A review by sharonleavy
Striking Back: The Untold Story of an Anti-Apartheid Striker by Mary Manning, Sinead O'Brien

emotional hopeful informative inspiring tense medium-paced

5.0

 When 21 - year old Mary Manning refused to scan two Outspan Grapefruits at her checkout in Dunnes Stores in Henry Street in 1984, few could have imagined where it would lead. 

This act of solidarity with Anti-Apartheid campaigners in South Africa eventually led to a ban on the importation of South African goods and notoriety for Mary and the other strikers in places far beyond Ireland - but getting there was no picnic. 

This is Mary's account of how she and a group of colleagues kept going even when everyone else went against them (including the union who had issued the directive to not handle any SA produce in the first place). A brilliant account of how standing up for what you believe in has to include actually standing up and not just passive activism. 

TW: contains graphic racial slurs in the context of the verbal abuse directed at the striking workers.