Faith organisations

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 Consultation on Racism held in Notting Hill, London, 19–24 May 1969 led to the setting up of the WCC’s Programme to Combat Racism (PCR). The consultation concluded that force could be used to combat racism in situations where non-violent political strategies had failed. The PCR gave grants for humanitarian use to the Southern African liberation movements and other anti-apartheid organisations, including the AAM. In the centre of the photograph are the Archbishop of Canterbury Michael Ramsey and Trevor Huddleston.

Trevor Huddleston, then Bishop of Stepney, London, and ANC president Oliver Tambo at the World Council of Churches Consultation on Racism, held in Notting Hill, London, 19–24 May 1969. The consultation concluded that force could be used to combat racism in situations where non-violent political strategies had failed. The PCR gave grants for humanitarian purposes to the Southern African liberation movements and other anti-apartheid organisations, including the AAM.

In 1972 the World Council of Churches Central Committee resolved to sell its investments in companies involved in South Africa, Namibia, Zimbabwe and Portugal’s African colonies. It urged member churches and individual Christians to press corporations to withdraw their investments. The move followed the WCC’s historic decision in 1968 to set up its Programme to Combat Racism (PCR) and ask member churches to withdraw investments from institutions that perpetuate racism. This pamphlet set out the arguments behind the WCC’s resolution.

The Church of England and other British churches held large investments in companies and banks involved in Southern Africa. In this pamphlet, Methodist minister David Haslam reviewed the churches response to the World Council of Churches call for disinvestment and argued that they were failing to meet the challenge of acting to end apartheid and racism in Southern Africa.

Throughout the 1970s the AAM campaigned for organisations to disinvest from South African companies and from British firms which owned subsidiary companies in South Africa. This memo listed universities, trade unions, local councils and churches which sold their shareholdings in such companies in the early 1970s. 

This report showed how the British company GEC supplied the South African Defence Force with sophisticated technology and worked closely with South African state corporations. It estimated that 40–50% of the black workers employed by GEC’s South African subsidiaries were paid below the minimum level recommended by the British government’s Code of Conduct for British corporations operating in South Africa. Christian Concern for Southern Africa (CCSA) was set up in 1972 to research and publicise the role played by British companies in South Africa. Its reports were widely distributed by the AAM.

Through its subsidiary company African Explosives and Chemical Industries (AECI) the British chemicals giant ICI had interests in South Africa dating back to the development of the gold mines in the 19th century. This report showed how AECI worked closely with the apartheid government and operated a strict colour bar in its South African operations. Christian Concern for Southern Africa (CCSA) was set up in 1972 to research and publicise the role played by British companies in South Africa. Its reports were widely distributed by the AAM.