1970s

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.

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.

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.

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.