Browse the AAM Archive

This issue marked the first anniversary of the launch of AA News by setting out the AAM’s aims for 1966: to impose sanctions on South Africa as well as against the Smith regime in Rhodesia. It highlighted two AAM conferences – against the ‘unholy alliance’ between South Africa, Rhodesia and Portugal, as the colonial power in Angola and Mozambique, and on Namibia. It featured the academic boycott of South African and reported on the launch of the UK-South Africa Trade Association. It carried an article on the strengthening of economic ties between France and South Africa.

In the run-up to the whites-only election in South Africa, AA News revealed South Africa’s support for the illegal Smith regime in Rhodesia. It exposed the torture of South African detainees and reported on the setting up of schools by the Mozambique liberation movement FRELIMO in the liberated northern areas of Mozambique. In a centrespread and editorial, AA News highlighted how the apartheid government had abused its League of Nations mandate over South West Africa (Namibia).

The April issue called on the re-elected Labour Government to ask the UN Security Council to impose mandatory sanctions against Rhodesia to stop South Africa and Portugal supporting the Smith regime. It carried summaries of the papers submitted to the international conference on South West Africa (Namibia) organised by the AAM. Reports of campaign actions organised by anti-apartheid groups around Britain included a piece on  Leeds University AAM’s anti-apartheid week.  

The AAM responded to the British Government’s announcement that it had reopened talks with the illegal Smith regime in Rhodesia by launching a petition calling for majority rule. The May issue carried the petition. It summarised Bram Fischer’s speech from the dock and looked at where new Labour MPs elected in March 1966 stood on Southern Africa. It featured a statement by prominent academics and writers countering the argument that recent coups in West Africa meant that the British should support ‘stable’ minority governments in South Africa and Rhodesia.

In the summer of 1966 the AAM stepped up its campaign against a sell-out on Rhodesia. AA News reported on the AAM’s lobby of parliament and poster parade in Trafalgar Square. It highlighted plans for a march through central London demanding ‘Freedom for Rhodesia’ on 26 June. It also highlighted the worldwide protests against the sentence of life imprisonment imposed on Bram Fischer in South Africa.

Under the headline ‘A great day in the Square’ AA News reported on the AAM’s march and rally demanding majority rule in Rhodesia. It reported on independence talks on Basutoland (Lesotho) and criticised Senator Robert Kennedy for his opposition to sanctions after his visit to South Africa.

The September issue welcomed Liberal MP David Steel as President of the Anti-Apartheid Movement. Recently released political prisoner Dennis Brutus gave an inside account of the brutal treatment of prisoners on Robben Island. An article by Fabian Society representative Margaret Roberts exposed the failures of the Labour Government’s policies on Southern Africa. The issue also carried a piece by former SWANU (South West Africa National Union) President Jariretundu Kozonguizi on the International Court of Justice’s failure to rule that South Africa had violated its mandate in South West Africa (Namibia).

The October issue accused Britain’s Labour Government of siding with apartheid and called for new protests against its policies on Rhodesia (Zimbabwe) and South West Africa (Namibia). It exposed starvation conditions among black South Africans in rural areas. The issue profiled Johannes Vorster, who took over as South Africa’s new Prime Minister after the assassination of Hendrik Verwoerd in September 1966.