1970s

The AAM depended on membership subscriptions and donations from individual supporters to fund its campaigns. This recruitment leaflet set out the case for isolating South Africa and asked people to join AAM campaigns.

As the South African economy became less attractive to foreign investors in 1977/78, the AAM stepped up its campaign against British companies with big South African interests. One of its main targets was the electrical engineering and electronics company GEC, a major supplier to South Africa’s parastatal corporations and the sixth largest employer of black labour. This factsheet detailed GEC’s involvement in the apartheid economy. Other target companies were ICI, BP/Shell, Barclays Bank and British Steel. 

As the South African economy became less attractive to foreign investors in 1977/78, the AAM stepped up its campaign against British companies with big South African interests. The oil companies BP and Shell were among its main targets. This factsheet showed how the companies’ were helping South Africa develop its energy resources and diversifying into coal and petrochemicals. Other target companies were GEC, ICI, Barclays Bank and British Steel.

In 1977 the British government put forward new proposals for a settlement in Rhodesia. This AAM Briefing presented a comprehensive description of the white minority government’s armed forces. It argued that the control and composition of the security forces in a transition to majority rule was of crucial importance.

Poster asking shoppers to boycott South African goods. This was a reprint of a poster first produced in 1978. Some of the items incorporate images of the shootings of school students in Soweto in June 1976.

Anti-apartheid women supporters demanded an end to police harassment of Winnie Mandela at a demonstration at South Africa House on 9 February, 1978. She was charged with breaking the banning order that confined her to Brandfort, an African township outside Bloemfontein.

Anti-apartheid supporters picketed around 250 branches of Barclays Bank all over Britain on 1 March 1978. The pickets were part of a March month of action against apartheid held to launch the UN International Anti-Apartheid Year. British-owned Barclays Bank was the biggest high street bank in South Africa. After a 16-year campaign by the AAM, Barclays withdrew from South Africa in 1986.

Anti-apartheid supporters picketed around 250 branches of Barclays Bank all over Britain on 1 March 1978. The pickets were part of a March month of action against apartheid held to launch the UN International Anti-Apartheid Year. The photograph shows a protest outside a branch of Barclays in Victoria, central London organised by End Loans to Southern Africa (ELTSA). British-owned Barclays Bank was the biggest high street bank in South Africa. After a 16-year campaign by the AAM, Barclays withdrew from South Africa in 1986.