Browse the AAM Archive

Bomb damage at the ANC office at Penton Street in north London after an explosion early in the morning of 14 March 1982. The bomb was placed by South African agents on the day of the AAM’s ‘Southern Africa: the Time to Choose’ rally at which Oliver Tambo was scheduled to speak. The bombing was the worst of a series of undercover operations, including break-ins and burglaries at the ANC, SWAPO and AAM offices.

The ANC’s London office was seriously damaged by a bomb planted at the back of the building in the early morning of 14 March 1982. This appeal, signed by Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, trade unionist Jack Jones and the leaders of the Labour and Liberal Parties, asked the British public to contribute to a fund to help the ANC rebuild and re-equip its offices.

One of a set of posters produced for the AAM’s ‘Southern Africa: The Time to Choose’ demonstration on 14 March 1982. At the same time as it called for the total isolation of South Africa, the AAM called for support for the liberation movements and all those fighting for freedom in Southern Africa. After Zimbabwe won its independence in 1980, the AAM concentrated its activities on Namibia and South Africa.

One of a set of posters produced for the AAM’s ‘Southern Africa: The Time to Choose’ demonstration on 14 March 1982. At the same time as it called for the total isolation of South Africa, the AAM called for support for the liberation movements and all those fighting for freedom in Southern Africa. After Zimbabwe won its independence in 1980, the AAM concentrated its activities on Namibia and South Africa.

One of a set of posters produced for the AAM’s ‘Southern Africa: The Time to Choose’ demonstration on 14 March 1982. At the same time as it called for the total isolation of South Africa, the AAM called for support for the liberation movements and all those fighting for freedom in Southern Africa. After Zimbabwe won its independence in 1980, the AAM concentrated its activities on Namibia and South Africa.

One of a set of four posters produced for the AAM’s ‘Southern Africa: The Time to Choose’ demonstration on 14 March 1982. The isolation of apartheid South Africa was the central theme of Anti-Apartheid Movement campaigns from its foundation as the Boycott Movement in 1959. It worked to isolate apartheid in every arena, including sport and culture, and trade and investment. 

This poster reproduced the centrespread of a Special Supplement to the March 1982 edition of the AAM’s monthly newspaper Anti-Apartheid News. It was produced as part of the publicity material for the AAM’s 1982 campaign ‘Southern Africa: The Time to Choose’.

Activists in the National Graphical Association (NGA) began a campaign in the 1970s to have the South African Typographical Association (SATU) expelled from the International Graphical Federation (IGF) until work in the South African printing industry and membership of the appropriate trade union was not defined by race. These extracts from the verbatim reports of the NGA’s Biennial Delegate Meetings of 1982, 1984 and 1986 tell how the initiative of activists within the NGA led to SATU’s expulsion from the IGF in 1986.