Front line states

Leaflet publicising a briefing meeting for an international campaign on the theme ‘Stop the Apartheid War’ planned for the autumn of 1983. The campaign followed an international conference on solidarity with Mozambique and Angola held in Lisbon on 25–27 March. The campaign was organised by the AAM, Namibia Support Committee and the newly formed Mozambique Angola Committee (MAC).

Report detailing South Africa’s military build-up in the early 1980s and its attacks on the front-line states. The Committee on South African War Resistance (COSAWR) was set up by young white South Africans who refused to be conscripted into the apartheid government’s armed forces. Increasing numbers of them were forced into exile from the late 1970s. They played an important part in anti-apartheid campaigns, especially in Britain, and COSAWR worked closely with the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

From the early 1980s South Africa destabilised Mozambique by supporting the Mozambique National Resistance (MNR). The MNR killed villagers and attacked economic targets like the Beira-Zimbabwe railway line. South African commandos also mounted raids into Mozambique, killing ANC activists and Mozambican civilians. This pamphlet gives a detailed account of South Africa’s undeclared war. Shortly after it was published Mozambique and South Africa signed the Nkomati Accord, but the apartheid government reneged on its pledge to stop arming the MNR. 

From the early 1980s young white South Africans who refused to do compulsory military service came to Britain and played an important part in anti-apartheid campaigns. In 1984 the apartheid government extended military conscription for whites. In this picture supporters of COSAWR are protesting against South Africa’s new military offensive against Angola in the winter of 1983/84.

Leaflet publicising a public meeting held during the AAM’s month of action in solidarity with the frontline states in March 1988. The AAM stepped up campaigning against South Africa’s aggression against neighbouring states in response to escalating attacks on Angola in the autumn of 1987. South Africa’s failure to capture the town of Cuito Cuanavale in Southern Angola in March 1988 was one of the turning points of the Southern African liberation struggle. 

This leaflet was distributed during the AAM’s month of action in solidarity with the frontline states in March 1988. During the month local AA groups held meetings and demonstrations to draw attention to South Africa’s attacks on neighbouring states. A highlight of the month was a visit to Britain by Graça Machel, who spoke at a packed meeting in Oxford and at the Scottish Labour Party’s annual conference in Perth.

One of the main events of the AAM month of action in solidarity with the frontline states in March 1988 was a fundraising concert on 19 March. The Africa Fund collected aid for refugees displaced by South Africa’s attacks on neighbouring states. On 21 March the AAM’s London Committee organised a picket of the South African Embassy to draw attention to South African aggression. 

In 1988 Local Authorities Against Apartheid (LAAA) organised a conference to discuss positive ways in which British organisations could support the development of the frontline states in Southern Africa. The key speaker at the conference was Jorge Rebelo from FRELIMO.