Boycott

From its foundation as the Boycott Movement in 1959, the AAM put the consumer boycott at the centre of its campaigns. It produced regular updated lists of South African brands. This leaflet was produced soon after the AAM moved to its new offices in Charlotte Street in 1964.

This leaflet asking shoppers to boycott South African goods was produced as part of the AAM’s 1965 campaign.

Letter from Glyncorrwg Urban District Council stating that it had agreed to impose a boycott of South African goods until the South African Government established a government based on a universal adult franchise. Glyncorrwg was one of 40 Welsh local authorities which imposed a boycott in the mid-1960s, many of them in response to a letter from South Wales Anti-Apartheid Movement Chair, David Shipper, who wrote to every Welsh local council in 1964. Glyncorrwg was a coal-mining centre in the west of the South Wales valleys.

Correspondence from Glamorgan County Council responding to a letter from South Wales Anti-Apartheid Movement Chair David Shipper, asking it to boycott South African goods. The Council referred the letter to its Supplies Committee to consider problems in enforcing a boycott, and seven months later responded saying that it would stop buying South African groceries, provisions, fruit and vegetables. Glamorgan was one of 40 Welsh local authorities which imposed a boycott of South African goods in the mid-1960s.

List of British local authorities and co-operative societies which boycotted South African goods in 1966. The list included 13 English and 40 Welsh local councils, as well as Aberdeen City Council in Scotland. The authorities represented nearly six million people.

The Political Committee of the London Co-operative Society worked with the AAM to produce this list of alternative sources of supply of goods usually imported from South Africa. The AAM campaigned for a boycott of South African goods by the Co-operative Movement, but store managers were reluctant to implement a ban for commercial reasons.

The AAM circulated this list of sources of fresh and tinned fruit to shops and other retailers in the 1960s. It showed that there were many alternatives to South African imports.

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.