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In 1967 and 1968 ANC and ZAPU guerrilla units joined forces to try and fight their way through Zimbabwe to South Africa. This leaflet advertised an AAM conference that emphasised armed struggle as the main strategy for achieving liberation in Southern Africa. It gave a platform to representatives of the liberation movements from all the countries of the region. The conference took place in the climate of youth militancy that followed the 1968 student demonstrations in France and other European countries.

Background paper setting out the aims of the AAM conference on liberation and guerrilla warfare held on 6 July 1969. For a brief period in the late 1960s the AAM emphasised armed struggle as the main strategy for achieving liberation in Southern Africa. The conference gave a platform to representatives of the liberation movements from all the countries of the region. It followed the attempt by ANC guerrilla units to fight their way through Zimbabwe to South Africa in the Wankie and Sipolilo ‘incursions’ in 1967 and 1968, and took place in the climate of youth militancy that followed the 1968 student demonstrations in France and other European countries.

This leaflet advertised a fundraising event held on the evening of the AAM’s conference on liberation and guerrilla warfare, at the Round House in Camden, north London. It featured a film about Bob Dylan’s England tour ‘Don’t Look Back’ and poetry and music groups The Scaffold, Yes and Dry Ice. 

The Southern Africa Solidarity Committee was a coalition of youth and student groups set up in 1969 in the wake of the 1968 student demonstrations in France and other European countries. This leaflet publicised a march past the headquarters of companies involved in Southern Africa. It also advertised a conference on guerrilla warfare organised by the AAM and asked supporters to demonstrate against all-white South African sports teams.

Poster publicising a march past the headquarters of companies involved in Southern Africa – Unilever, Anglo American, the Daily Telegraph, Shell, Plessey and Barclays Bank – on 28 June 1969. The march was organised by the Southern Africa Solidarity Committee, a coalition of militant youth and student groups set up in 1969 in the wake of the 1968 student demonstrations in France and other European countries. 

The AAM marked its 10th anniversary with a conference on guerrilla warfare in Southern Africa on 6 July 1969. Speakers included historian Basil Davidson and representatives of ZAPU, MPLA and ANC. The conference was a turn to the left for the AAM. Paul Foot argued that it should stress the links between ‘exploiters in South Africa and in the UK’. Ruth First stressed the ‘indivisibility’ of the guerrilla struggle in Southern Africa and of the white response. Left to right: Tennyson Makiwane (ANC), Edward Ndhlovu (ZAPU), Basil Davidson.

Stop the Seventy Tour (STST) was set up to campaign against the all-white South African tour scheduled for the summer of 1970. This press release announced the launch of the group at a press conference in Fleet Street on 10 September 1969. The cricket tour was preceded by an all-white South African rugby tour of Britain and Ireland in 1969–70. STST organised direct action against the tour.

Anti-apartheid supporters protested at all 24 games played by the South African Springbok rugby team in their 1969/70 tour of Britain and Ireland. The demonstrations combined direct action which disrupted some of the games, co-ordinated by Stop the Seventy Tour (STST), and mass marches organised by the AAM. 200,000 copies of this leaflet were distributed outside the grounds.