Browse the AAM Archive

Exeter AA Group collected thousands of signatures to this petition in 1985, calling on Exeter City Council to to declare itself an apartheid free zone. Sheffield City Council was the first local authority in Britain end all links with South Africa, in 1981.

The uprising in the townships of the southern Transvaal from September 1984 triggered a new wave of repression by the apartheid government. On 21 March 1985 40 people were shot by the South African police at Langa in the Eastern Cape. Two days before this demonstration took place, South African forces killed 16 people in Gaborone, Botswana. Thousands of demonstrators marched through central London to protest against the killings. They called at the headquarters of Shell, Barclays Bank and the Ministry of Defence to demand that British companies and the Conservative government end their links with South Africa.

Poster advertising an AAM rally calling for sanctions against South Africa on 16 June 1985. The uprising in the townships of the southern Transvaal from September 1984 triggered a new wave of repression. On 21 March 1985 40 people were shot by the South African police at Langa in the Eastern Cape. Two days before, South African forces killed 16 people in Gaborone, Botswana. Thousands of demonstrators marched through central London to protest against the killings. They called at the headquarters of Shell, Barclays Bank and the Ministry of Defence to demand that British companies and the Conservative government end their links with South Africa.

25,000 anti-apartheid supporters marched up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square on 16 June 1985 to demand sanctions against South Africa. They carried coffins symbolising the victims of South African security force massacres in Namibia and South Africa.

25,000 anti-apartheid supporters marched up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square on 16 June 1985 to demand sanctions against South Africa. They carried coffins symbolising the victims of South African security force massacres in Namibia and South Africa.

A delegation entered Downing Street to deliver a letter calling on Prime Minister Thatcher to drop her opposition to sanctions against South Africa, as demonstrators marched up Whitehall on 16 June 1985. In the photograph are Zerbanoo Gifford from the Liberal Party, AAM Executive Secretary, Mike Terry, President, Trevor Huddleston and Chair, Bob Hughes MP, Hidipo Hamutenya and Shapua Kaukungua from SWAPO, Rivonia trialist Denis Goldberg and Clarence Thompson from the West Indian Standing Conference.

Clarence Thompson, General Secretary of the West Indian Standing Conference, speaking at the AAM rally in Trafalgar Square on 16 June 1985. 25,000 people marched up Whitehall to Trafalgar Square on 16 June 1985 to demand sanctions against South Africa. Left to right: Jerry Herman from the US Disinvestment Campaign, Trevor Huddleston, Denis Goldberg of the ANC, Clarence Thompson, Zerbanoo Gifford of the Liberal Party and SWAPO leader Hidipo Hamutenya.

A supporter of End Loans to Southern Africa (ELTSA) at a Barclays cashpoint on Victoria Street, central London, 16 June 1985. His P W Botha mask symbolised Barclays Bank’s support for the apartheid regime.