Browse the AAM Archive

British Leyland was one of the main targets of the AAM’s disinvestment campaign in the 1970s. It was one of the biggest vehicle manufacturers in South Africa and was involved in a long-running recognition dispute with the Metal and Allied Workers Union. Coventry Anti-Apartheid Movement worked with local trade unionists to persuade British workers to refuse to work on spare parts for South Africa. This report, sponsored by Coventry AAM and Coventry Trades Council, set out the case for worker to worker solidarity.

Leaflet highlighting the atrocities committed against Zimbabwe’s civilian population by the security forces and the secret hangings carried out by the Smith regime.

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.

This appeal for rubber boots for Namibian refugees in Angola by the Namibia Support Committee met with a huge response from AAM supporters. Thousands of pairs of Wellington boots were shipped to SWAPO refugee camps.

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.