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The End Conscription Campaign was launched in South Africa in 1984 to defend young South Africans who refused compulsory service in the South African Defence Force. South African war resisters forced into exile in Britain set up their own organisation, the Committee on South African War Resistance (COSAWR), which worked closely with the AAM. This meeting, held on 3 February 1987, was organised by the Catholic Institute for International Relations (CIIR), War Resisters International (WRI) and the AAM.

AAM supporters marked the centenary of mining company Consolidated Gold Fields on 9 February 1987 by demonstrating outside its headquarters with this birthday cake. The slices show that the company paid 34% of its turnover in taxes to the South African government and only 13% in wages to its black workers.

From its formation in 1978 the Anti-Apartheid Health Committee exposed the impact of apartheid on the health and well-being of black South Africans. This leaflet was widely distributed among health professionals and National Health Service workers in Britain.

Leaflet publicising a fundraising concert organised by Tower Hamlets AA Group at the Half Moon Theatre in east London in 1987. The event was sponsored by the local council’s arts committee.

Mug marking the 75th anniversary of the founding of the African National Congress in 1987.

Brent AA Group supporters with their local MP Ken Livingstone asked shoppers to boycott South African goods sold by Tesco in February 1987 on the eve of the AAM’s March Month of People’s Sanctions.

Nottingham AA Group converted a local bus to publicise the campaign for a boycott of South African goods and of Shell. 

An international campaign to force Shell to withdraw from South Africa was launched in 1987 by anti-apartheid organisations in the Netherlands, USA and Britain. In Britain the AAM called for a boycott of all Shell products and all over the country local AA groups picketed Shell garages. Shell lost major contracts with local authorities and its AGM 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 nearly 7 per cent.