Browse the AAM Archive

Carrier bag produced for the AAM’s Month of Boycott Action in March 1985.

Badge calling for a boycott of South African goods, produced in the USA.

South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) representative Shapua Kaukungua spoke at a rally to mark SWAPO’s 25th anniversary on 18 April 1985. The rally was organised by the AAM and the Namibia Support Committee.

The London Borough of Islington made this Declaration on Southern Africa in 1985. As well as boycotting South African and Namibian goods and withdrawing investments from companies involved in South Africa, it pledged it would encourage the positive history of the Southern Africa freedom struggle in Islington schools.

Memorandum arguing for a review of British government policy on Namibia. The memorandum urged the British government to support mandatory measures against South Africa under Chapter VII of the UN Charter if South Africa continued to obstruct talks on Namibian independence.

Letter from Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe in response to the AAM’s memorandum ‘Britain and Namibia’. He stated that although the British government did not regard the withdrawal of Cuban forces from Angola as an essential precondition of Namibian independence, in practice withdrawal offered the best prospect for the success of negotiations.

City of London Anti-Apartheid Group was formed in 1982. Its first activity was a non-stop 24-hour picket to demand the transfer of political prisoner David Kitson from Pretoria Central Prison. This 24-hour vigil to demand the release of Nelson Mandela held in June 1985 was a precursor of the four-year non-stop picket of the South African Embassy organised by the group from 1986 to 1990. The picket attracted hundreds of enthusiastic young activists.

South Africa diversified its exports in the early 1980s to include textiles and household products. AAM campaigners targeted leading clothes chains like Next, Austin Reed and Country Casuals. In November 1984 Next announced it would not renew its contract for South African clothing.