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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.

Protesters in Southampton demonstrated against the import of uranium from Namibia through the city’s docks in February 1989. The protest was organised by Southampton AA Group and local supporters of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Green Party.

Early in 1989 more than 300 South African detainees went on hunger strike in protest against their detention without trial. Altogether over 1,000 people were held without charge, some of them for over two years. AAM and ANC supporters held a vigil outside South Africa House. Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society (SATIS) asked British Foreign Office Minister Lynda Chalker to tell the South African ambassador that his government must release the detainees.

The AAM campaigned to stop the 1990 rebel cricket tour of South Africa, led by Mike Gatting, picketing over 40 county cricket matches involving members of the team. This poster advertises a demonstration at the NatWest Final held at Lords cricket ground on 2 September 1989.  The tour was cut short by protests inside South Africa and made a big financial loss.