Anti-Apartheid News

AA News headlined the collapse of negotiations between the Smith regime and Zimbabwe’s African National Council. It reported on the explosion of ANC leaflet bombs in Johannesburg and on a mass meeting there calling for majority rule. It exposed a smear campaign against Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe by the South African security services. It carried an eyewitness account of a massacre by the white Rhodesian army. ANC Secretary General Alfred Nzo analysed the new situation in Southern Africa following the liberation of Portugal’s African colonies. Hilda Bernstein looked forward to the AAM’s first women’s conference.

The May issue revealed plans for South African-Israeli nuclear collaboration after Prime Minister Vorster’s visit to Israel. It recorded the decision of the British entertainment unions ACTT and Equity to impose a more stringent boycott of South Africa. It reported on the funeral in Durban of Joseph Mdluli, murdered by the South African security police after his detention under the Terrorism Act. Abdul Minty exposed the loopholes in the British arms embargo against South Africa. A report by Swedish journalists showed how black South Africans with severe mental health problems were being used as slave labour.

AA News headlined the campaign to save the lives of SWAPO leaders Aaron Mushimba and Hendrik Shikongo, sentenced to death under the Terrorism Act. It reported that a new trial was due to open in Pietermaritzburg of alleged ANC members. It recorded the successes of Zimbabwean freedom fighters, now fighting on three fronts, and called for the prosecution of British newspapers carrying advertisements for mercenaries to join the Rhodesian army. It published a report of the AAM’s first women’s conference. A special supplement revealed how Western countries were violating the UN arms embargo.

‘Vorster’s police shoot to kill’ proclaimed AA News as it mourned the death of hundreds of Soweto school students. It told readers that the school students protests were not just about the introduction of Afrikaans as a teaching medium, but a rejection of the apartheid system. It alleged that British arms were used in the massacre and called for the extension of the arms embargo to all police and military equipment. Other stories covered the appeal by two SWAPO leaders sentenced to hang, the spread of guerrilla war in Zimbabwe and a review of the international sports boycott of South Africa.

The September issue focused on the mass protests in South Africa following the school students uprising on 16 June. It printed a statement from ANC President Oliver Tambo calling for an end to British trade and investment in South Africa, including the export of Landrovers used in the shootings. It alleged that thousands of Mozambicans had been massacred in a border raid by white Rhodesian troops. A centrespread exposed South Africa’s Bantustan policy as a sham. A feature on UK investment in South Africa accused British companies of refusing to negotiate with independent trade unions. 

This issue reported on the continuing school boycotts and strikes in South Africa. It publicised a British student campaign for disinvestment from apartheid. It revealed plans by non-aligned and African countries to press for a UN mandatory arms ban against South Africa at the Security Council. Ethel de Keyser reviewed the Labour Party NEC’s new Southern Africa policy statement, which called for UN mandatory action against apartheid. Paul Blomfield reported on meeting with black student activists on his recent visit to South Africa.

The AAM was planning a major campaign for an end to arms sales and investment and trade with South Africa, announced AA News. It reported that the Labour Government had once again joined France and the USA in vetoing a UN Security Council resolution imposing a mandatory arms ban. An interview with ZAPU leader Joshua Nkomo accused Western countries of supplying arms to the Smith regime. The newspaper recorded the mass arrests of South African school students and community leaders. Ben Wisner, recently returned from Mozambique, described FRELIMO’s first steps towards building a new society.

AA News led on the UN General Assembly’s resolution condemning Western countries for supplying arms, capital and technology to South Africa. It announced the launch of a mass petition calling for a strict arms embargo by the British Government. It reported on an AAM labour movement conference, where British Leyland workers leader Peter Nicholas pledged that Leyland workers would ‘black’ parts for South Africa if Leyland South Africa refused trade union recognition. School students in South Africa were calling for a Christmas boycott after more mass arrests of students and teachers, reported this issue.