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Leaflet publicising the London AA Committee’s 1987 annual conference. The committee was set up in the 1970s to co-ordinate the work of local London AA groups and student, trade union, faith and community groups. The committee was made up of elected delegates from local AA groups and affiliated organisations and held monthly meetings. In 1987 it organised London-wide events to promote the consumer boycott of South African goods and the Boycott Shell campaign.

This conference in Glasgow was organised as part of the AAM’s month of people’s sanctions in March 1987. Workshops discussed campaigning on Namibia and the frontline states as well as South Africa. The conference brought together participants from churches, trade unions, professional groups and ethnic minority organisations. From its formation in 1976 the Scottish AA Committee held events in Scotland that tied in with national events organised by the AAM in London.

The Manifesto for Sanctions was published on 21 January 1987 as part of an AAM initiative to reach a wider cross-section of British public opinion and force Prime Minister Thatcher to rethink her opposition to sanctions. It was distributed to nearly every candidate in the June 1987 British general election and endorsed by 400 candidates. The AAM targeted 41 parliamentary constituencies where there were strong local AA groups in an attempt to make Southern Africa an issue in the election campaign. 

In 1987 the Scottish AA Committee opened an office in Clyde Street, Glasgow. Later the office moved to 52 St Enoch Square. This leaflet appealed for funding from trade unions, churches and other sympathetic groups and individuals. After 1994, the office at St Enoch Square continued as a base for ACTSA (Action for Southern Africa) Scotland.

An international campaign to force Shell to withdraw from South Africa was launched in 1987 by anti-apartheid organisations in the Netherlands, USA and UK. The AAM called for a boycott of all Shell products and local AA groups picketed Shell garages all over Britain. Shell’s share of the UK petrol market fell by 6.6 per cent. This badge was produced for the campaign.

An international campaign to force Shell to withdraw from South Africa was launched in 1987 by anti-apartheid organisations in the Netherlands, USA and UK. The AAM called for a boycott of all Shell products and local AA groups picketed Shell garages all over Britain. Shell’s share of the UK petrol market fell by 6.6 per cent. This badge was produced for the campaign.

Poster publicising the international campaign to force Shell to withdraw from South Africa launched in 1987 by anti-apartheid organisations in the Netherlands, USA and Britain. The AAM called for a boycott of all Shell products and local AA groups picketed Shell garages all over Britain. Shell lost major contracts with local authorities and its annual general meeting on 11 May 1988 was disrupted by anti-apartheid activists. As a result of the campaign, Shell’s share of the UK petrol market fell by 6.6 per cent.

In the mid-1980s there was a big increase in the number of political prisoners sentenced to hang in South Africa. At least 36 people were condemned to death in 1985–87 and five of them were executed. SATIS co-ordinated a ‘No Apartheid Executions’ campaign, drawing in thousands of people who had never been involved in anti-apartheid activity. As a result of international action and campaigns inside South Africa, many survived on death row until they were reprieved as part of the negotiating process in the early 1990s.