Name/Title
Stop Apartheid Boycott Shell stickerEntry/Object ID
MW.0057Description
Square vinyl sticker created by the United Mine Workers in support of the 1987 campaign to force Shell Oil to divest from South Africa. Sticker design features the graphic icon of the campaign, the Shell Oil logo shaped into an octagonal "stop sign".Context
An international campaign to force Shell to withdraw from South Africa was launched in 1987 by anti-apartheid organizations in the Netherlands, UK, and US. The campaign included consumer boycotts, and claimed that Shell USA’s parent company, Royal Dutch-Shell Group, was South Africa’s principal supplier of crude oil. Since South Africa was entirely reliant on oil imports, an embargo was sought as a critical move towards destabilizing the South African economy in the interest of forcing an end to the apartheid government.
Shell also operated a number of coal-exporting mines that use “slave labor” to keep costs low, thereby competing unfairly with American-mined coal. UMWA President Richard Trumka (1982-95) established an office that raised U.S. coal mine worker solidarity with the miners in South Africa.Collection
UMWA CollectionInscription/Signature/Marks
Type
PrintingTranscription
STOP
APARTHEID
BOYCOTT
SHELL
UNITED MINE WORKERS OF AMERICAType
Union BugLocation
bottom centerTranscription
International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) Sign & Display Workers Local 820 (Olathe, Kansas)Dimensions
Height
2-1/2 inWidth
2-1/2 in