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Thousands marched through central London on 21 October 1978 to mark  International Anti-Apartheid Year. They protested against the massacre of Zimbabwean refugees in Zambia by white Rhodesian security forces and called for international sanctions against the Rhodesian and South African regimes. At a rally in Trafalgar Square, Angolan ambassador, Luis de Almeida, pledged solidarity with freedom fighters in Namibia, Zimbabwe and South Africa.

Letter to Foreign Secretary David Owen from the AAM’s Hon. Secretary Abdul Minty in November 1978 enclosing evidence of breaches of the British arms embargo against South Africa and calling for a parliamentary inquiry. 

Leaflet asking shoppers to boycott South African goods. Many anti-apartheid groups produced leaflets like this for distribution in local shopping centres, drawing on lists of products and statistics supplied by the national AAM.

Sticker produced by the far-right British National Party (BNP) asking people to support apartheid by buying South African goods. The AAM met with virulent opposition from a succession of far-right organisations in Britain throughout its 35-year history.

The National Union of Students elected Nelson Mandela as its Vice-President after he was sentenced to life imprisonment in the Rivonia trial in 1964. In 1971 the NUS set up a student network to campaign on Southern Africa jointly with the Anti-Apartheid Movement. This poster was produced as part of its Southern Africa Campaign.

Mandela Pioneers, the children of ANC supporters, outside South Africa House on 27 December 1978. They carried placards asking passers-by to remember the massacres at Sharpeville and Soweto. They were also supporting young ANC activist Solomon Mahlangu, condemned to death in South Africa in March 1978.

Solomon Mahlangu was a young ANC freedom fighter sentenced to death in March 1978 for his involvement in a gun battle with police in which two men died. The judge accepted that he had not fired the fatal shots. Thousands of this postcard were distributed in Britain and as a result of the campaign the British Foreign Secretary David Owen intervened with the South African government. Despite worldwide demands for clemency, Mahlangu was hanged on 6 April 1979.

The year 21 March 1978 to 20 March 1979 was designated as International Anti-Apartheid Year by the UN General Assembly. In Britain the AAM brought together 40 organisations in a broad-based co-ordinating committee to organise events during the year. As a UN member the British government supported the initiative and Foreign Secretary David Owen spoke at a public meeting in January 1979.