The records of the Madison Anti-Apartheid Coalition (MAAC) are divided into five series: ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS, CORRESPONDENCE, FINANCIAL RECORDS, PROMOTIONAL RECORDS, and MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS.
The records span the years 1968-1992, but are most complete for the periods 1969-1973, 1977-1978, and 1987-1991, and thus document both MAAC as well as the Madison Area Committee for Southern Africa. Documentation about both organizations is incomplete, although the records provide information about the general nature of the two groups' activities and their involvement with similar organizations around the country, the composition of their membership, and the ideas they espoused. The most complete documentation of MACSA history may be found in the MACSA Newsletter which is available on microfilm in the Historical Society Library. Even this source is disappointing, however, for it provides less coverage of internal MACSA activities than of events in Africa.
The ADMINISTRATIVE RECORDS consist of background records, minutes, and membership lists. The background records, 1969-1986, contain some information relating to the origins and history of the Madison Area Committee on Southern Africa (MACSA) and a few items pertaining to MAAC. Included is the form letter inviting interested individuals to the original organizational meeting on March 22, 1969, some information on the people who attended, handwritten and mimeographed statements of purpose dating from various periods in the organization's history, and an undated orientation manual which explained routine office operations. The volunteer manual is extremely useful, as it contains information on MACSA's relations with many similar local organizations. Also of note are materials outlining a free university class “Southern Africa: Oppression and Liberation,” which proved to be a major tool for educating people about the situation in Southern Africa. There is no constitution or by-laws for either organization.
The meeting minutes date from the periods 1969-1978 and 1987-1991. The MACSA minutes provide some details about specific activities, but they are often handwritten, sketchy, and undated. The MAAC minutes are even more fragmentary, not even providing coverage of the group's formation. One of the best documented activities within the MACSA minutes are the detailed reports on outreach to local labor unions which appears to have been a strong focus in 1972. The membership lists detail the composition of the organization at various times in its existence, as well as documenting its committee structure.
The CORRESPONDENCE includes general mail, as well as sorted files arranged alphabetically by subject or function: fundraising mail; correspondence about speakers; correspondence concerning medical assistance for Mozambique; correspondence of conveners Ron Lord and Bill and Ruth Minter; correspondence with prisoners; and correspondence concerning film rentals, literature purchases, and literature sales. The chronologically arranged general correspondence gives a good indication of the issues with which MACSA and MAAC were involved throughout their history and some of the local and national groups with which they worked. This file is most complete for the periods 1970-1973, 1977-1978, and 1988-1989 and least complete for the period 1980-1984 during which the organization barely functioned. Specific items of interest include letters from Congressman Robert Kastenmeier and Senator Gaylord Nelson expressing concern for the situation in Rhodesia and exchanges with various church groups concerned with circumstances in Namibia and with various national organizations such as the American Committee on Africa (ACOA). Other correspondence involves unions in the United States and items concerned with pressuring the University of Wisconsin-Madison to divest its holdings of securities and stocks in South Africa. In the later correspondence there are exchanges with former MACSA members who moved to Africa. Some exchanges with the International Campaign Against Racism in Sport protested a tennis match played by the South African Davis Cup Team in Tennessee. Another small group of correspondence concerns the introduction of legislation regulating Wisconsin investments in South Africa. The latest general correspondence is mainly concerned with the issue of apartheid: the passage of the Anti-Apartheid Amendment of 1988, Mobil and Shell Oil corporate activity in South Africa, and a visit to the University of Wisconsin by Archbishop Desmond Tutu. Also present is correspondence from Congressman Kastenmeier concerning the United Nations resolution that placed Namibia under U.N. control. Another noteworthy item is a letter from the African National Congress (ANC) thanking MAAC for their donation.
The nature of the functionally-arranged correspondence is largely self-evident. The fundraising correspondence is primarily mail from individuals and organizations (chiefly church groups) who donated money to MACSA. There is also a large quantity of routine exchanges concerning speakers, rental of films, and purchase of literature for distribution by MACSA - all of which were important MACSA functions, as well as copies of applications for events for which MAAC sought grant funding. The correspondence regarding medical assistance to Mozambique, 1970-1972, is an example of one specific fundraising campaign in which MACSA was involved with minimal success. Of greater interest is the correspondence of Ron Lord, who was the convener from 1977 to 1979, and Bill and Ruth Minter, two of the founding members, who served, respectively, as convener and secretary. Their correspondence gives a good representation of the scope of operation and function in the early years of MACSA. In 1973 they left MACSA to live in Africa. Of special interest is a 1970 letter to Ruth Minter from the Israeli consulate in Chicago reacting to a perceived anti-Semitic element in the controversial MACSA pamphlet Israel and Southern Africa.
The FINANCIAL RECORDS are quite incomplete, consisting of financial statements, a petty cash ledger, and an apparent check register. Some additional financial statements may be found in the newsletter.
The PROMOTIONAL RECORDS, which include press releases, flyers, handmade posters (color and black and white photographic copies available in Visual Materials Archive), research publications, and position papers provide good documentation of a major MACSA function. (Parade banners received with the collection were transferred to the SHSW Museum.) Especially revealing are the flyers and handbills which document the speakers who appeared in Madison and the films shown under MACSA sponsorship. The MACSA Newsletter, also an important source concerning that organization's promotional activities, is available on microfilm in the SHSW Library, although the records in the Archives contain some supplementary production material.
Also relating to MACSA's informational function is a card file (1971 to 1977, but especially complete for 1971 to 1973) containing the names of newsletter subscribers and detailed information on publication sales. (Similar information on the publications the group distributed can be found in the newsletter, although neither source should be considered complete.) The previously mentioned Israeli pamphlet, which is also available in the SHSW Library, is documented here by a draft and a critique by Bill Minter. Also present are copies of two short-lived MAAC publications: a newsletter and a news digest.
The small file of position papers include official statements of MACSA and MAAC views. Because many of these items are unidentified it is possible that some of these statements represent the opinions of other organizations. The position papers about Mozambique include a research report, published in 1989 by William Minter, entitled The Mozambican National Resistance (RENAMO) as Described by Ex-Participants. The statements concerning divestment include a defense from the Citizens Anti-Apartheid Coalition of their peaceful occupation of the Wisconsin State Capitol in 1985 and a call for the passage of Assembly Bill 54, the Wisconsin Retirement Investment Trust divestment bill. Circulation of petitions, which was an important public function for both MACSA and MAAC, is documented by a weeded sample of the petitions found in the collection including one submitted to the UW Board of Regents and another addressed to Governor Anthony Earl in 1985. Also included is a 1991 petition to the Regents opposing effort to reverse the University's divestment policy.
The MISCELLANEOUS RECORDS include papers of the African Student Union, the Madison Free Namibia Committee, and some information concerning the meetings of national organizations to which MACSA belonged such as the North American Anti-Imperialist Coalition, the National Coalition for the Liberation of Southern Africa, and the Washington Office on Africa that took place in Madison during the 1970s.
The papers of the African Student Union, 1982-1987, relate to a university student group that shared many of the same goals and programs as MAAC. It is thought that this file belonged to Lothaire Niyonkuru, an ASU officer who was also a member of MAAC. The file includes a constitution, handwritten minutes, annual reports, correspondence, and promotional material. Of special interest is a letter from ASU to Wisconsin Governor Lee Dreyfus (1982) concerning violence toward African students in the University of Wisconsin System and a letter to UW Chancellor Irving Shain protesting recruitment of a professor from South Africa by the UW Geography department.
The papers of the Free Namibia Committee, a community-based organization with a strong religious base with which MAAC cooperated, include minutes and a statement of purpose.
