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Card with design featuring Nelson and Winnie Mandela.

AAM supporters held a prayer vigil on the steps of Kingston Guildhall to show their opposition to a proposal by Kingston Council to invest pension funds in South Africa. Kingston Trades Council presented a petition to the Council asking it to reconsider.

Actor Leonard Fenton, a stars of the TV soap EastEnders, presented the first prize of a holiday in China in the AAM’s 1988 Prize Raffle. Fundraising was an important part of the AAM’s activities. It depended entirely on small donations and fundraising projects and received no grants from government or major donor institutions.

Still from a film advertisement promoting the boycott of South African goods, made by the TUC. The ad was shown in cinemas throughout Britain. It won the Gold Lion Award at the 34th Cannes International Advertising film Festival.

An English cricket team, led by Mike Gatting, planned to tour South Africa in 1990. This letter from the AAM’s President Archbishop Trevor Huddleston expressed dismay at Prime Minister Thatcher’s failure to implement the Commonwealth Gleneagles Agreement, committing governments to do all in the power to end sporting relations with South Africa.

In December 1988 South Africa agreed to a UN Plan for the Independence of Namibia, which laid down conditions for the holding of free elections in November 1989. The conditions included the release of all political prisoners and confinement of South African troops to base. This leaflet accused South Africa of incorporating members of Koevoet, a South African Defence Force unit known for its brutality, into the police force. The Namibia Emergency Campaign was set up by the AAM and the Namibia Solidarity Committee to campaign for free and fair elections in Namibia. 

In December 1988 South Africa signed the UN Plan for the Independence of Namibia, which led to the holding of free elections in November 1989. With the Namibia Support Committee, the AAM set up a Namibia Emergency Campaign to mobilise British support for Namibian independence and solidarity with the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO).

In 1989 Bristol AA Group set up a Southern Africa Resource Centre to provide educational resources on Southern Africa and encourage links between groups in the south-west of England and the frontline states. The project was funded by individual donations.