Photos

At a mini-summit in London, 3–5 August 1986, Commonwealth leaders agreed on a package of sanctions against South Africa, in spite of opposition from British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher. Earlier in the year a Commonwealth ‘Eminent Persons Group’ visited South Africa and concluded that the apartheid government was not prepared to negotiate an end to white minority rule. Left to right: Commonwealth leaders Brian Mulroney (Canada), Sir Lyndon Pindling (The Bahamas), Kenneth Kaunda (Zamibia), Rajiv Gandhi (India), Margaret Thatcher (UK), Bob Hawke (Australia) and Robert Mugabe (Zimbabwe).

AAM supporters in Oldham, Greater Manchester, call for sanctions against South Africa in 1986. At the head of the march is the Oldham AA Group banner.

 

 

AAM supporters marched through the centre of Manchester to demand sanctions against South Africa on 8 November.

Anti-apartheid activists drove a model tank to the Shell Centre on London’s South Bank on 15 November 1986. They were highlighting Shell’s role in supplying fuel for the South African Defence in Namibia. The action was part of an International Day of Action against Shell supported by groups in the USA, Holland, Denmark, Sweden and Australia. The AAM launched a total boycott of Shell from 1 March 1987.

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.

Anti-apartheid supporters protested outside the Wembley Arena in 1986 when British boxer Frank Bruno fought South African Gerry Coetzee. Britain’s welterweight champion Lloyd Honeyghan later gave up his world title rather than break the sports boycott by fighting a South African. The protest was backed by the Black British Conference Against Apartheid Sport, chaired by former Sports Council member Paul Stephenson. World boxing champions John Conteh and Maurice Hope also wrote to Frank Bruno asking him to call off the fight.

Leafletting Barclays Bank customers to persuade them to withdraw their accounts was a regular activity for most local anti-apartheid groups. The leafletting sessions were part of the long-running campaign to persuade Barclays to pull out of South Africa. In the photograph supporters of Tyneside AA Group are asking customers at a Barclays branch in central Newcastle to close their accounts. Later in the same year Barclays withdrew from South Africa.

In 1986 the Thatcher government introduced a Public Order Bill which limited the right to hold public demonstrations. The AAM took part in this protest outside the Houses of Parliament and liaised with the National Council of Civil Liberties to lobby against the Bill.