Browse the AAM Archive

The South African Barbarians rugby team’s tour of Britain in 1979 was part of South Africa’s attempt to get back into world rugby. This leaflet publicised a protest at the team’s fixture against Coventry organised by the local anti-apartheid group. It appealed to British trade unionists to support their fellow workers in South Africa.

Demonstrators protested in Coventry on 17 October 1979 against a visit by the South African ‘Barbarians’ rugby team. The eight-match tour of Britain was part of South Africa’s attempt to get back into world rugby. There were protests at every match. The Sports Council, TUC, British Council of Churches, and Labour and Liberal Parties all called for the cancellation of the tour.

This sweatshirt featuring the AAM badge was produced in a range of colours by the AAM. The design was first used by Barnet AA Group, which pioneered the production of T-shirts and sweatshirts publicising AAM campaigns in the late 1970s.

Talks on a settlement in Zimbabwe opened at Lancaster House in London in September 1979. This leaflet argued that only a genuine transfer of power could bring peace and an end to the guerrilla war. It called for the maintenance of sanctions and for no recognition of the ‘internal settlement’ agreed in March 1978.

From 1970 the National Union of Students worked closely with the AAM, and students all over Britain joined anti-apartheid campaigns. This poster, showing South African school students in Soweto in 1976, called for a boycott of South African goods and support for the ANC.

Poster published by the British Communist Party asking shoppers not to buy South African goods. From the formation of the Boycott Campaign in the summer of 1959 the Communist Party supported the boycott of South Africa. Its newspaper, the Morning Star, continued to give full coverage to Anti-Apartheid Movement demonstrations and campaigns. 

Poster for a seminar organised by the AAM and the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid, 2–4 November 1979. The seminar planned internationally co-ordinated campaigns against corporations that exported arms and oil to South Africa and against banks and financial institutions.

Leaflet publicising a demonstration on 11 November 1979 during the Lancaster House talks on Zimbabwe, organised by the Zimbabwe Emergency Coordinating Committee (ZECC). ZECC warned that the British government was siding with the Muzorewa government set up by the internal agreement in Zimbabwe. It called for support for the Patriotic Front, an alliance of ZANU and ZAPU. ZECC was a broad coalition of British organisations brought together by the AAM.