1980s

Labour MP Bernie Grant with Haringey AA Group activist Sean O’Donovan, signing the AAM’s ‘Boycott Apartheid 89’ petition.

In 1989 the AAM appointed a women’s organiser and produced this leaflet to attract new women members. The leaflet highlighted the situation of South African and Namibian women and asked women in Britain to support the AAM’s ‘Boycott Apartheid 89’ campaign.

In December 1988 South Africa signed the UN Plan for the Independence of Namibia, which led to the holding of free elections in November 1989. Church Action on Namibia marked 1 April 1989, the date set for the implementation of the plan, with a street theatre performance outside the South African Embassy showing British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher greeting South African President P W Botha.

Supporters of End Loans to Southern Africa (ELTSA) leafleted shareholders outside the annual general meeting of NatWest Bank in April 1989. They were asking the bank not to take part in an agreement to reschedule South Africa’s foreign debt. In 1985 South Africa was forced to announce a moratorium on its debt repayments, a crunch moment in the decline of the apartheid economy which led to the opening of negotiations in the early 1990s.

Tyneside AA Group asked spectators to boycott Shell products at Newcastle upon Tyne’s May Day carnival in1989. 

‘Don’t Buy South African goods’ was the message on Tyneside AA Group’s float at Newcastle upon Tyne’s May Day carnival in 1989. Local anti-apartheid supporters were asking spectators to support the AAM’s ‘Boycott Apartheid 89’ campaign.

Tyneside AA Group asked carnival goers to support the AAM’s ‘Boycott Apartheid 89’ campaign on May Day 1989.

Trade unionists from Teesside and Hartlepool protested against the unloading of South African coal at Teesport in north-east England on 11 May 1989. British miners and other trade unionists were at the forefront of the campaign against imports of South African coal. By the late 1980s the international campaign meant that it was often sold at a discounted price.