'Dear Oxfam': consumer-supporter-activism, NGO accountability and the boundaries of the political in the Barclays boycott, 1970-1991.

This article is about complaint-making as a form of political participation in the NGO sector. It focuses on public scrutiny of Oxfam's use of Barclays Bank during the anti-apartheid boycott of the bank in the 1970s and 1980s and analyses pro-boycott and anti-boycott correspondence to Oxfam during this period. The article uses the Barclays boycott case to illustrate the dynamics of public-institution relationships during a period in which the NGO sector rapidly expanded and professionalised. It argues that not all donors favoured shallow or passive relationships with the NGOs that they supported. In this example, donors mobilised as a distinct type of 'consumer-supporter-activist'. Finally, the article shows how the Barclays controversy stimulated public debate around the ideal boundaries between the 'charitable' and the 'political'. It argues that apartheid South Africa stimulated far greater public engagement on this issue than other areas of Oxfam's work. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]