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Eighteen people prominent in British public life staged a symbolic protest against the banning of the UDF and 16 other anti-apartheid organisations in February 1988. AAM President Trevor Huddleston and TUC General Secretary Norman Willis met British Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe to ask him to protest to the South African government. The bannings effectively outlawed all non-violent opposition to apartheid within South Africa.

AAM protestors led by Archbishop Trevor Huddleston and Labour MPs Joan Lestor and Bob Hughes protested against the banning of the UDF and 16 other anti-apartheid organisations at the entrance to Downing Street on 21 March 1988. The AAM asked supporters to mark the day by wearing ‘Ban Apartheid Sanctions Now’ stickers.

The AAM mobilised public opinion in Britain against the banning of the UDF and 16 other anti-apartheid organisations in South Africa on 24 February 1988. In the photograph Thabo Mbeki protests at a demonstration outside the South African Embassy. Immediately after the bannings AAM President Trevor Huddleston and TUC General Secretary Norman Willis met British Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe to ask him to make representations to the South African government. The bannings effectively outlawed all non-violent opposition to apartheid within South Africa.

In 1988 the apartheid regime stepped up its repression of the South African trade union movement. This leaflet highlighted four cases where trade unionists were detained or put on trial. It also publicised the situation of trade unionists in Namibia.

Leaflet advertising a Latin American music night to raise funds for the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) in 1988. The concert was organised by Camden AA Group and Kings Cross Labour Party in central London.

Young AAM supporters at a vigil for the Sharpeville Six in front of Nottingham Town Hall on 13 April 1998.

AAM activists, miners from Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire and Women against Pit Closures protested against a visit by a delegation from the South African coal industry on 21 April 1988. The delegation had come to London to lobby against coal sanctions against South Africa.

The ‘Children, Apartheid and Repression in South Africa’ conference held in London in April 1988 was a follow-up to an international conference held in Harare in 1987. It examined how professional groups could support children in South Africa and wider anti-apartheid campaigns. The conference gave a big boost to anti-apartheid campaigning among British healthworkers, social workers, lawyers, architects and teachers.