Browse the AAM Archive

This report argued that Marconi’s contract to supply troposcatter communications equipment to South Africa was a breach of the arms embargo imposed by the 1974 Labour government. The equipment was to be used to send information from the South African forces fighting SWAPO guerrillas in northern Namibia to the Defence Department’s computer centre in the Cape. The AAM argued that the arms ban should cover all equipment with ‘dual purpose’ military and civilian use and that no equipment should be sold to the South African defence forces.

In 1976 the AAM campaigned to stop the supply of GEC-Marconi communications equipment to the South African Defence Force on the grounds that it breached the Labour government’s arms embargo. It argued the system would be used against SWAPO guerrillas in Namibia. After the government decided that the equipment would require an export licence, the apartheid government announced that communications in Namibia would in future be the responsibility of the South African Post Office. In October 1976 the British government announced that it would grant an export licence. This AAM fact sheet called for a parliamentary enquiry to investigate loopholes in the British arms embargo.

Former Robben Island prisoner Joseph Mdluli was killed by South African Security Police on 19 March 1976, the day after he was detained under the Terrorism Act. This picket was part of a three-day protest outside South Africa House, 7–9 April. Demonstrators carried placards with the names of the 23 other people known to have died in detention. In the mid-1970s there was a big increase in the number of South Africans detained without trial.

Joseph Mdluli was an anti-apartheid activist who died within 24 hours of his arrest by the South African Security Police. He was the 24th detainee known to have died in detention. This leaflet advertised a picket of the South African Embassy to protest against police torture and call for the release of all South African political prisoners.

Former Robben Island prisoner Joseph Mdluli was killed by South African Security Police on 19 March 1976, the day after he was detained under the Terrorism Act. This picket by 300 ANC and AAM supporters on 9 April was the climax of a three-day protest against his death outside South Africa House. In the photograph are Bishops Richard Wood and Colin Winter.

 

Agenda for the AAM’s first women’s conference, held in April 1976. It was attended by 150 people from women’s organisations, trade unions and church groups. Speakers included former South African political prisoners Dulcie September and Joyce Sikakane, Labour minister Margaret Jackson and Pauline Webb from the Methodist Church Overseas Division.

The AAM held its first women’s conference in April 1976. It was attended by 150 people from women’s organisations, trade unions and church groups. Speakers included former South African political prisoners Dulcie September and Joyce Sikakane, Ethel de Keyser from the AAM, Labour minister Margaret Jackson and Pauline Webb from the Methodist Church Overseas Division.

Over 150 women attended an AAM conference on Women Under Apartheid on 24 April 1976. Speakers included Dulcie September and Joyce Sikakane from South Africa, Ethel de Keyser from the AAM, representatives of the NUS and the trade union AUEW (TASS), and Methodist Pauline Webb.