1960s

In the early 1960s Britain was South Africa’s main arms supplier. The call for it to stop supplying arms for apartheid was one of the AAM’s main campaigning issues.

Leaflet for a public meeting organised in Finchley, north London, as part of the AAM’s November 1963 Anti-Apartheid Month. Margaret Thatcher was the local MP.

This Declaration was signed by 160 world figures prominent in the arts, churches, academia, trade unions and politics. It called for the release of South African political prisoners, including Nelson Mandela and others arrested at Rivonia and PAC leader Robert Sobukwe. It was launched by the World Campaign for the Release of South African Political Prisoners, set up in response to a UN General Assembly resolution passed in October 1963.

The AAM organised a weekly vigil opposite the South African Embassy in the winter of 1963/64 during the trial of Nelson Mandela and his co-accused. Different groups – writers, actors, church people, politicians – took part each week. The campaign was run under the auspices of the World Campaign for the Release of South African Political Prisoners, set up in response to a UN General Assembly resolution passed in October 1963.

The AAM organised a weekly vigil opposite the South African Embassy in the winter of 1963/64 during the trial of Nelson Mandela and his co-accused. Different groups – writers, actors, church people, politicians – took part each week. The campaign was run under the auspices of the World Campaign for the Release of South African Political Prisoners, set up in response to a UN General Assembly resolution passed in October 1963.

This petition was signed by nearly 200,000 people all over the world during the trial of Nelson Mandela and his co-accused in 1964. It was launched by the World Campaign for the Release of South African Political Prisoners, set up in response to a UN General Assembly resolution passed in October 1963. The campaign played a big part in preventing the death sentence being passed on the accused.

Cover of a Penguin Special that reprinted the papers produced for the International Conference on Economic Sanctions against South Africa held in London in April 1964. The conference was organised by Ronald Segal, with the backing of the AAM and the ANC. It was a major international event, chaired by Tunisian Foreign Minister Mongi Slim, with delegates from over 40 countries and papers from academic experts. They concluded that sanctions were ‘necessary, urgent, legal, and practical’. The papers were considered by a committee set up under a UN Security Council resolution.

Five issues of this broadsheet were published by the World Campaign for the Release of South African Political Prisoners in 1964. The broadsheet reported on the world campaign to save the lives of Nelson Mandela and his co-accused in the Rivonia trial. The campaign played a big part in preventing the death sentence being passed on the accused.