Browse the AAM Archive

Letter from Lynda Chalker, Minister of State at the Foreign Office, telling the AAM Women‘s Committee that the British government had asked the South African government to commute the death sentences on the Sharpeville Six. One of the six was a woman, Theresa Ramashamola. The six were condemned to death for taking part in a demonstration at which a black deputy mayor was killed. They were eventually reprieved in July 1988 after spending two and a half years on death row. 

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. The AAM called for a boycott of all Shell products. These postcards reproduced campaign materials and were designed to be sent to the managers of Shell garages and Shell executives. As a result of the campaign Shell lost major contracts with local authorities. Its share of the UK petrol market fell by nearly 7 per cent.

Briefing for MPs speaking in the House of Commons debate called in response the banning of the United Democratic Front and other anti-apartheid organisations in South Africa in 1988. The AAM argued that the bannings showed that the British government’s strategy of encouraging President Botha to negotiate the ending of apartheid lacked credibility.

Hammersmith and Fulham AA Group members held a year-long weekly picket of this Shell garage on Fulham Road in west London. The photograph shows health workers from Charing Cross Hospital at the protest. On 1 March 1987 the AAM launched a boycott of Shell as part of an international campaign organised jointly with groups in the USA and the Netherlands. Shell was joint owner of one of South Africa’s biggest oil refineries and a lead company in its coalmining and petrochemicals industries.

In the late 1980s there was a big increase in the number of political prisoners sentenced to death in South Africa. The African National Congress organised this meeting in London to alert public opinion in Britain.

Leaflet publicising a memorial meeting for Steve Biko and a collection for South African refugees.

Leaflet publicising a public meeting held during the AAM’s month of action in solidarity with the frontline states in March 1988. The AAM stepped up campaigning against South Africa’s aggression against neighbouring states in response to escalating attacks on Angola in the autumn of 1987. South Africa’s failure to capture the town of Cuito Cuanavale in Southern Angola in March 1988 was one of the turning points of the Southern African liberation struggle. 

This leaflet was distributed during the AAM’s month of action in solidarity with the frontline states in March 1988. During the month local AA groups held meetings and demonstrations to draw attention to South Africa’s attacks on neighbouring states. A highlight of the month was a visit to Britain by Graça Machel, who spoke at a packed meeting in Oxford and at the Scottish Labour Party’s annual conference in Perth.