Graeme Bloch introduced a discussion of research already underway into aspects of the Anti-Apartheid Movement's history by recalling a UDF meeting in Cape Town in March 1985, where he passed on a message from Neil Kinnock, then Leader of the British Labour Party, calling for the release of Nelson Mandela, and solidarity greetings from 'anobscure movement' - Irish AAM - signed by Kader Asmal.

A five-member panel described multi-media initiatives involving film, exhibitions and the written word.

Roger Fieldhouse described his work on a written history of the AAM, comprising sections on its origins and establishment, covering the period to 1964; its campaigns, international activity, relation to the struggle inside Southern Africa and organisation; the transitional period between 1990 and 1995; and an assessment of its achievement as a social and political movement. He stressed that he was not trying to produce a definitive analysis but to stimulate and contribute to an ongoing debate.

The Mayibuye Centre and the new Robben Island Museum demonstrate the importance attached in the new South Africa to giving young South Africans a knowledge of their history. The Robben Island Museum's director, André Odendaal, said that capacity-building within South Africa in the area of culture and heritage was one of its most important functions. Already 300,000 people have visited the Museum. Papers relating to the international 'fourth pillar' of the South African struggle form an important part of the collections at the Mayibuye Centre. Andre Odendaal emphasised the need to ensure that the best use was made of limited resources. He stressed the need 'to educate young people about the rich history of co-operation and cross-fertilisation with people and communities throughout the world and maintain these international contacts and consciousness as we build the future'.

Film-maker Connie Field has already shot over 300 hours of interview material and collected 400 hours of film and video footage as part of an exciting documentary film project which will start in South Africa and take a world-wide look at the anti-apartheid struggle in the front-line States of Southern Africa, India, Ghana, Australia, New Zealand, the Soviet Union and the US, as well as Europe. Its hero, she said would be Oliver Tambo. She said she chose the issue 'because it is global. . . . It is the most globalised human rights struggle of the entire century, the most successful and it teaches all of us those tools that we need for the next century, as the economy is more global and our world is more global'. The film will be in three parts, covering the periods 1946-64, 1965-81 and 1982-90.

The trade union movement's contribution to the anti-apartheid struggle had already been mentioned by speakers from the floor of the Symposium. Christabel Gurney reported on a project which would look at the Anti-Apartheid Movement's work among trade unions in the late 1960s and 1970s and examine its 'multi-layered' approach which saw the unions as a channel through which to influence government policy, a source of material support and funding both for the AAM and the liberation movements and which appealed to them to refuse to handle South African goods. She said that AAM had tried to build on the idea of international solidarity that was part of the rationale of the trade union movement and that 'by the end the Movement did get a remarkable amount of support from ordinary trade unionists'.

Stefan de Boer of the Netherlands Archives Committee outlined the arguments of his recently published book, From Sharpeville to Soweto: Dutch Government Policy towards Apartheid, 1960-1977. He said that Holland's historical link with the Afrikaner community played an ambivalent role in the relationship between the Netherlands and South Africa. On the one hand Afrikaners tried and were sometimes successful in exploiting cultural links; on the other hand apartheid was of special concern to Dutch people and many were outraged by it. The Cold War also had an evolving impact on Dutch policy, leading the government to collaborate with South Africa in the 1960s but to consider support for the liberation movements in an attempt to curb Communist influence within them, as it perceived South Africa to be heading for an explosion in the late 1970s.

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