Search Help

How does this work?
There are many ways to search the collections of the Freedom Archives. Below is a brief guide that will help you conduct effective searches. Note, anytime you search for anything in the Freedom Archives, the first results that appear will be our digitized items. Information for items that have yet to be scanned or yet to be digitized can still be viewed, but only by clicking on the show link that will display the hidden (non-digitized) items. If you are interested in accessing these non-digitized materials, please email info@freedomarchives.org.
Exploring the Collections without the Search Bar
Under the heading Browse By Collection, you’ll notice most of the Freedom Archives’ major collections. These collections have an image as well as a short description of what you’ll find in that collection. Click on that image to instantly explore that specific collection.
Basic Searching
You can always type what you’re looking for into the search bar. Certain searches may generate hundreds of results, so sometimes it will help to use quotation marks to help narrow down your results. For instance, searching for the phrase Black Liberation will generate all of our holdings that contain the words Black and Liberation, while searching for “Black Liberation” (in quotation marks) will only generate our records that have those two words next to each other.
Advanced Searching
The Freedom Archives search site also understands Boolean search logic, specifcally AND/+, NOT/-, and OR operators. Click on this link for a brief tutorial on how to use Boolean search logic. Our search function also understands “fuzzy searches.” Fuzzy searches utilize the (*) and will find matches even when users misspell words or enter in only partial words for the search. For example, searching for liber* will produce results for liberation/liberate/liberates/etc.
Keyword Searches
You’ll notice that under the heading KEYWORDS, there are a number of words, phrases or names that describe content. Sometimes these are also called “tags.” Clicking on these words is essentially the same as conducting a basic search.
Welcome to the Freedom Archives' Digital Search Engine.The Freedom Archives contains over 12,000 hours of audio and video recordings which date from the late-1960s to the mid-90s and chronicle the progressive history of the Bay Area, the United States, and international movements. We are also in the process of scanning and uploading thousands of historical documents which enrich our media holdings. Our collection includes weekly news, poetry, music programs; in-depth interviews and reports on social and cultural issues; numerous voices from behind prison walls; diverse activists; and pamphlets, journals and other materials from many radical organizations and movements.

Anti-Apartheid Solidarity

This collection contains materials from Bay Area anti-apartheid movements of the 1980s originating from various sources, primarily Bay Area-based South African solidarity groups. Generally, materials in this collection focus on raising awareness of conditions in South Africa under apartheid and promoting local demonstrations and other expressions of solidarity and resistance against the apartheid regime.

Many materials in this collection focus on local divestment movements, calling for direct actions and/or raising awareness of U.S. corporate/municipal investment in South Africa.Divestment was a tactic used to protest the apartheid regime, primarily accomplished by appealing to universities, local/state governments, and companies to divest funds from South Africa, and further, to boycott corporations which continued to invest in South Africa. American oil and technology companies were particularly scrutinized by activists. One such company was IBM, whose significant collaboration with the apartheid regime is detailed in several of the materials in this collection. The American divestment campaign against apartheid gained substantial traction in the 1980s, particularly on college campuses – the University of California system withdrew a total of $3 billion worth of investments from South Africa. Another Bay Area anti-apartheid campaign represented in this collection centers around South African Airways, “the unofficial South African consulate,” which maintained services and whose presence was protested in San Francisco and in airports across the country.

This collection also contains materials on the Anti-Springbok-5, in particular regarding their illegal detainment, charges, and trial for their acts of solidarity and resistance against South African apartheid. The Anti-Springbok-5 were five anti-imperialists who were arrested while protesting the American tour of the Springboks, the all-white South African national rugby team whose members served as representatives of the apartheid regime. Overall, the materials in this collection represent a small subset of international anti-apartheid solidarity movements. Ultimately, a combination of this external pressure and internal resistance led to the defeat of apartheid in 1994.

Documents

Embargo South Africa Not Nicaragua! Embargo South Africa Not Nicaragua!
Publisher: Freedom Rising! Africa Solidarity CommitteeFormat: StatementCollection: Anti-Apartheid Solidarity
Statement re: Reagan imposing trade embargo against Nicaragua, yet saying sanctions against South Africa won't work
Down With South African Airways Down With South African Airways
Publisher: Freedom Rising! Africa Solidarity CommitteeDate: 1/14/1985Volume Number: 14-JanFormat: FlyerCollection: Anti-Apartheid Solidarity
Calling for demo of South African Airways, 360 Post, SF, as part of movement against apartheid
Demonstrate! Shut Down South African Airways Demonstrate! Shut Down South African Airways
Publisher: Freedom Rising! Africa Solidarity CommitteeDate: 3/13/1985Volume Number: 13-MarFormat: PamphletCollection: Anti-Apartheid Solidarity
Calls for demonstration to shut down South African Airways
Demonstrate Against IBM Demonstrate Against IBM
Publisher: Freedom Rising! Africa Solidarity CommitteeDate: 6/21/1984Volume Number: 21-JunFormat: FlyerCollection: Anti-Apartheid Solidarity
Call for demo at IBM Building in Oakland - no computer to South Africa
Azania Will Be Free! Down with South Africa! Azania Will Be Free! Down with South Africa!
Publisher: Pan Africanist Congress, Prairie Fire Organizing Committee, Freedom Rising! Arica Solidarity CommitteeVolume Number: 13-AprFormat: FlyerCollection: Anti-Apartheid Solidarity
Event to celebrate 25th anniversary of Pan Africanist Congress of Azania, part of national tour of John Nyati Pokela, with African Dance of Kusema Vijiti Institute
Crossroads/Berkeley Crossroads/Berkeley
Publisher: Freedom Rising! Africa Solidarity CommitteeFormat: MonographCollection: Anti-Apartheid Solidarity
Re: cops attacking Berkeley "shantytown"