Polaroid & Apartheid: Inside the Beginnings of the Boycott, Divestment Movement Against South Africa

We look back at how African-American workers at Polaroid in Massachusetts helped launch the divestment movement against Apartheid South Africa in the early 1970s. We speak to Caroline Hunter, co-founder of the Polaroid Workers Revolutionary Movement, who stumbled upon evidence that her employer was providing the camera system to the South African state to produce photographs for the infamous passbooks for black residents. Hunter and her late husband, Ken Williams, then launched a boycott of the company. The boycott and divestment campaign ultimately grew to target other corporations in apartheid South Africa, including General Motors and Barclays Bank, among others. By 1977, Polaroid finally withdrew from South Africa.

Video
Source: democracynow.org
Author: --