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In October 1976 a conference opened in Geneva to discuss new proposals for a settlement in Zimbabwe. This leaflet argued that the talks were designed to protect British and American interests in Southern Africa, rather than achieve majority rule. It called for tougher sanctions and support for the liberation movements.

From 1969, the AAM held regular conferences for British trade unionists on Southern Africa. This conference took place in November 1976, soon after South African workers had gone on strike in support of school students as part of the protests that swept South Africa after the Soweto uprising. 

Paper prepared for a conference for British trade unionists organised by the AAM in November 1976. In the mid-1970s the AAM focused on persuading institutions to disinvest from companies with a big financial stake in South Africa. This paper provided case studies of leading British companies and their South African interests.

Angolan women’s leaders Maria Mambo and Ruth Neto spoke at this meeting in London on 11 November 1976. The meeting was chaired by British trade unionist Terry Marsden. Polly Gaster, the former Secretary of the Committee for Freedom in Mozambique, Angola and Guiné, appealed for material support for Angola and Mozambique to help them fight attacks by South Africa and the Rhodesian white minority regime.

The AAM worked closely with the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU). This leaflet advertised a meeting organised jointly by the AAM and SACTU, with speakers from two major British trade unions.

This memorandum asked the British labour movement to pressure British Leyland to recognise the Metal and Allied Workers Union (MAWU) in South Africa. Leyland South Africa was a wholly owned subsidiary of British Leyland. The AAM argued that Leyland’s refusal to recognise the union demonstrated the failure of the British government’s code of conduct for British firms operating in South Africa.

In 1976 the AAM publicised Barclays Bank’s purchase of South African defence bonds, issued to help the apartheid government fight SWAPO guerrillas in Namibia. This letter from Prime Minister James Callaghan to AAM Chair Bob Hughes MP acknowledged that public opinion in Britain was opposed to the purchase and promised to raise the matter with Barclays.

Leaflet explaining why the Anti-Apartheid Movement singled out Barclays Bank in its anti-apartheid boycott campaign. As well as owning South Africa’s biggest high street bank, Barclays operated in illegally occupied Namibia and was undermining sanctions against the illegal Smith regime in Rhodesia. The boycott had succeeded in forcing Barclays to sell the £6 million worth of South African defence bonds it had purchased in 1976.