Interview Archive

Ken Clavette recalls organizing through Ottawa's labour movement and the Public Service Alliance of Canada to build solidarity with South African workers and challenge opposition within Canadian unions. - Ken grew up in the Ottawa Valley in the 1970s, where he learned about apartheid from a high school teacher. In 1979, Ken was working at Uplands Air Base and active with Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) local 611. As a union member, he joined the SACTU Solidarity Committee and helped organize anti-apartheid activities, including a week of action in 1986. By 1983, he was president of the Ottawa Labour Council through the 1980s and a union activist until he retired.

Nigel Crawhall reflects on the campaign for divestment at McGill University, the student movement against apartheid, and the links between racial discrimination in South Africa and colonialism in Canada. - Nigel lives in Paris and works for UNESCO. He was born in England to parents from South Africa, and grew up in Montréal, where he was a leader in the anti-apartheid movement at McGill University. Nigel moved to Harare in 1989, followed by a move to Cape Town. While in South Africa, he directed a nonprofit organization advocating for the rights of minority language groups, especially the San. He was also active in interfaith dialogue from a Buddhist perspective. Nigel has a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Cape Town.

Fisherman and union organizer Mike Darnell recalls how British Columbia fishing and dockworkers supported Nelson Mandela and the anti-apartheid movement through union campaigns and solidarity actions. - A fisherman on the west coast of British Columbia from the time he was a teenager, Mike was a member of the United Fisherman and Allied Workers. He was part of a group of fishermen within the UFAW who were moved by the plight of workers under apartheid and pushed their union to come out in favour of Nelson Mandela and the ANC. Mike later became a UFAW staff person, organizing workers in BC and Ontario.

Aziz Fall discusses his pan-Africanist upbringing in Senegal, founding GRILA in Montréal, and the solidarity networks, sanctions campaigns, and political organizing that confronted apartheid. - Aziz is a professor of Political Science in Montréal. He was born in Senegal and moved to Canada for studies in 1982. A committed pan-Africanist, he founded the Group for Research and Initiative for the Liberation of Africa, which played a leading role in the anti-apartheid movement in Québec.

Barry Fleming discusses his work with Oxfam and CUSO, support for liberation movements in southern Africa, and later efforts to advance international solidarity within Canadian public-sector unions. - After traveling the world in the late 1960s, Barry went on to work for OXFAM Canada and then for CUSO. As he became more aware of the injustices of apartheid in the 1970s, he lent CUSO’s institutional and moral support to the liberation movements in the Frontline States. Barry created educational materials about apartheid to distribute through CUSO’s networks, and travelled to East Africa to meet with leaders of liberation movements in exile. By the late 1970s, Barry was an executive assistant to the management committee of the Public Service Alliance of Canada (PSAC) and later worked with the Public Service International in Brussels.

Union researcher Sam Gindin examines how Canadian auto workers supported South African workers and the SACTU Solidarity Committee, and why organizing within unions mattered beyond public resolutions. - Sam grew up in Winnipeg, where he absorbed its vibrant left-wing history. He worked as Director of Research and Assistant to the President of the United Auto Workers (UAW), which became the Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), from 1975 to 2000. During his time at CAW/UAW, he built on the UAW’s tradition of labour militancy to secure their support for SACTU and the underground labour movement in South Africa. Sam held the Visiting Packer Chair in Social Justice at York University between 2000 and 2010 and is the author of The Making of Global Capitalism, which won several international awards for political science in the Marxist tradition.

Ole Gjerstad recalls helping build the Liberation Support Movement, which used publishing, education, direct material support, and international networks to assist southern African liberation movements. - Ole was born in Norway and worked in Canada in logging and mining before studying Anthropology at Simon Fraser University, in Vancouver. While active in protests against the war in Vietnam, he became a co-founder of the Liberation Support Movement in 1970, launching an information centre in support of Southern African liberation movements and providing training and direct material support to the movements in Angola, Mozambique, Guinea-Bissau, Zimbabwe, Namibia and South Africa. Following Mozambique's independence in 1975, Ole relocated and helped establish Radio Maputo, which broadcast essential programming into apartheid South Africa. Ole now lives in Ottawa, where he continues to produce independent films with Inuit in the Canadian North.

Martha Gordon describes her journey from anti-apartheid student organizing at Carleton University to solidarity work in southern Africa, including clandestine support for the African National Congress. - Martha joined the anti-apartheid movement as a student at Carleton University in 1984. Four years later, Martha moved to Southern Africa to pursue clandestine work in support of the African National Congress. She later settled in South Africa where she married and raised a family. She presently lives in Toronto where she serves as an Anglican priest.

Popular educator Vince Greason reflects on his work with the SACTU Solidarity Committee in Québec, connecting trade unions, community organizations, and other international solidarity campaigns. - A lifelong popular educator in Ontario and Québec beginning in the 1970s, Vince joined the staff of the SACTU Solidarity Committee for several years in the 1980s. Vince concentrated his work in Québec, connecting the labour movement with activists in other sectors of the anti-apartheid movement such as nonprofit solidarity committees and academic centres.

Montreal community leader Glen Gunning recounts fundraising for the African National Congress through merchandise, cultural events, and business networks, including campaigns supporting voter education before South Africa’s first democratic elections. - Glen was born in Jamaica and emigrated to Montréal in 1970 after graduating from the Jamaica School of Agriculture. He became a chartered insurance broker and worked in life and casualty insurance. He is past President of the Montreal Association of Black Business-persons and Professionals (MABBP). In that capacity, he raised funds for the ANC by selling their merchandise in Canada and the US. When South Africa’s first democratic election was announced, Glen raised funds for voter support and electoral literacy.

Evert Hoogers reflects on trade union support for South African workers, the SACTU Solidarity Committee, boycotts, and the growth of international labour solidarity. - Hired in Vancouver as a postal worker in 1972, Everett was elected shop steward with the Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) and by 1980 he was President of the Vancouver CUPW Local. In that capacity, he worked with the SACTU Solidarity Committee to bring the message of the anti-apartheid struggle to CUPW union locals as well as national conventions. He later joined the national CUPW staff in Ottawa until he retired.

Labour organizer and musician George Hewison recalls the Canadian Communist Party and trade union movement’s support for the anti-apartheid struggle, alongside connections to Indigenous solidarity and political music. - George grew up in Campbell River, a fishing and logging town in British Columbia. He joined the Communist Party in the early 1960s as a young man, and later became an organizer for the United Fishermen and Allied Workers Union. George built support for the anti-apartheid struggle within the Canadian Communist Party, where he rose to the office of Secretary-General. He wrote a song about Nelson Mandela called “Join Hands,” which he performed at an international music festival in the former East Berlin. He continues to write and record music about the lives of ordinary people and their fights for justice.