Sanctions

The Collaborators set out the case for international sanctions against South Africa. It explained how British companies profited from apartheid and how lobby groups like the South Africa Foundation defended the South African government. The pamphlet called for an immediate arms embargo and for Britain and the USA to support UN sanctions against South Africa. 

After the cancellation of the Springbok cricket tour in May 1970, the AAM relaunched its campaign to end economic links with South Africa. This poster advertised a conference on Britain’s trade and investment stake in apartheid. The aim of the conference was to highlight the role of British companies like ICI and the British Steel Corporation in supporting the apartheid economy.

Poster publicising an AAM conference held on 4 July 1971. The main issues discussed at the conference were the proposed settlement on Rhodesia and action against British firms with investments in South Africa. One of the speakers was Caroline Hunter from the US Polaroid Revolutionary Workers Movement. Polaroid supplied photographic equipment used to produce passbooks for black South Africans. After a long campaign by its largely black US workforce, Polaroid pulled out of South Africa in 1977.

One of a set of three posters publicising the AAM’s campaign to isolate South Africa in the aftermath of the 1976 Soweto student uprising.

In the mid-1970s the AAM set up an investment unit that commissioned papers on the economic links between Britain and South Africa. This paper argued that investment in South Africa damaged the living standards of British workers as well as exploiting black workers in South Africa.

Leaflet publicising a rally in Trafalgar Square on 6 March 1977 calling on the British government to impose a strict arms embargo on South Afria and halt all new investment there. The speakers included representatives of all the main Southern African liberation movements, Duma Nokwe (ANC), Misheke Muyongo (SWAPO), Dzinga Mutumbuko (ZANU) and Daniel Madzimbamutu (ZAPU), as well as Pauline Webb, representing the World Council of Churches, Labour MP Joan Lestor and Abdul Minty (AAM).

After the killing of Steve Biko and banning of anti-apartheid organisations in South Africa in 1977, the British government voted for a UN mandatory arms embargo against South Africa. At the same time it announced it would veto a draft UN Security Council resolution imposing economic sanctions. This letter from the AAM’s President Bishop Ambrose Reeves expressed dismay at the decision to veto and asked for a meeting with the Prime Minister. 

British Leyland was one of the main targets of the AAM’s disinvestment campaign in the 1970s. It was one of the biggest vehicle manufacturers in South Africa and was involved in a long-running recognition dispute with the Metal and Allied Workers Union. Coventry Anti-Apartheid Movement worked with local trade unionists to persuade British workers to refuse to work on spare parts for South Africa. This report, sponsored by Coventry AAM and Coventry Trades Council, set out the case for worker to worker solidarity.