Pamphlets

Krugerrands were gold coins minted in South Africa to stimulate international demand for South African gold. This report was issued on the eve of the Commonwealth Prime Ministers Conference held in Nassau in October 1985 to discuss sanctions against South Africa. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher held out against the imposition of wide-ranging sanctions and agreed only to a few measures, including a ban on the import of Krugerrands.

As resistance to apartheid grew in the 1980s more and more people were arrested and charged under South Africa’s draconian security laws. This pamphlet examined the apartheid legal system and showed how it was impossible for political prisoners to receive a fair trial.

At the height of the AAM campaign for sanctions in the mid-1980s, many local organisations produced their own campaign material. This pamphlet published in east London by Tower Hamlets Solidarity and Tower Hamlets Trades Council was a comprehensive campaign guide for trade unions, local authorities, community organisations and individuals.

Cartoons reproduced from Anti-Apartheid News by artists including Steve Bell, Ken Sprague and Peter Clarke.

Report on the British government’s failure to implement measures against South Africa agreed by the Commonwealth, UN Security Council and European Economic Community. The report was prepared for the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting held in London, 3–5 August 1986, following the visit of the Commonwealth Eminent Persons Group to South Africa.

In March 1986 members of the British NUR set up Rail Against Apartheid to mobilise support among British railwaymen for the South African Rail and Harbour Workers Union (SARHWU). This report by two Rail Against Apartheid members who visited South Africa on a fact-finding mission was written in the aftermath of SARHWU’s three-month strike in 1987 during which six South African railworkers were shot dead by police. The report details the practical support given by the NUR to SARHWU and Rail Against Apartheid’s involvement in wider AAM campaigns for the isolation of apartheid South Africa.

In March 1987 the AAM launched a campaign for a boycott of Shell products as part of an international campaign to make Shell withdraw from South Africa. This report showed how Shell supported the South African Defence Force and collaborated with the apartheid government’s illegal occupation of Namibia. It was a revised British edition of a report originally produced by Dutch anti-apartheid organisations.

In September 1987 a conference in Harare heard testimony from children who had been tortured by the South African security forces. Over 200 health workers, lawyers, social workers and representatives of student, trade union, religious and women’s organisations from 45 countries met children living in South Africa and the frontline states. This pamphlet told some of the children’s stories and appealed for support for the Trevor Huddleston Children’s Fund.