Posters

Poster publicising a re-enactment of the Sharpeville massacre in Trafalgar Square on 21 March 1970. Around 3,000 people watched as actors dressed as South African police took aim and people in the crowd fell to the ground. The event received wide media publicity. It was organised by the AAM and the United Nations Student Association.

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 for the AAM’s campaign against the resumption of arms sales to South Africa by the 1970–74 Conservative government. The campaign was supported by the churches and the TUC. It involved marches, threats by trade unionists to boycott work on arms for South Africa and a 100,000-signature declaration presented at the 1971 Commonwealth conference in Singapore. As a result of the campaign, the only weapons sold were five Westland Wasp helicopters.

Poster for the Anti-Apartheid Movement’s campaign against the resumption of arms sales to South Africa by the 1970–74 Conservative government. The campaign was supported by the churches and the TUC. It involved marches, threats by trade unionists to boycott work on arms for South Africa and a 100,000-signature declaration presented at the 1971 Commonwealth conference in Singapore. As a result of the campaign, the only weapons sold were five Westland helicopters.

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.

This poster was one of a series about repression under apartheid. It featured South African exile Jan Hoogendyk dressed as a South African policeman. The 1967 Terrorism Act gave the police power to detain people indefinitely without disclosing where they were being held. At least 15 prisoners died in detention in the first few years of the Act.