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Sweatshirt produced by AA Enterprises to raise funds for the AAM.

Early in 1989 more than 300 South African detainees went on hunger strike in protest against their detention without trial. The AAM publicised the hunger strike and called for their release. Thousands of people were imprisoned without charge under the nationwide State of Emergency declared in June 1986. They included many children and young people. Some of them were held for over two years.

Mug publicising the campaign for support for the South West Africa People’s Organisation (SWAPO) and independence for Namibia. The same design was used on T-shirts and badges.

Badge produced by the Committee for Freedom in Mozambique, Angola and Guinea Bissau in support of the liberation movements in Portugal’s African colonies. Portugal was forced to withdraw from the colonies in 1975.

Report of a symposium on the history of the Anti-Apartheid Movement held at South Africa House, London on 25-26 June 1999. The symposium included contributions from Baroness Barbara Castle, Abdul Minty and Lord Bob Hughes, former Hon. Secretary and Chair of the AAM, Professor Shula Marks, Stuart Hall, South African High Commissioner Cheryl Carolus, Peter Katjavivi, former SWAPO representative, UN Centre against Apartheid Director E S Reddy, Victoria Brittain, Patsy Robertson and South African Cabinet Minister Kader Asmal. It marked the 40th anniversary of the founding of the AAM.

The AAM held an extraordinary general meeting (EGM) on 25 June 1994, at which it agreed to transform itself into a new movement of solidarity with the peoples of Southern Africa. Members agreed that the new organisation would campaign for justice and peace across the whole of Southern Africa and address the legacy of apartheid. It resolved that the new organisation would have an explicit anti-racist and anti-sexist strategy. It was agreed that the new organisation would be launched, and the AAM would be dissolved, at a further meeting on 29 October 1994.

The Anti-Apartheid Movement’s monthly newspaper was launched in January 1965. First published as ‘Apartheid News’, its title was changed in February 1966 to ‘Anti-Apartheid News’. The first issue set out the AAM’s aims for 1965, reported on trials under South Africa’s Terrorism Act and carried news of the activities of anti-apartheid activists all over Britain. It included a short play by jazz singer George Melly and reported on the setting up of a new group, Merseyside Artists Against Apartheid. 

The February issue exposed the Labour government’s failure to impose an effective arms ban on South Africa and outlined the AAM’s campaign plans, culminating in a dramatic presentation of life under apartheid and mass rally in Trafalgar Square in June 1965. It reported on how Bram Fischer had jumped bail in his trial under the Suppression of Communism Act and carried an exposé of South Africa’s segregated health care system.