Photos

Students protested outside the South African Embassy on 20 October 1976 against the deaths of four more detainees in South Africa. A deputation later delivered a letter signed by National Union of Students and National Union of School Students Presidents Charles Clarke and Dan Hopewell to Prime Minister James Callaghan, asking him to make representations to the South African government. The four murdered detainees included three students and an unnamed man who died in police custody in Carletonville, west of Johannesburg.

TUC staff and members of the film technicians union ACTT picketed South Africa House on 20 January 1977. They were supporting the worldwide Week of Trade Union Action against Apartheid called by the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU) from 17 to 24 January. Among the protesters were Alan Sapper, General Secretary of ACTT, and Charles Grieve, General Secretary of the Tobacco Workers Union.

Demonstrators outside South Africa House on 14 February 1977, demanding freedom for SWAPO leaders Aaron Mushimba and Hendrik Shikongo. The two men were sentenced to death under the Terrorism Act on 12 May 1976. They were freed on appeal in 1977 after an international campaign for their release.

Over 3000 people marched through Glasgow on 5 March 1977 calling for a strict arms embargo against South Africa and a freeze on British investment there. Among the speakers at a rally were Duma Nokwe of the African National Congress, the General Secretary of the Scottish TUC James Milne and Rev. Geoff Shaw, Convenor of Strathclyde Regional Council. The event was organised by the AAM Scottish Committee to coincide with a demonstration in London the following day.

Trade union banners on a march to Trafalgar Square calling for an end to British arms sales to South Africa and a freeze on investment, 6 March 1977. 

Southampton University Student Union banner on a march to Trafalgar Square calling for an end to British arms sales to South Africa and a freeze on investment, 6 March 1977. 

Trade union banners on a march to Trafalgar Square calling for an end to British arms sales to South Africa and a freeze on investment, 6 March 1977.

Labour MP Joan Lestor addressed an AAM rally in Trafalgar Square, 6 March 1977. She said that British firms invested in South Africa because cheap black labour produced high profit rates. Also on the platform (left to right) are AAM Chair Bob Hughes MP, Neil Kinnock MP, SWAPO representative Shapua Kaukungua, Joan Lestor MP, Pauline Webb from the Methodist Conference and AAM Hon. Secretary Abdul Minty.