Namibia

Sticker in SWAPO colours.

Gerritt Viljoen was appointed Administrator General of South West Africa as part of South Africa’s imposition of an ‘internal settlement’ in Namibia. In April 1980 he held talks in London with Foreign Secretary Lord Carrington at the British Foreign Office. This leaflet was distributed by anti-apartheid supporters outside a South Africa Club dinner at the Savoy Hotel, where Viljoen was the guest speaker. 

On 4 May 1978 South African troops massacred over 600 Namibian refugees at Kassinga in southern Angola. After the massacre hundreds of Namibians were abducted from refugee transit centres in southern Angola and around 130 of them were detained indefinitely at a South African military base in northern Namibia. Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society (SATIS) and the Namibia Support Committee campaigned for their release. These postcards called on the South African government to free them and asked the British Foreign Secretary and UN Secretary General to intervene. The detainees were eventually released in 1984.

AAM supporters protested outside South Africa House in May 1980 on the second anniversary of the Kassinga massacre. They carried placards with the names of some of the 137 Namibians abducted from the Kassinga refugee camp in Angola by the South African Defence Force in May 1978. Over 600 Namibian refugees were massacred in the raid. Left to right: Labour MP Chris Mullin, Bishop Colin Winter and Labour MP Joan Lestor.

Marcus Kateka was a 40-year old Namibian farmworker sentenced to death for allegedly helping SWAPO guerrillas. Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society distributed ten thousand copies of this postcard asking Prime Minister Thatcher to intervene with the South African government. Supporters also picketed South Africa House on 27 October 1980. As a result of the international campaign, in July 1981 the sentence was commuted to 17 years imprisonment.

In the 1970s and 1980s Britain imported uranium from Rio Tinto-Zinc’s Rossing mine in Namibia in contravention of UN resolutions. As part of a long-running campaign, on 8 November 1980 over 300 demonstrators marched to British Nuclear Fuels Springfields plant near Preston where the uranium was processed. They were led by trade union banners from Preston, Leeds and Merseyside and joined by trade unionists from all over the north of England. The demonstration was organised by the North-West Trade Union/Anti-Apartheid Liaison Committee and the Namibia Support Committee.

In the 1970s and 1980s Britain imported uranium from Rio Tinto Zinc’s Rossing mine in Namibia in contravention of UN resolutions. As part of a long-running campaign, on 8 November 1980 over 300 demonstrators marched to British Nuclear Fuels Springfields plant near Preston where the uranium was processed. They were led by trade union banners from Preston, Leeds and Merseyside and joined by trade unionists from all over the north of England. The demonstration was organised by the North-West Trade Union/AAM Liaison Committee and the Namibia Support Committee.

In the 1970s and 1980s Britain imported uranium from Rio Tinto Zinc’s Rossing mine in Namibia in contravention of UN resolutions. As part of a long-running campaign, on 8 November 1980 over 300 demonstrators marched to British Nuclear Fuels Springfields plant near Preston where the uranium was processed. They were led by trade union banners from Preston, Leeds and Merseyside and joined by unionists from all over the north of England. The demonstration was organized by the North-West Trade Union/AAM Liaison Committee and the Namibia Support Committee.