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Letter from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher about her meeting with P W Botha in June 1984. Instead of calling for one person one vote, she told him that the British government would accept a system of government that had ‘the consent of the South African people’. She said she had ‘expressed concern at the continued detention of Nelson Mandela’.

This leaflet made the case for the expulsion of South Africa from the World Psychiatric Association. It was distributed at a seminar held at a WPA regional symposium in Helsinki in June 1984, which called for the expulsion of South Africa from world psychiatry. This was the start of a long campaign which won the support of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and the British Psychological Society.

From the late 1970s local AA groups held annual sponsored walks to raise funds for the ANC’s Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College on Tanzania. The walks took place around 16 June, the anniversary of the school students uprising in Soweto. Anti-apartheid supporters in Brent, north-west London, wore this badge on their walk in 1984.

David Kitson reunited with his wife Norma on his arrival in London after his release from Pretoria Central prison in June 1984. In 1964 Kitson was convicted of sabotage and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. 

In June 1984 the police banned anti-apartheid protesters from the pavement in front of South Africa House. City of London AA Group supporters demonstrated against the ban on the steps of St Martin’s in the Fields, 22 June 1984.

David Kitson speaking at a press conference arranged by the AAM after his release from prison in June 1984. In 1964 Kitson was convicted of sabotage and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. He served the full 20-year term. In Britain the draughtsmen’s union, AUEW-TASS, which Kitson joined when he was working in Britain in the 1950s, and Ruskin College, Oxford, where he studied on a union scholarship, both campaigned for his release. Left to right: David Kitson, AAM Chair Bob Hughes MP, AAM staff member Cate Clark.

The AAM held a National Convention on 23 and 24 June 1984 to mark the 25th anniversary of its founding as the Boycott Movement in 1959. Speakers included the then Tanzanian Foreign Minister and later President, Benjamin Mkapa, Andimba Toivo ja Toivo of SWAPO, the Chair of the UN Special Committee Against Apartheid, Ambassador Joseph Garba and David Kitson, who had just been released after serving a 20-year sentence in Pretoria Central Prison. Workshops and commissions discussed practical campaigning throughout the weekend. On 26 June the AAM relaunched the boycott campaign.

The AAM held a National  Convention, 23–24 June 1984, to mark its 25th anniversary and draw up a new action programme. Participants included the Tanzanian Foreign Minister and future President Benjamin Mkapa, UN Special Committee Against Apartheid Chair, Ambassador Joseph Garba and David Kitson, recently released from Pretoria Prison. In the picture are E S Reddy, Secretary of the UN Committee Against Apartheid, Andimba Toivo ja Toivo of SWAPO and Labour Party Leader Neil Kinnock.