Boycott

This leaflet was produced as part of a citywide London campaign to persuade Sainsbury’s to stop stocking South African goods. The London AA Committee set up a special boycott group which met Sainsbury’s directors to put the case for a boycott. Sainsbury’s claimed to have reduced their South African products to less than 1 per cent of total sales.

South Africa diversified its exports in the early 1980s to include textiles and household products. This leaflet asked shoppers to boycott clothes made in South Africa and karakul furs exported from Namibia. In 1985 the TUC wrote to major clothing retailers asking them not to stock clothing made in South Africa. Several chains announced they would not renew their South African contracts. South African textile exports to Britain fell by 35% between 1983 and 1986.

Leaflet advertising a conference organised by the London Anti-Apartheid Committee to co-ordinate community action in the campaign to boycott South African goods. The aim of the conference was to share ideas for practical action to extend the boycott. Topics for discussion included liaison with trade unions and co-ordinating with community and religious leaders and ethnic minority communities.  

Ras Kuomba Balogun of St Paul’s Apartheid Free Zone Campaign in Bristol and Marion Wallace of End Loans of Southern Africa (ELTSA) at the London AA Committee’s ‘Making the Boycott Bite’ conference, 30 November 1986.

Exeter AA Group published this detailed guide for shoppers, showing which shops in Exeter did not stock products from South Africa.

Local residents in the Forest Fields and Hyson Green district of Nottingham declared the area an apartheid-free zone in 1986. They asked local shops to not to stock South African goods and called on local people to boycott them. Like St Paul’s, Bristol, Hyson Green was a multi-racial area with a history of racial tension and community protest.

Local residents in the Forest Fields and Hyson Green district of Nottingham declared the area an apartheid-free zone in 1986. This poster asked people to support the campaign. Like St Paul’s, Bristol, Hyson Green was a multi-racial area with a history of racial tension and community protest.

Local residents in the Forest Fields and Hyson Green district of Nottingham declared the area an apartheid-free zone in 1986. This letter was sent to local shopkeepers explaining the aims of the campaign. It told them that thousands of local residents supported a ban on South African goods and offered to discuss the issues raised by the boycott.