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In the wake of the Guardian exposé of the poverty wages paid by British companies in South Africa in 1973, this report examined the role of the international banking system in the systemic exploitation of black workers. It showed how the South African economy depended on European and American banking conglomerates for investment and to fund its expansion into the rest of Southern Africa. Counter Information Services produced a series of reports in the 1970s focusing on the operations of economic sectors and individual British companies, including a report on Consolidated Gold Fields.

Anti-apartheid demonstrators asked rugby players not to take part in the British Lions tour of South Africa in 1974. The photograph shows a protest at the England v Wales match at Twickenham on 16 March. Other protesters displayed banners on the roof of the RFU’s headquarters. Welsh international John Taylor refused to take part in the tour.

Counter-demonstration by members of the far-right National Front at Twickenham, 16 March 1974. Anti-apartheid supporters were protesting against the British Lions tour of South Africa.

AAM supporters held a 24-hour vigil on the steps of St Martin’s in the Fields on Good Friday, 11–12 April 1974 to call for the release of all South African political prisoners. They collected over 2,500 signatures for a petition to be presented to the UN in June. The vigil and petition were part of the campaign launched by Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society (SATIS) at its founding conference in December 1973. In the photograph are Kay Hosey, mother of political prisoner Sean Hosey, and Rev Paul Oestreicher.

In 1974, students at University College London asked the college authorities to establish whether companies in which the college held shares had dealings with the South African military or paid below subsistence wages.They demanded that the college disinvest from any such companies. This pamphlet reviewed the South African operations of firms in which University College held shares. In the early 1970s students at over half Britain’s colleges and universities took action for disinvestment from South Africa.

The AAM produced the first edition of this handbook describing the working conditions of black workers under apartheid in the early 1970s. It set out the case for pressuring British companies to withdraw from South Africa and was widely distributed among British trade unionists.

Three thousand people marched through central London on 16 June 1974 to celebrate the defeat of the Portuguese colonial regime and call for the independence of Mozambique, Angola and Guinea-Bissau. At a rally in Trafalgar Square Mariano Matsinhe of FRELIMO stressed the role of international solidarity in the liberation struggle. Miners leader Jack Collins gave a message of support from British trade unions. The rally was organised by the AAM and the Committee for Freedom in Mozambique, Angola and Guinea-Bissau.

The AAM celebrated its 15th anniversary with a ‘Freedom Convention’ at Camden Lock, London on 30 June 1974. Stalls displayed information about South Africa, Zimbabwe, Namibia and Portugal’s African colonies. A petition for the release of South African prisoners with 30,000 signatures was presented to Nigeria’s UN Ambassador Edwin Ogbu, Chair of the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid. The Convention also highlighted the call for a boycott of all South African products.