1970s

Demonstration outside the Mangrove, All Saints Road, Notting Hill on 10 October 1976 in support of the school students uprising in Soweto.

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.

British actors, including Sheila Hancock, Albert Finney, Robert Morley, Kenneth Williams and Kenneth Haigh, handed in a letter to South Africa House on 13 October 1976. They were calling for the release of South African actors John Kani and Winston Tshona. Other signatories were Dame Peggy Ashcroft and playwrights David Hare and Howard Brenton. 

Sheila Hancock and Albert Finney hand in a letter to South Africa House on 13 October 1976, calling for the release of South African actors John Kani and Winston Tshona. Other signatories were Dame Peggy Ashcroft and playwrights David Hare and Howard Brenton. 

Students protested outside the South African Embassy on 20 October 1976 against the deaths of four more detainees in South Africa. A deputation later delivered a letter signed by National Union of Students and National Union of School Students Presidents Charles Clarke and Dan Hopewell to Prime Minister James Callaghan, asking him to make representations to the South African government. The four murdered detainees included three students and an unnamed man who died in police custody in Carletonville, west of Johannesburg.

In October 1976 a conference opened in Geneva to discuss new proposals for a settlement in Zimbabwe. This leaflet argued that the talks were designed to protect British and American interests in Southern Africa, rather than achieve majority rule. It called for tougher sanctions and support for the liberation movements.

After the Soweto student uprising in June 1976, the AAM stepped up its campaign to stop Britain selling arms to South Africa. This poster uses the iconic photo of Hector Pieterson, the first student killed in the protests.

TUC staff and members of the film technicians union ACTT picketed South Africa House on 20 January 1977. They were supporting the worldwide Week of Trade Union Action against Apartheid called by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) from 17 to 24 January. Among the protesters were Alan Sapper, General Secretary of ACTT, and Charles Grieve, General Secretary of the Tobacco Workers Union.