1960s

Leaflet advertising a march organised by the Zimbabwe Solidarity Action Committee on 12 January 1969. Demonstrators, mostly students and young people, tried to occupy Rhodesia House but were driven back by mounted police. Marchers then moved on to South Africa House, where only one policeman was stationed at the side entrance, and smashed the windows looking onto Trafalgar Square. Before the march, a group of writers had already infiltrated Rhodesia House and two climbers had scaled its flagpole to replace the flag of the illegal regime with the Union Jack.

In October 1968 British Prime Minister Harold Wilson met Ian Smith on board HMS Fearless to put new proposals for a settlement in Rhodesia which fell far short of ‘no independence before majority rule’ (NIBMAR). The negotiations broke down but the British government did not withdraw the Fearless plan.  At the Commonwealth conference in London in January 1969 the AAM held a vigil calling for NIBMAR.

Vigil calling for ‘no independence before majority rule’ (NIBMAR) in Zimbabwe in January 1969. The vigil took place during the 1969 Commonwealth conference. In October 1968 British Prime Minister Harold Wilson met Ian Smith on board HMS Fearless to put new proposals for a settlement in Rhodesia which fell far short of NIBMAR. The negotiations broke down but the British government did not withdraw the Fearless plan. In the photo is Liberal Party leader Jeremy Thorpe MP.

The Consultation on Racism held in Notting Hill, London, 19–24 May 1969 led to the setting up of the WCC’s Programme to Combat Racism (PCR). The consultation concluded that force could be used to combat racism in situations where non-violent political strategies had failed. The PCR gave grants for humanitarian use to the Southern African liberation movements and other anti-apartheid organisations, including the AAM. In the centre of the photograph are the Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey and Trevor Huddleston.

Trevor Huddleston, then Bishop of Stepney, London, and ANC president Oliver Tambo at the World Council of Churches Consultation on Racism, held in Notting Hill, London, 19–24 May 1969. The consultation concluded that force could be used to combat racism in situations where non-violent political strategies had failed. The PCR gave grants for humanitarian purposes to the Southern African liberation movements and other anti-apartheid organisations, including the AAM.

The Southern Africa Solidarity Committee was a coalition of youth and student groups set up in 1969 in the wake of the 1968 student demonstrations in France and other European countries. This leaflet publicised a march past the headquarters of companies involved in Southern Africa. It also advertised a conference on guerrilla warfare organised by the AAM and asked supporters to demonstrate against all-white South African sports teams.

Poster publicising a march past the headquarters of companies involved in Southern Africa – Unilever, Anglo American, the Daily Telegraph, Shell, Plessey and Barclays Bank – on 28 June 1969. The march was organised by the Southern Africa Solidarity Committee, a coalition of militant youth and student groups set up in 1969 in the wake of the 1968 student demonstrations in France and other European countries. 

This leaflet advertised a fundraising event held on the evening of the AAM’s conference on liberation and guerrilla warfare, at the Round House in Camden, north London. It featured a film about Bob Dylan’s England tour ‘Don’t Look Back’ and poetry and music groups The Scaffold, Yes and Dry Ice.