1980s

Anti-apartheid supporters protested outside the Wembley Arena in 1986 when British boxer Frank Bruno fought South African Gerry Coetzee. Britain’s welterweight champion Lloyd Honeyghan later gave up his world title rather than break the sports boycott by fighting a South African. The protest was backed by the Black British Conference Against Apartheid Sport, chaired by former Sports Council member Paul Stephenson. World boxing champions John Conteh and Maurice Hope also wrote to Frank Bruno asking him to call off the fight.

Leafletting Barclays Bank customers to persuade them to withdraw their accounts was a regular activity for most local anti-apartheid groups. The leafletting sessions were part of the long-running campaign to persuade Barclays to pull out of South Africa. In the photograph supporters of Tyneside AA Group are asking customers at a Barclays branch in central Newcastle to close their accounts. Later in the same year Barclays withdrew from South Africa.

In 1986 the Thatcher government introduced a Public Order Bill which limited the right to hold public demonstrations. The AAM took part in this protest outside the Houses of Parliament and liaised with the National Council of Civil Liberties to lobby against the Bill.

In 1986 a British-owned company BTR (British Tyre and Rubber) dismissed its entire workforce. The workers had gone on strike in response to the company’s refusal to recognise their union NUMSA (National Union of Metalworkers). The strike was the longest-running dispute in South African history and the workers won support from trade unionists all over the world, including Britain. In the picture supporters are picketing the company’s London headquarters after taking part in a sit-down protest inside the building.

Supporters of North Shropshire AA Group marched through Shrewsbury in January 1987 to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the founding of the African National Congress.

This conference in Glasgow was organised as part of the AAM’s month of people’s sanctions in March 1987. Workshops discussed campaigning on Namibia and the frontline states as well as South Africa. The conference brought together participants from churches, trade unions, professional groups and ethnic minority organisations. From its formation in 1976 the Scottish AA Committee held events in Scotland that tied in with national events organised by the AAM in London.

The Manifesto for Sanctions was published on 21 January 1987 as part of an AAM initiative to reach a wider cross-section of British public opinion and force Prime Minister Thatcher to rethink her opposition to sanctions. It was distributed to nearly every candidate in the June 1987 British general election and endorsed by 400 candidates. The AAM targeted 41 parliamentary constituencies where there were strong local AA groups in an attempt to make Southern Africa an issue in the election campaign. 

In 1987 the Scottish AA Committee opened an office in Clyde Street, Glasgow. Later the office moved to 52 St Enoch Square. This leaflet appealed for funding from trade unions, churches and other sympathetic groups and individuals. After 1994, the office at St Enoch Square continued as a base for ACTSA (Action for Southern Africa) Scotland.