Boycott

Marks and Spencer became the focus of the South Africa boycott campaign in Greater Manchester after it refused to discuss its purchasing policy. In 1987 local anti-apartheid campaigners collected 10,000 signatures to a petition asking it not to sell South African products. The petition was presented to the store by the Bishop of Manchester. M&S also had links with the South African company Wooltru, which stocked M&S merchandise.

The AAM made Tesco its main target in the consumer boycott campaign after Tesco reneged on a pledge to stop sourcing ‘own label’ products from South Africa. Tesco continued to sell South African tinned fruit, as well as well as expanding its lines of South African fresh fruit and vegetables. This leaflet was produced for a special day of action on 26 September 1987.

Poster produced for the campaign to pressure British supermarket Tesco’s to stop selling South African goods. The poster uses Tesco’s distinctive brand image. The chain was subjected to regular ‘days of action’, when campaigners handed out leaflets outside its stores asking shoppers to boycott South African products.

British miners and other local trade unionists marched through Nottingham to protest against the import of South African coal by local company Burnett & Hallamshire.

This list of 162 local British local authorities that boycotted all South African products was compiled as part of the AAM’s campaign against the Local Government Bill introduced into the British Parliament in 1987. The effect of the Bill was to prohibit local authorities from banning the purchase of South African goods and from barring companies with links to South Africa and Namibia from local government contracts. It became law in 1988.

In 1987 the Conservative Government introduced a Bill prohibiting local authorities from banning the purchase of South African goods and barring companies with links to South Africa and Namibia from contracts. This statement set out arguments against the Bill put forward by Local Authorities Against Apartheid (LAAA)’s National Steering Committee. It said the Bill would damage race relations in Britain and prevent peaceful pressure being brought against the apartheid regime. The Bill became law in 1988.

This statement by the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA) explained that in 1977 the authority had adopted a policy of not buying South African goods and only doing business with companies that complied with British anti-discriminatory legislation. ILEA stated that the 1988 Local Government Act had made it impossible for it to continue to implement this policy. Until its abolition by the Thatcher Government in 1990, ILEA ran the schools in the 12 inner London boroughs.

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.