Anti-Apartheid News

Under the headline ‘Leaflet bombs rock 5 cities’, AA News reported on the distribution of ANC pamphlets in urban centres all over South Africa. It again featured the Terrorism Act trial of ANC supporters, exposing the torture of the No. 1 accused Benjamin Ramotse. AA News announced plans by the AAM to intensify its work in the British labour movement to stop arms sales to South Africa. South African detainee John Schlapobersky described his torture by the South African security police. In an special interview, SWAPO Secretary Moses Garoeb emphasised the central role of armed struggle in Namibia’s fight for independence.

AA News exposed a proposal under which the Conservative government would retain the South African arms embargo in return for African Commonwealth countries agreement to a deal with the Smith regime in Zimbabwe. It reviewed moves at the Labour Party conference to support the arms embargo. Former NUSAS president elect John Sprack welcomed the setting up of the South African Student Organisation (SASO) by black students. A centrespread set out the facts about British economic involvement in apartheid. AA News reported on the decision of the World Council of Churches to give grants to the Southern African liberation movements.

This issue led on the AAM’s demonstration against the resumption of British arms sales to South Africa. It reported on the conference resolution asking the Labour Party NEC to give material and moral support to the Southern African liberation movements. A centrespread exposed South Africa’s attempts to diversify its overseas investments and find new markets in Japan, Western Europe and the USA. Basil Davidson described his visit to the liberated areas of Angola. Hawker Siddeley worker Ron Cook told why he would resign from the company if it supplied its missile system to South Africa.

AA News again led on the shopping list of weaponry that South Africa had submitted to the British Government. It reviewed the student day of action against British companies helping to build the Cabora Bassa dam in Mozambique and profiled ICI, exposing its support for white minority regimes throughout Southern Africa. A centrespread analysed the failure of Rhodesian sanctions and accused the British Government of planning a deal which would sell out to the white minority regime. Margaret Dickinson described her recent visit to Niassa province in Mozambique and appealed for material support for the people living in areas liberated by FRELIMO. 

AA News began 1971 with a redesign: its front page featured a Janus-like Prime Minister Edward Heath facing both ways on apartheid. The issue focused on the AAM’s campaign against the Conservative Government’s decision to resume arms sales to South Africa. Over 100,000 people signed a Declaration opposing the sales and thousands attended nationwide meetings and rallies. AA News featured major British companies with big stakes in apartheid and reported on the spread of FRELIMO guerrilla activity to Tete province, home of the Cabora Bassa dam. It exposed South Africa’s growing economic ties with Israel, Ivory Coast and Iran. 

The March issue exposed leading Tory MPS who profited from apartheid through their holdings in companies with big stakes in South Africa. A special article featured the far-right Monday Club, founded in 1961 in reaction to Harold Macmillan’s ‘wind of change’ speech. A centrespread described the inequalities of the apartheid education system. Guy Clutton-Brock, recently deported from Zimbabwe, told how Zimbabweans looked to the liberation movement ZAPU for the removal of the minority white regime, rather than to the British Government. AA News endorsed an appeal by SACTU for support from British trade unions.

The April issue slated South Africa’s white-led churches for their failure to take any meaningful steps to oppose apartheid. It exposed the decision by the British Steel Corporation to hand over its South African operation to the government-owned Iron and Steel Corporation of South Africa. It attacked the failure of the Nixon administration in the USA to implement anti-apartheid policies and revealed French collaboration with South Africa’s armed forces. A centrespread featured the education and social systems being built by the liberation movements of Portugal’s African colonies in the areas they had freed from Portuguese control. 

The British Government was about to launch new talks with the illegal Smith regime in Zimbabwe, warned AA News. The issue previewed demonstrations against the Springbok rugby and cricket tours of Australia. It reported on the disruption of Barclays Bank’s AGM by supporters of the Dambusters Mobilising Committee and on the US Presbyterian Church’s challenge to Gulf Oil over its oil shareholdings in Angola. Former political prisoner Lewis Baker told how life under apartheid drove people to break the law and described the living conditions of long-term political prisoners. Former conscript Howard Smith told of his experiences in the South African Defence Force.