Political prisoners

In the early 1970s the Ruskin College Kitson Committee organised an annual march from Oxford to London over the Whitsun holiday. The group campaigned for the release of political prisoner David Kitson, a member of the trade union DATA, who was serving a 20-year sentence in South Africa. This leaflet publicising the march was printed just before the cancellation of the 1970 Springbok cricket tour.

In the early 1970s the Ruskin College Kitson Committee organised an annual march from Oxford to London over the Whitsun holiday. The group campaigned for the release of political prisoner and former trade unionist David Kitson, serving a 20-year sentence in South Africa. The 1970 march ended in a rally in Trafalgar Square at which trade union leaders asked workers to refuse to work on arms for South Africa. The photo shows the marchers setting off from High Street, Oxford. 

Apartheid was maintained by an elaborate legal system which institutionalised the violence implicit in South African society. This pamphlet sets out facts and figures about the punitive apparatus behind the operation of apartheid and describes the conditions endured by convicted prisoners and detainees held without charge. It was written by Albie Sachs for the International Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF) and distributed by the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

On 25 August 1970 anti-apartheid activists infiltrated the South African Embassy in London and sat in its entrance hall until they were ejected by embassy officials. They were protesting at the trial in Pretoria of 20 South Africans on charges of belonging to the ANC. The 20 included Winnie Mandela and Benjamin Ramotse, who was later sentenced to 15 years imprisonment.

In February 1971 the AAM set up a special committee to campaign for political prisoners and detainees. It called on the South African government to include political prisoners in the amnesty announced to mark the tenth anniversary of the republic. This poster was produced for the campaign. The prisoners shown include Nelson Mandela, Bram Fischer and Dorothy Nyembe.

Pamphlet documenting the use of torture in South Africa in the 1960s and 1970s. The pamphlet shows how the apartheid legal system was used as window-dressing for a totalitarian regime and covers key trials in the early 1970s, including that of Winnie Mandela. It was published by the International Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF) and distributed by the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

Leaflet publicising a 24-hour vigil held on 1–2 August 1971 to protest against the trials of Rev Gonville ffrench-Beytagh, Anglican Dean of Johannesburg and of 14 members of the South African Unity Movement. All the accused told the court they had been tortured. Thirteen of the Unity Movement members were found guilty of offences under the Terrorism Act and sentenced to prison terms on Robben Island. At the same time, the Dean of Johannesburg was charged with helping the families of political prisoners. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment, but released on appeal.

The AAM held a 24-hour vigil outside South Africa House on 1–2 August 1971 to protest against the trials of Rev Gonville ffrench-Beytagh, Anglican Dean of Johannesburg, and 14 members of the South African Unity Movement. All the accused told the court they had been tortured. Thirteen of the Unity Movement members were found guilty of offences under the Terrorism Act and sentenced to prison terms on Robben Island. At the same time, the Dean of Johannesburg was charged under the Terrorism Act with helping the families of political prisoners. He was sentenced to five years imprisonment, but later released on appeal. In the photo is Canon John Collins, first Chairman of the Defence and Aid Fund for Southern Africa.