1980s

David Kitson speaking at a press conference arranged by the AAM after his release from prison in June 1984. In 1964 Kitson was convicted of sabotage and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. He served the full 20-year term. In Britain the draughtsmen’s union, AUEW-TASS, which Kitson joined when he was working in Britain in the 1950s, and Ruskin College, Oxford, where he studied on a union scholarship, both campaigned for his release. Left to right: David Kitson, AAM Chair Bob Hughes MP, AAM staff member Cate Clark.

The AAM held a National Convention on 23 and 24 June 1984 to mark the 25th anniversary of its founding as the Boycott Movement in 1959. Speakers included the then Tanzanian Foreign Minister and later President, Benjamin Mkapa, Andimba Toivo ja Toivo of SWAPO, the Chair of the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid, Ambassador Joseph Garba and David Kitson, who had just been released after serving a 20-year sentence in Pretoria Central Prison. Workshops and commissions discussed practical campaigning throughout the weekend. On 26 June the AAM relaunched the boycott campaign.

The AAM held a National  Convention, 23–24 June 1984, to mark its 25th anniversary and draw up a new action programme. Participants included the Tanzanian Foreign Minister and future President Benjamin Mkapa, the Chair of the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid, Ambassador Joseph Garba and David Kitson, who had just arrived in London after his release from Pretoria Prison. In the picture are E S Reddy, Secretary of the UN Committee Against Apartheid, Andimba Toivo ja Toivo of SWAPO and Labour Party Leader Neil Kinnock.

To mark its 25th anniversary on 26 June 1984, the AAM relaunched the campaign for a boycott of South African goods at a press conference at the House of Commons. It produced a new ‘boycott kit’ of stickers and leaflets asking shoppers to support the boycott, distributed by supporters all over Britain.

ANC member Jeanette Schoon and her six-year old daughter Katryn were killed in Angola by a parcel bomb sent by the South African security services on 28 June 1984. AAM protesters gathered on the steps of St Martin‘s in the Fields because the police banned demonstrations on the pavement in front of South Africa House.

South Africa Women’s Day was marked by a packed and enthusiastic meeting in Hackney Town Hall on 9 August 1984. The meeting was organised by the ANC’s London Women’s Committee. Left to right: ANC Women’s Section representatives Florence Maleka and Felicia Mzamo, Labour MP Joan Lestor and Glenys Kinnock. 1984 was designated the Year of the Women by the African National Congress.

In August 1984 the South African government detained the leaders of the United Democratic Front (UDF). The UDF organised a boycott of the segregated elections held under South Africa’s new constitution. After being temporarily freed, six of the detainees took refuge in the British consulate in Durban. Students in Britain picketed the South African embassy to demand safe passage for the detainees.

Anti-apartheid supporters marched through central London to protest against the inauguration of P W Botha as President on 14 September 1984. The inauguration followed segregated elections, boycotted by South Africa’s Indian and Cape Coloured communities. Africans had no vote. United Democratic Front (UDF) leaders were detained before the elections. The elections coincided with a wave of protest that swept through South Africa’s black townships, starting in Sharpeville in the southern Transvaal.