This pamphlet set out the case for international sanctions against South Africa. It was published as a follow-up to a resolution passed by the General Council of the Student Christian Movement in September 1964 asking the UK and Irish governments to support a UN Security Council resolution imposing sanctions against South Africa. The SCM had a wide membership among students in the mid-1960s and worked closely with the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

The Consultation on Racism held in Notting Hill, London, 19–24 May 1969 led to the setting up of the WCC’s Programme to Combat Racism (PCR). The consultation concluded that force could be used to combat racism in situations where non-violent political strategies had failed. The PCR gave grants for humanitarian use to the Southern African liberation movements and other anti-apartheid organisations, including the AAM. In the centre of the photograph are the Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey and Trevor Huddleston.

Trevor Huddleston, then Bishop of Stepney, London, and ANC president Oliver Tambo at the World Council of Churches Consultation on Racism, held in Notting Hill, London, 19–24 May 1969. The consultation concluded that force could be used to combat racism in situations where non-violent political strategies had failed. The PCR gave grants for humanitarian purposes to the Southern African liberation movements and other anti-apartheid organisations, including the AAM.

This report showed how the British company GEC supplied the South African Defence Force with sophisticated technology and worked closely with South African state corporations. It estimated that 40–50% of the black workers employed by GEC’s South African subsidiaries were paid below the minimum level recommended by the British government’s Code of Conduct for British corporations operating in South Africa. Christian Concern for Southern Africa (CCSA) was set up in 1972 to research and publicise the role played by British companies in South Africa. Its reports were widely distributed by the AAM.

Through its subsidiary company African Explosives and Chemical Industries (AECI) the British chemicals giant ICI had interests in South Africa dating back to the development of the gold mines in the 19th century. This report showed how AECI worked closely with the apartheid government and operated a strict colour bar in its South African operations. Christian Concern for Southern Africa (CCSA) was set up in 1972 to research and publicise the role played by British companies in South Africa. Its reports were widely distributed by the AAM.

This report provided a comprehensive analysis of the involvement of British banks in South Africa in the 1970s. It concluded that the banks’ operations did more to sustain apartheid than to erode it. It recommended that British banks should terminate export credits and halt loans to South Africa, and called for a debate on the issue within the British churches. Christian Concern for Southern Africa (CCSA) was set up in 1972 to research and publicise the role played by British companies in South Africa. Its reports were widely distributed by the AAM.

This leaflet set out the policies of the various Christian denominations in Britain towards investment in South Africa. It asked church people to press for progressive disengagement. The leaflet was produced by the British Council of Churches and Christian Concern for Southern Africa (CCSA), a group that worked closely with the AAM.

This Declaration was made by an Inter-Faith Colloquium on Apartheid organised by the AAM’s President, Archbishop Trevor Huddleston, in March 1984. The Colloquium led to the setting up of the AAM’s Multi-Faith Committee, which held its first meeting at the Central Gurdwara in London at the beginning of 1985. 

Leaflet advertising an interdenominational meeting in Bristol Cathedral on the immorality of apartheid. The speaker was the AAM’s President Archbishop Trevor Huddleston and the meeting was sponsored by the Anglican, Catholic, Baptist and Methodist churches.

Members of the AAM’s Multi-Faith Committee held daily silent lunch hour vigils outside the South African Embassy in the week before Easter. The committee was formed in 1985 to bring together people of different faiths in opposition to apartheid.

Poster publicising a parliamentary lobby on 17 June 1986 calling on the British government to impose sanctions against South Africa. More than 3,500 people lobbied their MPs askin them to press for a change of policy. The lobby was initiated by the AAM, with support from the TUC, British Council of Churches and the United Nations Association. The summer of 1986 was the high point of the international campaign for sanctions against South Africa. 

Supporters of End Loans to Southern Africa (ELTSA) held a vigil outside outside Church House, Westminster on 29 July 1986. They called on the Church Commissioners, who administered the Church of England’s large investment portfolio, to sell its shares in companies with investments in South Africa.

The AAM’s Multi-Faith Committee held a carol service in Trafalgar Square on 21 December 1986. The singing was led by the ANC and SWAPO choirs and the London Community Gospel Choir, and other groups gave readings on the situation in Namibia and South Africa. The event was sponsored by the four leading black London newspapers.

Jews Against Apartheid was formed in August 1986 and played an important part in the AAM’s Multi-Faith Committee.This leaflet advertised a public meeting in London in January 1987. The meeting was part of an international speaking tour by Johannesburg rabbi Ben Isaacson, founding member of Jews for Justice, and Rev Zachariah Mokgoebo from the Black Dutch Reformed Church in South Africa and a member of the Civic Association of Soweto.

Jews Against Apartheid was formed in August 1986 and played an important part in the AAM’s Multi-Faith Committee. Over 150 Jews met outside South Africa House on 16 April 1987 to conduct a Seder for Freedom in Southern Africa. In the picture are Rabbis Alexandra Wright, Colin Eimer and Daniel Smith and writer Bernard Kops.

The memorial meeting for Steve Biko held on Sunday 13 September 1987 marked the tenth anniversary of his death in detention. A packed congregation at Notting Hill Methodist Church in west London heard readings by Muslims, Jews and Christians and an address by Barney Pityana. The event was organised by the AAM’s Multi-Faith Committee and SATIS (Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society).

Invitation card for a service of tribute to Nelson Mandela on his 70th birthday at St James’s Church, Piccadilly.

AAM supporters held a prayer vigil on the steps of Kingston Guildhall to show their opposition to a proposal by Kingston Council to invest pension funds in South Africa. Kingston Trades Council presented a petition to the Council asking it to reconsider.

The Southern Africa Coalition was launched on 1 September 1989 to press the British government to impose targeted sanctions against South Africa. These included a ban on imports of coal and agricultural products and on loans to South Africa. The Coalition brought together a wide range of organisations, including trade unions, churches, overseas aid agencies and the Anti-Apartheid Movement

The Southern Africa Coalition was launched on 1 September 1989 to press the British government to impose targeted sanctions against South Africa. These included a ban on imports of coal and agricultural products and on loans to South Africa. The Coalition brought together a wide range of organisations, including trade unions, churches, overseas aid agencies and the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

Brochure calling on all people of faith in Britain to keep up the pressure on President de Klerk to enter into genuine negotiations for a democratic constitution in South Africa. The brochure argued that the campaign for comprehensive sanctions against South Africa should continue until apartheid had been irreversibly dismantled.

This leaflet asked people of faith to boycott South Africa and challenge investments there. It showed how apartheid was incompatible with the beliefs of all the world’s major religions.

This membership leaflet asked people of faith to join the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

More than 4,000 people asked their MPs to support the maintenance of sanctions against South Africa on 27 February 1990. The lobby achieved a record coverage, with constituents lobbying 495 of 523 MPs sitting for English constituencies and a majority of Scottish and Welsh MPs. The day before Nelson Mandela’s release, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced that Britain would end its limited restrictions on new investment and tourism. The lobby was organised by the Southern Africa Coalition, a broad-based grouping of church organisations, trade unions, overseas aid agencies and the AAM.

Four thousand people from nearly every parliamentary constituency in Britain lobbied Parliament on 27 February 1990 calling for a ‘fundamental change in British policy’ towards South Africa. The lobby was organised by the Southern Africa Coalition and was the biggest ever parliamentary lobby on Southern Africa.

Leaders of the mass movement against apartheid within South Africa were the main speakers at a meeting held at the parliamentary lobby organised by the Southern Africa Coalition on 27 February 1990. The lobbyists asked their MPs to support the maintenance of sanctions against South Africa. The day before Nelson Mandela’s release, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher announced that Britain would end its limited restrictions on new investment and tourism.

Pauline Webb was a Methodist minister who began her career in the church’s Overseas Division and worked for the Methodist Missionary Society. In 1968 she attended the seminal Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Uppsala, Sweden, which led to the setting up of the Programme to Combat Racism. She served as Vice-Moderator of the WCC and later became Head of Religious Programmes at the BBC World Service. She was a strong supporter of the Anti-Apartheid Movement and spoke at numerous meetings and conferences, including the AAM’s first women’s conference in 1976.  

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2013.

Pauline Webb was a Methodist minister who began her career in the church’s Overseas Division and worked for the Methodist Missionary Society. In 1968 she attended the seminal Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Uppsala, Sweden, which led to the setting up of the Programme to Combat Racism. She served as Vice-Moderator of the WCC and later became Head of Religious Programmes at the BBC World Service. She was a strong supporter of the Anti-Apartheid Movement and spoke at numerous meetings and conferences, including the AAM’s first women’s conference in 1976. 

In this clip Pauline Webb describes the controversy provoked within the churches by the WCC’s decision to set up the Programme to Combat Racism.

Brian Filling became involved in anti-apartheid campaigning as a student at Glasgow University in the late 1960s. He was a founder of the Scottish AAM Committee in 1976 and served as its Chair from 1976 to 1994, when he became Chair of ACTSA Scotland. He was a member of the Executive Committee of Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA) from 1994 to 2011 and is now Honorary Consul for South Africa in Scotland. He was awarded the National Order of Companions of O R Tambo in 2012. 

In this clip Brian Filling talks about the historical ties between Scotland and South Africa and the arguments within the Church of Scotland over sanctions against apartheid. 

David Haslam is a Methodist minister who attended the seminal Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches held in Sweden in 1968. He was one of the founders of End Loans to Southern Africa (ELTSA) in 1974 and later helped set up the EMBARGO campaign against oil shipments to South Africa. In the early 1970s he served on the National Executive Committee of the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the ‘Forward to Freedom’ AAM history project in 2013.

David Haslam is a Methodist minister who attended the seminal Fourth Assembly of the World Council of Churches held in Sweden in 1968. He was one of the founders of End Loans to Southern Africa (ELTSA) in 1974 and later helped set up the EMBARGO campaign against oil shipments to South Africa. In the early 1970s he served on the National Executive Committee of the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

In this clip David Haslam describes some of the campaign actions he and his parishioners carried out.

Brian Brown is a Methodist Minister who worked for the Christian Institute of Southern Africa, in his birthplace South Africa, and came to Britain after the Christian Institute and he were banned in October 1977. From 1980 he was the Africa Secretary of the British Council of Churches, where he helped to organise a conference on ‘Britain and Southern Africa: The Way Forward’, which led to the setting up of the Southern Africa Coalition in 1989. He served the coalition until democratic South Africa emerged in 1994.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out in 2000 by Håkan Thörn.

Brian Brown is a Methodist Minister who worked for the Christian Institute of Southern Africa, in his birthplace South Africa, and came to Britain after the Christian Institute and he were banned in October 1977. From 1980 he was the Africa Secretary of the British Council of Churches, where he helped to organise a conference on ‘Britain and Southern Africa: The Way Forward’, which led to the setting up of the Southern Africa Coalition in 1989. He served the coalition until democratic South Africa emerged in 1994.

In this clip Brian Brown talks about his experience as Africa Secretary of the British Council of Churches in the 1980s.

This is the transcript of a witness seminar held at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies in December 2000. Participants included academics Rob Skinner and Kevin Ward; the former Director of the World Council of Churches Programme to Combat Racism, Baldwin Sjollema; Pauline Webb, former Head of Religious Programmes, BBC World Service, who took part in the meetings that set up the PCR; Paul Oestreicher, former Director of the British Council of Churches Division of International Affairs; JimWilkie, former Africa Secretary of the BCC; Brian Brown, former Deputy Director of the Christian Institute of South Africa and Africa Secretary of the BCC; David Haslam, founder of End Loans to Southern Africa (ELSTA) and David Craine, ELTSA staff member. The seminar was convened and chaired by Professor Shula Marks.

Iain Whyte volunteered at Christian Action as a school student in London and attended the first meeting of the Boycott Movement in June 1959. He was a student at Glasgow University in the early 1960s and joined Glasgow Anti-Apartheid Committee. He was later ordained as a Church of Scotland minister and served as the Scottish Anti-Apartheid Movement’s Religious Liaison Officer and the convenor of the Church of Scotland’s Africa Committee. Iain has researched and written on enslavement and the abolitionist movement and more recently campaigned for solidarity with Palestinians.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of a research project on the British Anti-Apartheid Movement and South Africa’s transition to majority rule, conducted by Dr Matt Graham (History programme, University of Dundee) and Dr Christopher Fevre (International Studies Group, University of the Free State) https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/13619462.2021.1976154