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The Southern Africa Coalition was launched on 1 September 1989 to press the British government to impose targeted sanctions against South Africa. These included a ban on imports of coal and agricultural products and on loans to South Africa. The Coalition brought together a wide range of organisations, including trade unions, churches, overseas aid agencies and the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

Sheffield MP Richard Caborn and Lord Mayor Tony Damms with Sheffield AAM supporters outside Tesco on 13 October 1989. Over 2,000 shoppers signed Sheffield AA Group’s petition asking Tesco to stop selling South African goods. Earlier in the year, 320 of Tesco 380 stores all over Britain were picketed in a special Day of Action on 22 April.

Letter asking Prime Minister Thatcher to intervene with the South African government to stop the hanging of the Upington 14. The 14 were sentenced to death because they were present at a demonstration during which a black policeman was killed. After international protests they were reprieved in May 1991, after two years on death row.

The AAM campaigned to stop the 1990 rebel cricket tour of South Africa, led by Mike Gatting. It picketed 40 county cricket matches involving members of the team. These demonstrators are outside the Oval. The tour was cut short by protests inside South Africa and made a big financial loss.

In the late 1980s Bristol AA Group held an annual Festival against Apartheid. The 1989 Festival had an ambitious two-week programme featuring music from Southern Africa, an exhibition of Zimbabwean artworks and a children’s day with workshops on gumboot dancing, circus skills and drama.

Poster advertising Bristol AA Group’s 1989 Festival against Apartheid. The Festival had an ambitious two-week programme featuring music from Southern Africa, an exhibition of Zimbabwean artworks and a children’s day with workshops on gumboot dancing, circus skills and drama.

This poster reproduced an press advertisement calling on the 1989 Commonwealth  Heads of Government meeting to impose further sanctions on South Africa. In 1986 the Commonwealth imposed limited sanctions, constrained by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s refusal to agree to more wide-ranging measures. The Southern Africa Coalition was a broad coalition of British organisations, including churches, trade unions, overseas development organisations and the AAM, launched on 1 September 1989 to pressure the British government ot impose targeted sanctions against South Africa.

This report analysed the actions taken by F W de Klerk during his first 100 days as President of South Africa. It argued that he had made no significant changes to the apartheid system.