Government

After South Africa left the Commonwealth in 1961 the British government passed a ‘standstill Bill’ postponing the removal of Commonwealth trade preferences. In March 1962 the AAM organised a lobby of Parliament against the renewal of the Bill. This memo briefed lobbyists and listed the Conservative MPs most likely to oppose the Bill.

The AAM prepared this memorandum for the Labour government elected in October 1964. It asked the government to support UN sanctions against South Africa, commit itself to freedom for South West Africa (Namibia) and contribute to the Defence and Aid Fund. It also pressed for a more stringent arms embargo.

In November 1967 reports in the British press suggested that the Labour government was about to lift its arms embargo against South Africa. The AAM wrote to Foreign Secretary George Brown, who agreed to meet an AAM delegation, but failed to give assurances that the arms ban would be maintained. After protests from Labour MPs and three crisis Cabinet meetings, Prime Minister Harold Wilson announced that the arms embargo would stay. 

In 1973 the low wages paid to black workers by the South African subsidiaries of British companies hit the headlines with the publication of a series of articles by Adam Raphael in the Guardian newspaper. The AAM submitted this memorandum to a House of Commons sub-committee tasked with enquiring into the operations of British companies in South Africa. The memorandum argued that all British economic involvement in South Africa supported apartheid and that British firms should pull out. The government rejected this argument and instead instituted a code of conduct for British companies operating in South Africa.

Letter from AAM Executive Secretary Basil Manning, written on behalf of Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society (SATIS), to Foreign Secretary James Callaghan, asking the British government to send observers to the trial of black consciousness movement leaders in South Africa in 1975.

Letter to Prime Minister Harold Wilson about the operations of BOSS agents in the UK. The AAM asked the government to end all liaison between the British and South African intelligence services.

The AAM carried out detailed research into the loopholes in the arms embargo imposed by the 1974–79 Labour government against South Africa. This memorandum showed how the South African Defence Force was obtaining a wide range of British military equipment in spite of the embargo.

In 1976 the AAM received evidence that the illegal white minority regime in Rhodesia was obtaining British military equipment from South Africa for use in its war against ZANU and ZAPU guerrilla fighters. This letter asked Prime Minister James Callaghan to tighten the British arms embargo against South Africa.