Photos

AAM demonstrators marched through central London on 23 March 1975 to call on the Labour government to stop all military collaboration with South Africa. The government ended the Simonstown Agreement, but continued to supply spare parts and hold joint training exercises with the South African navy. In the photograph is Nigeria’s UN Ambassador Edwin Ogbu, Chair of the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid.

AAM supporters picketed South Africa in solidarity with 13 SASO (South African Student Organisation) and BPC (Black People’s Convention) leaders on trial in Pretoria, on 21 April 1975. They were joined by marchers who had walked from Brighton to raise money for SATIS (Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society).

Bram Fischer was sentenced to life imprisonment in 1966 for conspiring to commit sabotage and membership of the South African Communist Party. In 1963–64 he led the defence team at the trial of Nelson Mandela and his co-accused. The following year he went underground to keep anti-apartheid resistance alive within South Africa. The South African government refused to release him until a few days before his death from cancer on 8 May 1975. More than 300 people people gathered to honour him outside South Africa House.

AAM demonstrators marched through central London on 23 March 1975 to call on the Labour government to stop all military collaboration with South Africa. The government ended the Simonstown Agreement, but continued to supply spare parts and hold joint training exercises with the South African navy.

Anti-apartheid supporters picketed South Africa House calling for the release of all those detained without trial in South Africa in August 1975. They were protesting at the resumption of the trial of members of the South African Students Organisation (SASO) and the Black People’s Convention (BPC), which opened in April 1975 and the detention of six more people, including Afrikaans poet Breyten Breytenbach. On the left is former political prisoner Ben Turok. 

AAM demonstrators picketed South Africa House in August 1975 to protest against continuing detentions without trial in South Africa, including that of the Afrikaans poet Breyten Breytenbach. They also called for the release of the nine leaders of the South African Student Organisation (SASO) and Black People’s Convention (BPC) leaders on trial under the Terrorism Act.

Part of the crowd at a rally in Trafalgar Square to mark the tenth anniversary of UDI, held on 9 November 1975. Demonstrators called for an end to the execution of freedom fighters by the Smith regime. Speakers included Methodist minister David Haslam, Roger Lyons of the white collar union ASTMS and Peter Hain, speaking for the National League of Young Liberals.

Exiled Zimbabweans held a vigil to protest against the execution of guerrilla fighters in Zimbabwe on 9 November 1975. They held placards commemorating the 32 freedom fighters known to have been hanged by the illegal Smith regime. The vigil took place outside Rhodesia House after the Trafalgar Square rally organised by the AAM to mark the tenth anniversary of the white minority unilateral declaration of independence (UDI).