1970s

John Gaetsewe of the South African Congress of Trade Unions (SACTU) outside South Africa House on 15 February 1973. With him are T P Callinan from the shopworkers union USDAW and Eddie Marsden from the construction workers union. Embassy officials rejected a letter signed by the general secretaries of 12 British unions condemning apartheid.

In May 1972 the Pearce Commission found that the Smith-Home proposals for a settlement in Zimbabwe were unacceptable to the majority of Zimbabweans. The following year on 24 February 1973, the AAM organised a conference that looked at the significance of the new situation in Zimbabwe for developments in the rest of Southern Africa. It showed how South Africa was violating sanctions against the Smith regime and giving it military support. Left to right: Abdul Minty, John Sprack, Didymus Mutasa, chair of the multi-racial Cold Comfort Farm Society, and Guy Clutton-Brock.

In May 1972 the Pearce Commission found that the Smith-Home proposals for a settlement in Zimbabwe were unacceptable to the majority of Zimbabweans. This leaflet advertised an AAM conference looking at the significance of the new situation in Zimbabwe for developments in the rest of Southern Africa.

The apartheid government banned the entire leadership of the black student organisation SASO (South African Student Organisation) in February 1973. Leaders of NUSAS (National Union of South African Students) were also banned. British students picketed South Africa House on 2 March 1973 in protest against the bannings.

Starting in 1969, the AAM held an annual conference to build support among British trade unionists. The conference held in March 1973 stressed the importance of building a rank and file solidarity movement. In the photograph (left to right): James Phillips and Archie Sibeko (Zola Zembe) of SACTU, Robert Skillicorn from the public sector workers union NUPE, Christine Page from the shopworkers union USDAW and Colin Clark from NUPE.

The Chair of the UN Special Committee on Apartheid, Nigerian Ambassador Edwin Ogbu, reads Anti-Apartheid News at the opening session of the International Conference for the Support of Victims of Colonialism and Apartheid, held in Oslo, 9–13 April 1973. The conference was organised by the UN and the Organisation of African Unity. It was attended by representatives of over 50 countries and the Southern African liberation movements. Also in the photograph, Perez de Cuellar (left), Peru’s UN ambassador and later UN Secretary-General, and Tanzanian Ambassador Salim A Salim (right), Chair of the UN Committee of 24.

South African lawyer Joel Carlson exposed the sham of South Africa’s legal system at a meeting at University College, London on 31 May 1973. Also on the platform were Labour MP Michael Foot (left), who said the Labour Party was considering calling for an end to new British investment in South Africa, and the Chair and Hon. Secretary of the AAM, John Ennals and Abdul Minty.

AAM supporters picketed the headquarters of the mining company Rio Tinto Zinc (RTZ) in St James’s Square, London on Namibia Day, 1 June. RTZ operated the Rossing uranium mine in Namibia in defiance of a judgement by the International Court of Justice that South Africa’s rule there was illegal.