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Demonstrators outside the London headquarters of Fluor UK on 10 March 1980. Fluor was the British subsidiary of a US multinational that was bidding for a contract to build a new oil-from-coal plant for the South African state energy company SASOL. The picket was organised by End Loans to Southern Africa (ELTSA).

In 1964 David Kitson was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment for sabotage. In the late 1950s he worked as a draughtsman in Britain and was a member of the trade union DATA, later TASS. As soon as it heard of his arrest, the union formed the Free Dave Kitson Committee. For the next 20 years TASS campaigned for his release and helped support his family. David Kitson served his full sentence and was freed in 1984.

Poster advertising a rally on 17 April 1980 to celebrate the conclusion of the Lancaster House talks agreeing the settlement that led to one-person one-vote elections in Zimbabwe.

Gerritt Viljoen was appointed Administrator General of South West Africa as part of South Africa’s imposition of an ‘internal settlement’ in Namibia. In April 1980 he held talks in London with Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington at the British Foreign Office. This leaflet was distributed by anti-apartheid supporters outside a South Africa Club dinner at the Savoy Hotel, where Viljoen was the guest speaker. 

On 4 May 1978 South African troops massacred over 600 Namibian refugees at Kassinga in southern Angola. After the massacre hundreds of Namibians were abducted from refugee transit centres in southern Angola and around 130 of them were detained indefinitely at a South African military base in northern Namibia. Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society (SATIS) and the Namibia Support Committee campaigned for their release. These postcards called on the South African government to free them and asked the British Foreign Secretary and UN Secretary General to intervene. The detainees were eventually released in 1984.

AAM supporters protested outside South Africa House in May 1980 on the second anniversary of the Kassinga massacre. They carried placards with the names of some of the 137 Namibians abducted from the Kassinga refugee camp in Angola by the South African Defence Force in May 1978. Over 600 Namibian refugees were massacred in the raid. Left to right: Labour MP Chris Mullin, Bishop Colin Winter and Labour MP Joan Lestor.

The AAM organised this conference in May 1980 to discuss action on South Africa and Namibia in the new situation created by the independence of Zimbabwe. It was attended by over 400 participants from student, trade union and church organisations. High on the agenda were campaigns to free Nelson Mandela and against Western nuclear collaboration with South Africa. The speakers included representatives of the ANC and SWAPO, Dan Smith from CND, Sam Ramsamy, Chair of the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SANROC) and Brian Wood of the Namibia Support Committee.

After Zimbabwe achieved majority government in 1980, the AAM warned against any relaxation of attempts to end apartheid in South Africa and Namibia. This leaflet argued against British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s statement that there should be an end to the isolation of South Africa. Instead it called on  the British government to support UN mandatory economic sanctions against South Africa and for solidarity with the frontline states. The leaflet announced two weeks of intensive campaigning, 16–30 June 1980.