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ANC President Oliver Tambo was the main speaker at the London Against Racism rally held at Friends Meeting House by the Greater London Council on 21 March 1984. In December 1983 the GLC launched an Anti-Apartheid Declaration pledging that it would discourage all links between London and apartheid South Africa.

Poster advertising a rally organised by the Greater London Council on 21 March 1984, the anniversary of the Sharpeville massacre. The main speaker was ANC President Oliver Tambo. In December 1983 the GLC launched an Anti-Apartheid Declaration pledging that it would discourage all links between London and apartheid South Africa.

ANC President Oliver Tambo was the main speaker at the London Against Racism rally held by the Greater London Council on 21 March 1984. Earlier in the day he held a press conference at County Hall. In December 1983 the GLC launched an Anti-Apartheid Declaration pledging that it would discourage all links between London and apartheid South Africa.

The AAM joined with other organisations to organise this national lobby of Parliament on the anniversary of the massacre at Sharpeville on 21 March 1960. Over 600 lobbyists met their MPs – many of them Conservatives who opposed any anti-apartheid action. At a meeting in the House of Commons Labour, Liberal and Social Democratic Party MPs pledged support for the AAM’s Southern Africa Manifesto.

This ‘Model Declaration’ for local authorities was produced by a committee set up at a conference of local authorities on Southern Africa, held in Sheffield in March 1983. It was widely circulated and taken up by many local councils.

Benjamin Moloise was sentenced to death in June 1983 on a framed charge of killing a South African security policeman. This vigil outside the South African Embassy, calling for his release, was held on 6 April 1984, the fifth anniversary of the execution of Solomon Mahlangu. In spite of an international campaign for clemency, Benjamin Moloise was hanged on 18 October 1985.

Over 1,000 protesters marched through Cardiff to Cardiff Arms Park on 7 April 1984 to protest against the Welsh Rugby Union’s invitation to South African rugby boss Danie Craven to be guest of honour at a game between Wales and the President’s XI. Three Springboks played in the President’s team. The invitation provoked huge opposition. A ‘Charter Against Apartheid’ was signed by former prime minister and local MP James Callaghan, most Welsh MPs, church leaders, writers and trade unionists.

Poster advertising a demonstration outside the John Player rugby cup final at Twickenham in protest against the Rugby Football Union’s tour of South Africa in May–June 1984. Student activists demonstrated at Heathrow on the day of the team’s departure. The tour went ahead in spite of a long-running campaign against it. The Conservative government expressed its opposition to the tour but took no action to stop it.