Browse the AAM Archive

‘Southern Africa – The Time to Act’ was the theme of a month of action against apartheid launched by the AAM in March 1984. The campaign was launched at a press conference in London by UN Special Committee Against Apartheid member Ambassador Sahnoun. It was taken up by anti-apartheid campaigners all over Britain. In the photograph supporters of West Glamorgan AA Group ask shoppers at a Tesco store in Swansea to boycott South African goods.

Report detailing South Africa’s military build-up in the early 1980s and its attacks on the front-line states. The Committee on South African War Resistance (COSAWR) was set up by young white South Africans who refused to be conscripted into the apartheid government’s armed forces. Increasing numbers of them were forced into exile from the late 1970s. They played an important part in anti-apartheid campaigns, especially in Britain, and COSAWR worked closely with the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

This Declaration was adopted by the GLC in December 1983. ANC President Oliver Tambo was the main speaker at the GLC’s anti-racist rally held on the anniversary of Sharpeville, 21 March 1984.

ANC President Oliver Tambo was the main speaker at the London Against Racism rally held at Friends Meeting House by the Greater London Council on 21 March 1984. In December 1983 the GLC launched an Anti-Apartheid Declaration pledging that it would discourage all links between London and apartheid South Africa.

Poster advertising a rally organised by the Greater London Council on 21 March 1984, the anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre. The main speaker was ANC President Oliver Tambo. In December 1983 the GLC launched an Anti-Apartheid Declaration pledging that it would discourage all links between London and apartheid South Africa.

ANC President Oliver Tambo was the main speaker at the London Against Racism rally held by the Greater London Council on 21 March 1984. Earlier in the day he held a press conference at County Hall. In December 1983 the GLC launched an Anti-Apartheid Declaration pledging that it would discourage all links between London and apartheid South Africa.

The AAM joined with other organisations to organise this national lobby of Parliament on the anniversary of the massacre at Sharpeville on 21 March 1960. Over 600 lobbyists met their MPs – many of them Conservatives who opposed any anti-apartheid action. At a meeting in the House of Commons Labour, Liberal and Social Democratic Party MPs pledged support for the AAM’s Southern Africa Manifesto.

This ‘Model Declaration’ for local authorities was produced by a committee set up at a conference of local authorities on Southern Africa, held in Sheffield in March 1983. It was widely circulated and taken up by many local councils.