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In 1984 South Africa’s townships rose in revolt, marking a new phase in the anti-apartheid struggle. The newsletter highlighted the role of women in the new militancy and sent solidarity greetings to the resurgent Federation of South African Women. A guest column by Glenys Kinnock argued that South African women were oppressed on the grounds of sex, class and colour and pledged to campaign among British women in response to their courage.

Issue 18 focused on the boycott campaign and ‘the politics of shopping’, listing products and companies that should be boycotted. In the debate column Mildred Mkandla exposed the UN Decade for Women’s failure to have any significant effect on the discrimination and exploitation faced by Southern African women.

As part of the AAM’s relaunch of the South African boycott campaign, this issue of the newsletter focused on how to refute arguments against the boycott. It called for the release of Albertina Sisulu, arrested and held in solitary confinement. It celebrated the 30_^th anniversary of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU). A guest column reported on the mushrooming of anti-apartheid campaigns in the USA

As repression spiralled in South Africa, the newsletter asked readers to campaign in Britain for support for the UDF’s demands for an end to forced removals and massacres of unarmed people. It reprinted reports from the front line on the impact of police brutality on women, including an interview with members of the Uitenhage Women’s Organisation in the Eastern Cape.

Issue 21 reported on a rare success for women workers in South Africa, who won a maternity agreement at a Metro store through their trade union CCAWUSA (Commercial, Catering and Allied Workers Union of South Africa).  It advertised a meeting to celebrate South African Women’s Day in Islington Town Hall, London and carried a review of Ellen Kuzwayo’s book, Call Me Woman. 

South African human rights lawyer Victoria Mxenge was brutally murdered by apartheid agents outside her home near Durban in August 1985. This issue of the newsletter celebrated her life and quoted from the speeches made at her funeral. It carried extracts from a new book on South African women, South African Women Speak, and reported on the AAM Health Committee’s campaign for South Africa’s expulsion from the International Planned Parenthood Federation.

Issue 23 celebrated the release from prison of SWAPO women’s leader Ida Jimmy after she had served a five-year sentence. It interviewed members of the ANC’s cultural group Amandla and asked them how British women could help in the anti-apartheid struggle. The newsletter asked readers to send messages of support to Mamike Moloise, the mother of Benjamin Moloise, a young Umkhonto we Sizwe member, who was hanged after being falsely accused of murdering a South African policeman. 

ANC Women’s Section president Gertrude Shope shared her memories of working with Albertina Sisulu, after charges against 12 UDF leaders were dropped in Pietermaritzburg. The newsletter advertised an International Women’s Day picket of South Africa House to call for the release of Theresa Ramashamola and recorded successes in the campaign for a boycott of South African goods.