my research very much reflects the way that leads women against apartheid themselves were structured and the way they came into being. So 1986, they break away from the leads anti-apartheid movement. and they do this because they want to focus on applied forms of activism.

06:24 - So they're a bit sick with a focus on procedure that, leads anti-apartheid movement focus on. And what they do is they develop a strategy very much in line with sort of the politics of second wave feminist organizing of the 1970s. So they basically say women are not less political than men, they just engage with politics in different ways, often because, you know, they might be at work more often than not, they've got domestic duties that they have to take care of.

06:58 - So maybe women can't go to every single anti-apartheid movement meeting or demo, but that doesn't mean they're less political. That doesn't mean they're less engaged. So they develop a type of politics that accommodates what they call one-off support activities. so they do things like material aid drives. they have a stall in Leeds where they, you know, every Saturday they have a stall where they're trying to persuade people not

07:30 - to buy South African goods, you know, not to buy apples from the Western Cape, et cetera. they had toiletry drives. they were very creative and perhaps the most creative thing they did was they held a series of skills auctions. and they, they, in their literature, they say something like, instead of bidding on secondhand tat, why don't you bid for a firsthand skill?

07:56 - And they offer this really interesting range of things like, you can bid to have your oven cleaned, you can bid for guitar lessons, you can bid for someone to cut your hair. So I, I would imagine that this, these were skills that they had within the group that they would auction after to try and raise the most money. and I think one thing that's really interesting, they all that they also organized, discos children's parties as well,

08:25 - whether they'd have like a big bouncy castle. so women could go and the kids could go on the bouncy castle, then they would have like South African activists and academic giving talks about apartheid. So I think they just, they fundamentally understood the natures and rhythms of women's life in this period. you know, and these activities are all great for fundraising, but you know, they're fun and enjoyable.

08:51 - And I think, you know, sometimes if, if political activity, you know, is fun and enjoyable, it's seen as less serious, less committed. and obviously that's not the case. It's just a different way of expressing international solidarity. Well, firstly, it acknowledges the problem of gender in progressive social movements. So I think there's often an assumption that if, you know, you are involved in a progressive, you know,

09:19 - often left wing social movement, that these are welcoming spaces to everyone and, and, you know, that's, that's just not the case. as I've said, leads Women Against Apartheid was formed because women felt they didn't have a voice within in the main sort of stream of the movement. And I, I, I can, I'd like to give one example about this. So in 1990, to celebrate International Women's Day leads Women against Apartheid

09:50 - and the leads Antia apartheid movement apply to Leeds Council for Money to, to organize an event. The council says, okay, but you've gotta run this event together. So they give them the money, but then leads Antia Apartheid movement, refuse to work with leads, women against apartheid. So it's supremely ironic, is it not that an event celebrating International Women's Day, the women's group in the city is excluded from that

10:19 - because the, you know, the main group won't, won't work with them. And I think that's just one sort of example that shows, you know, progressive politics, the spaces of progressive politics and not necessarily gender friendly. Yeah. But in terms of future research, so, you know, I would, I would say my work is, is part of a new wave of, history that is interested in looking at anti party

10:54 - activism on the local level. So there's really excellent work done by two historians who if you've not interviewed, you should interview them. Chris Graham at Dundee University? No, Matt Graham at Dundee University and Chris Fever at the International Studies Group in South Africa, Blum Fonte. And they've done a big large scale oral history project. They've interviewed 50 activists across the UK who are involved in antia partite activity,

11:25 - and they've published a series of really interesting articles on anti-apartheid activism, in Scotland in in particular. I think moving forward, my work shows us something tells us something, it reminds us about the structural sexism of the anti-apartheid movement. You know, whilst the fight against apartheid was the main goal, any discussion of sexual inequality Within the movement itself was seen as secondary and, and was seen as sort of an unwanted distraction.

12:00 - from, you know, the, the, the main business, the real meat IE winning the international struggle against apartheid moving forward, I'm currently working on a project about, Dame Shirley Bassey and the Wel Shanti Apartheid movement. So in the early 1980s, Shirley Bassey defies the cultural boycott and plays Sun City in the banter stand of Bwana. and she claims that she's not broken the boycott because Bwana is, an independent homeland.

12:38 - But as many historians have acknowledged, it was a site of, and I'm using Laura Evans's framing here, a site of flimsy, political independence. So I, I look at the wel apartheid movements campaign to boycott Bassi. And I think what this work does, it follows on from my work on leads women against apartheid. It shows the way in which a woman such as Bassi becomes racialized by the Welsh Apartheid movement. unfortunately the misogynoir

13:10 - that abounds in the movement. so I think it's an interesting continuation of my work on leads women against apartheid.

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