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Gerry Cordon remembers the student occupation of Liverpool University Senate House in March 1970 in support of ‘Five Demands’ that included an end to Liverpool University’s connections with South Africa.

Poster for the AAM’s campaign against the resumption of arms sales to South Africa by the 1970–74 Conservative government. The campaign was supported by the churches and the TUC. It involved marches, threats by trade unionists to boycott work on arms for South Africa and a 100,000-signature declaration presented at the 1971 Commonwealth conference in Singapore. As a result of the campaign, the only weapons sold were five Westland Wasp helicopters.

Poster for the Anti-Apartheid Movement’s campaign against the resumption of arms sales to South Africa by the 1970–74 Conservative government. The campaign was supported by the churches and the TUC. It involved marches, threats by trade unionists to boycott work on arms for South Africa and a 100,000-signature declaration presented at the 1971 Commonwealth conference in Singapore. As a result of the campaign, the only weapons sold were five Westland helicopters.

The huge Cabora Bassa dam project in Mozambique was a collaboration between South Africa, Rhodesia and Portugal. The project was intended to supply electricity to South Africa. This pamphlet was written for the Dambusters Mobilising Committee, a coalition of groups set up to campaign against the involvement of British companies in the project. The pamphlet and a campaign poster were funded by the WCC’s Programme to Combat Racism.

In February 1971 the AAM set up a special committee to campaign for political prisoners and detainees. It called on the South African government to include political prisoners in the amnesty announced to mark the tenth anniversary of the republic. This poster was produced for the campaign. The prisoners shown include Nelson Mandela, Bram Fischer and Dorothy Nyembe.

Poster summarising apartheid laws.

This poster was one of a series about repression under apartheid. It featured South African exile Jan Hoogendyk dressed as a South African policeman. The 1967 Terrorism Act gave the police power to detain people indefinitely without disclosing where they were being held. At least 15 prisoners died in detention in the first few years of the Act.

Pamphlet documenting the use of torture in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. The pamphlet shows how the apartheid legal system was used as window-dressing for a totalitarian regime and covers key trials in the early 1970s, including that of Winnie Mandela. It was published by the International Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF) and distributed by the Anti-Apartheid Movement.