Photos

Jonas Savimbi, leader of the South African-backed Unita organisation in Angola, was met with widespread protests when he visited London in July 1988. An advertisement was placed in the Independent newspaper and demonstrators picketed the Royal Institute of International Affairs, which hosted a meeting for Savimbi. The British Foreign Office gave assurances that Savimbi would not be officially received.

The platform at the AAM’s 1988 annual general meeting, held in Sheffield. The banner reproduces a woodcut by Namibian woodcut artist John Muafangejo.

Actor Leonard Fenton, a stars of the TV soap EastEnders, presented the first prize of a holiday in China in the AAM’s 1988 Prize Raffle. Fundraising was an important part of the AAM’s activities. It depended entirely on small donations and fundraising projects and received no grants from government or major donor institutions.

Still from a film advertisement promoting the boycott of South African goods, made by the TUC. The ad was shown in cinemas throughout Britain. It won the Gold Lion Award at the 34th Cannes International Advertising film Festival.

Protesters in Southampton demonstrated against the import of uranium from Namibia through the city’s docks in February 1989. The protest was organised by Southampton AA Group and local supporters of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament and the Green Party.

Early in 1989 more than 300 South African detainees went on hunger strike in protest against their detention without trial. Altogether over 1,000 people were held without charge, some of them for over two years. AAM and ANC supporters held a vigil outside South Africa House. Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society (SATIS) asked British Foreign Office Minister Lynda Chalker to tell the South African ambassador that his government must release the detainees.

AAM Chair Bob Hughes MP signed a giant Outspan orange at the launch of the AAM’s ‘Boycott Apartheid 89’ campaign on 20 February 1989. The launch took place outside Cape Fruit’s London headquarters. The AAM asked shoppers to impose ‘people’s sanctions’ against apartheid in the face of British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s refusal to impose government sanctions. As well as Cape fruit and Outspan oranges, the campaign focused on tourism and imports of coal and gold.

As part of the Boycott Apartheid 89 campaign the AAM converted a double-decker bus into a travelling exhibition area and video cinema. During the year the bus visited local communities all over Britain, displaying anti-apartheid material and showing a specially commissioned video, Fruits of Fear, on the consumer boycott.