Formed between 1977-80, BCLSA focused on ties between the First National Bank of Boston and the Standard Bank of South Africa, and its support for nuclear power in the U.S. In 1980 BCLSA helped form MassDivest, which led a successful campaign to divest state pension funds from companies trading in South Africa. The collection includes flyers, posters, newsletters, pamphlets, research papers, internal strategy reports, correspondence, press clippings, slide-cassette kits (on Angola, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Women Under Apartheid, First National Bank of Boston and Massachusetts South Africa Connection), a cloth banner (U.S. Out of El Salvador and South Africa) and tablecloth/hanging (Independence 18th April 1980 Zimbabwe). Also includes material of some other Massachusetts and Boston area groups including: MassDivest, Polaroid Revolutionary Workers' Movement (Polaroid camera systems were used for the pass system in South Africa); Winnie Mandela Solidarity Coalition; Gulf Boycott Coalition (between 1972-5 boycotts of Gulf gasoline over company support for the Portuguese colonial regime in Angola); Southern Africa Solidarity Coalition. BCLSA stopped meeting as a separate organization in the mid-1980s and members joined other groups in the Boston area, primarily FreeSA and TransAfrica. Correspondents include: NAACP, American Committee on Africa, Rev. Jonathan Robinson, Richard Clapp, Senator Jack Backman, Barbara B. Brown, State Senator Arthur Joseph Lewis, Boston City Hospital Employees Local 1489, International Ladies Garment Workers Union (New England Region)
