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Leaflet publicising a demonstration on 13 February 1972 against the Conservative government’s proposals for a settlement with Ian Smith. The demonstration was organised by the Rhodesia Emergency Campaign Committee (RECC), an umbrella group set up to mobilise opposition to the proposals in Britain. The AAM estimated that over half a million campaign leaflets, stickers, posters and badges were distributed over the next few months.

Rally in Trafalgar Square calling for No Independence Before Majority Rule (NIBMAR) in Zimbabwe on 13 February 1972. Around 15,000 people marched from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square to protest against the British government’s agreement with the Smith regime. Bishop Abel Muzorewa said the settlement was not acceptable to the majority in Rhodesia. Other speakers at the rally were the leader of the Clyde shipbuilders work-in Jimmy Reid, black activist Althea Jones and Labour MP Michael Foot.

Rally in Trafalgar Square calling for No Independence Before Majority Rule (NIBMAR) in Zimbabwe on 13 February 1972. Around 15,000 people marched from Hyde Park to Trafalgar Square to protest against the British government’s agreement with the Smith regime. Bishop Abel Muzorewa said the settlement was not acceptable to the majority in Rhodesia. Other speakers at the rally were the leader of the Clyde shipbuilders work-in Jimmy Reid, black activist Althea Jones and Labour MP Michael Foot.

A protester is dragged away during scuffles with police after a rally in Trafalgar Square demanding No Independence Before Majority Rule in Zimbabwe on 13 February 1972. At the end of the rally demonstrators marched to Rhodesia House in the Strand, where the police brought up reinforcements, including police horses. The police then charged into the crowd and police snatch squads made arbitrary arrests. Altogether 43 people were arrested.

The first issue of the University of East Anglia Anti-Apartheid Group’s newsletter publicised fundraising for the African National Council of Rhodesia. The ANC was spearheading African rejection of British government proposals for an agreement with the white minority regime. Fundraising for the liberation movements was one of the main student activities on Southern Africa in the 1970s.

In the early 1970s University of East Anglia students set up a scholarship for a student from Southern Africa. This issue of the UEA Anti-Apartheid Group’s newsletter publicised events to raise funds for the scholarship. It also publicised African opposition to the British government’s proposals for a deal with the white minority regime in Rhodesia.

A petition calling for no independence for Rhodesia before majority rule was delivered to 10 Downing Street on 21 March 1972. It was part of the AAM’s campaign for the rejection of the Conservative government’s 1971 proposals for a settlement with the illegal Smith regime. The petition was widely circulated and reprinted in the Guardian newspaper. It was signed by 80,000 people. On the left in the photograph are Labour MPs Joan Lestor and Alex Lyon and on the right trade union leader Jack Jones.

The Pearce Commission was set up to determine whether the proposals agreed by the Conservative government and the Smith regime in November 1971 were acceptable to the majority of the Zimbabwean people. The AAM organised daily pickets outside the Commission’s London hearings in March 1972 calling for no independence before majority rule. The Commission found that the majority of Zimbabweans rejected the proposals, in spite of widespread intimidation within the country.