MDM, noun

In historical contexts. Initial letters of Mass Democratic Movement, an alliance of organizations working against apartheid (see quotation 1990). Also attributive.
Note:
The alliance was formed in the late 1980s, and was dissolved once banned organizations were again able to operate legally (after February, 1990).
1989 McIndoe & Perkins in Sunday Times 20 Aug. 1One MDM activist carrying the ANC tricolour yelled to a solitary white girl..: ‘Can’t we swim together?’
1989 Sunday Times 5 Nov. 22One day it’s MDM leaders calling by for an indaba with Mr Nelson Mandela, the next he’s sorting out the troubles between the ANC and the PAC.
1989 Stanger Mail 17 Nov. 3Reaction to MDM presence at meeting...MDM men, strongly opposed to the tricameral system of government, attended a meeting chaired by nominated House of Delegates MP, Mr M F Cassim.
1990 Race Rel. Survey 1989–90 (S.A.I.R.R.) 725The Mass Democratic Movement (MDM) is an alliance of anti-apartheid organisations, with the United Democratic Front (UDF) and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) as the core...The MDM emerged when the UDF and its allies were restricted in February 1988...The..publicity secretary of the UDF..said that the MDM, which did not have a constitution or a list of members, enabled anti-apartheid organisations to operate without fear of restriction or banning. The idea of the MDM originated at COSATU’s annual congress in 1987.
1991 K. Owen in Sunday Times 26 May 27The young men and women who led the UDF and the MDM..bore the brunt of the battle against apartheid.
Initial letters of Mass Democratic Movement, an alliance of organizations working against apartheid (see quotation 1990). Also attributive.
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