Sanctions

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.

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.

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.

Letter to Prime Minister Thatcher urging her to support the imposition of Commonwealth sanctions against South Africa at the meeting of Commonwealth Heads of Government held in Nassau in October 1985.

Letter from Prime Minister Thatcher to AAM President Archbishop Trevor Huddleston rejecting his appeal for the British government to impose sanctions against South Africa. She argued that change would come about through the operation of market forces.

Trevor Huddleston, Jesse Jackson and GLC member Paul Boateng at a press conference to announce a March against Apartheid on 2 November 1985. The march took place just after Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher rejected most of the sanctions measures imposed by the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting in Nassau.

Poster publicising a demonstration for sanctions, 2 November 1985. 150,000 people marched from assembly points in east, west and south London to Trafalgar Square to hear ANC President Oliver Tambo, SWAPO leader Shapua Kaukungua and US civil rights leader Jesse Jackson call for sanctions against South Africa.