Pamphlets

In the early 1960s the white minority governments of Southern Africa entered into an informal alliance as the rest of Africa gained its independence. Western companies made big profits from mining in South Africa, Rhodesia and Katanga (southern Congo). This pamphlet, by AAM founder member Rosalynde Ainslie, showed how Britain supported white minority rule. It was launched at a press conference in London in 1962 by Irish writer and diplomat Conor Cruise O’Brien.

This pamphlet set out the case for international sanctions against South Africa. It was published as a follow-up to a resolution passed by the General Council of the Student Christian Movement in September 1964 asking the UK and Irish governments to support a UN Security Council resolution imposing sanctions against South Africa. The SCM had a wide membership among students in the mid-1960s and worked closely with the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

The Collaborators set out the case for international sanctions against South Africa. It explained how British companies profited from apartheid and how lobby groups like the South Africa Foundation defended the South African government. The pamphlet called for an immediate arms embargo and for Britain and the USA to support UN sanctions against South Africa. 

From its formation in 1960, the Anti-Apartheid Movement campaigned for an end to South Africa’s illegal rule in Namibia (South West Africa). In March 1966 writer Ronald Segal convened an international conference with the support of the AAM. This pamphlet set out the background to the conference and explained how South Africa had contravened its League of Nations mandate. It called for political action at the UN and showed how the Western powers were blocking any steps to end South Africa’s control of the territory.

This pamphlet detailed South Africa’s arms build-up in the 1960s and argued that Western military support for apartheid could lead to a global racial conflagration. It was widely distributed and ran into several editions.

Pamphlet illustrating life under apartheid and black resistance.

Pamphlet explaining basic facts about apartheid.

Booklet illustrated with woodcuts about life for black South Africans under apartheid. The booklet was produced by the South Africa Racial Amity Trust (SARAT), an education charity set up by the Anti-Apartheid Movement and later renamed the Bishop Ambrose Reeves Trust (BART).