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Poster publicising an anti-apartheid conference organised by a coalition of groups in south London in April 1988. 

South Africa’s rule over Namibia was illegal under international law. The AAM focused on this in calling for the British government to support UN mandatory sanctions against the apartheid regime.  

On 4 May 1978 South African troops massacred over 600 Namibian refugees at Kassinga in southern Angola. Hundreds more were abducted and detained at a South African military base in northern Namibia. This poster commemorated the tenth anniversary of the massacre.

Trade union support for anti-apartheid activities was especially strong in Scotland. This conference took place in May 1988, as the apartheid government stepped up its attempts to intimidate South African and Namibian trade unionists. It discussed how to involve Scottish trade union members in AAM campaigns and how individual unions could support their sister unions in Southern Africa.

In 1988 Local Authorities Against Apartheid (LAAA) organised a conference to discuss positive ways in which British organisations could support the development of the frontline states in Southern Africa. The key speaker at the conference was Jorge Rebelo from FRELIMO.

In May 1988 Local Authorities Against Apartheid organised a conference for local councils on ‘Building Links with the Frontline States’. The conference discussed how to twin local authorities in Britain with their counterparts in the countries of Southern Africa. This pamphlet published the keynote addresses made by Zambian Deputy Foreign Minister Mavis Muyunda and FRELIMO leader Jorge Rebelo.

In 1988 the AAM launched a new initiative for Mandela’s release, ‘Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70’. It was discussed at the ANC’s international solidarity conference in Arusha, Tanzania in December 1987 and developed into the biggest campaign ever organised by the AAM. It began with a birthday tribute concert at Wembley on 11 June and culminated in a rally attended by 250,000 people in Hyde Park on 17 July, the eve of Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday.

Supporters of Greater London Pensioners call for the release of the Sharpeville Six outside South Africa House in June 1988. The Six were condemned to hang because they were present at a protest where black collaborators were killed. After a big international campaign their sentence was commuted in July 1988.