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Activists in the multi-racial area of St Paul’s, Bristol declared it an anti-apartheid free zone in the mid-1980s. Opposition to apartheid was so strong that the local Tesco’s stopped stocking South African goods.

In 1985 the local community association in the multi-racial St Paul’s area of Bristol launched a campaign to persuade local shops and businesses to end all links with South Africa. After a slow start, the great majority of local shops and all seven pubs in the area agreed to boycott apartheid products. This newsletter reproduced a Declaration signed by local businesses. The campaign gained such momentum that the local Tesco’s branch agreed not to stock South African goods.

In 1985 the local community association in the multi-racial St Paul’s area of Bristol launched a campaign to persuade local shops and businesses to end all links with South Africa. After a slow start, the great majority of local shops and all seven pubs in the area stopped selling apartheid products. The community association also asked local businesses to boycott Barclays Bank. Its annual report described the progress of the campaign. 

Anti-apartheid supporters in the multi-racial district of St Paul’s, Bristol campaigned to turn the area into an apartheid-free zone in the mid-1980s. Most of the area’s independent shops and businesses signed a declaration pledging themselves to boycott South African goods. The local branch of Tesco stopped stocking South African products.

The AAM followed up its 1985 March month of boycott with a day of action focusing on Tesco on 6 July. Anti-apartheid campaigners distributed this leaflet outside Tesco stores all over Britain. The Tesco branch in the multi-racial area of St Paul’s, Bristol, was the first to announce that it would stop selling South African products.

An arson attack was made on the AAM office at 13 Mandela Street, central London, in July 1985. In the photograph AAM Executive Secretary Mike Terry examines the extensive damage done to the building.

On 20 July 1985 the apartheid government imposed a draconian State of Emergency in key areas of South Africa. As well as protesting outside the South African Embassy, the AAM met Conservative Foreign Office Minister Malcolm Rifkind to press for sanctions against South Africa.

President P W Botha imposed a state of emergency over large parts of South Africa on 20 July 1985. The army and police were ordered to ‘shoot to kill’ protesters and many African townships were sealed off from the outside world. This AAM leaflet accused the British government of being the ‘Number One Protector’ of apartheid by blocking sanctions within the Commonwealth and at the UN.