1980s

The AAM mobilised public opinion in Britain against the banning of the UDF and 16 other anti-apartheid organisations in South Africa on 24 February 1988. In the photograph Thabo Mbeki protests at a demonstration outside the South African Embassy. Immediately after the bannings AAM President Trevor Huddleston and TUC General Secretary Norman Willis met British Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe to ask him to make representations to the South African government. The bannings effectively outlawed all non-violent opposition to apartheid within South Africa.

Young AAM supporters at a vigil for the Sharpeville Six in front of Nottingham Town Hall on 13 April 1998.

AAM activists, miners from Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire and Women against Pit Closures protested against a visit by a delegation from the South African coal industry on 21 April 1988. The delegation had come to London to lobby against coal sanctions against South Africa.

Over 60 British companies withdrew from South Africa in 1986–88. This report examines the reasons behind disinvestment and its impact on the South African economy.

South Africa’s rule over Namibia was illegal under international law. The AAM focused on this in calling for the British government to support UN mandatory sanctions against the apartheid regime.  

In 1988 the AAM launched a new initiative for Mandela’s release, ‘Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70’. It was discussed at the ANC’s international solidarity conference in Arusha, Tanzania in December 1987 and developed into the biggest campaign ever organised by the AAM. It began with a birthday tribute concert at Wembley on 11 June and culminated in a rally attended by 250,000 people in Hyde Park on 17 July, the eve of Nelson Mandela’s 70th birthday.

Supporters of Greater London Pensioners call for the release of the Sharpeville Six outside South Africa House in June 1988. The Six were condemned to hang because they were present at a protest where black collaborators were killed. After a big international campaign their sentence was commuted in July 1988.

The Nelson Mandela 70th birthday tribute concert held at Wembley Stadium on 11 June 1988 was attended by a capacity audience of 72,000 and broadcast to over 60 countries. The concert was the opening event in the AAM’s ‘Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70’ campaign. The concert programme carried features on the artists taking part, including Stevie Wonder, Whoopi Goldberg, Whitney Houston, George Michael, Sting, Dire Straits and Simple Minds.