Political prisoners

The Anti-Apartheid Movement launched an ‘Anti-Apartheid Month’ in November 1963 in response to increasing repression in South Africa and the arrest of Nelson Mandela and his comrades in July. Its three main demands were an end to arms sales to South Africa, asylum for political refugees and the release of political prisoners. Meetings were held all over Britain, most organised by university anti-racialist societies and addressed by recently arrived South African refugees like Joe Slovo.

Pan-Africanist Congress President Robert Sobukwe was detained after the Sharpeville massacre and sentenced to three years imprisonment. At the end of his sentence in May 1963 he was detained and held on Robben Island for a further six years. This leaflet publicises a meeting in the early 1960s calling for his release. The AAM also asked the International Commission of Jurists and the Red Cross to protest against his continued detention.

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