Photos

Demonstrators marched through central London on 18 June 1977 to mark the first anniversary of the Soweto uprising. The march was organised by the National Union of Students and National Union of School Students, with support from the AAM. Two days before, Nkosazana Dlamini and Canon Collins spoke at a commemoration service in the crypt of St Martin’s in the Fields. In Scotland AAM supporters held a vigil outside South Africa’s Glasgow consulate. 

The ANC contingent on the march through central London on 18 June 1977 held to mark the first anniversary of the Soweto uprising. The march was organised by the National Union of Students and National Union of School Students, with support from the AAM. Two days before, Nkosazana Dlamini and Canon Collins spoke at a commemoration service in the crypt of St Martin’s in the Fields. In Scotland AAM supporters held a vigil outside South Africa’s Glasgow consulate. 

ANC Acting President Oliver Tambo (left) at a reception held by the AAM on 13 June 1977 during the Commonwealth Conference held in London. The conference issued a comprehensive communiqué on Southern Africa that affirmed total support for the liberation movements in Zimbabwe and Namibia and condemned South African aggression against the frontline states.

Rock climbers Edwin Drummond and Colon Rowe climbed Nelson’s Column in Trafalgar Square, London in October 1977 and unfurled a banner calling for an end to investment in South Africa.

Anti-apartheid protesters picketed the South African Embassy on 11 October 1977, UN Day for Southern African political prisoners. They collected signatures for an international petition calling for the release of the Pretoria 12, 11 men and one woman charged under the Terrorism Act with recruiting people to undergo military training. The 12 included ANC veterans and students who had joined Umkhonto we Sizwe after the 1976 Soweto uprising. Eventually six were sentenced to long jail sentences and six were acquitted.

Anti-apartheid supporters protested outside South Africa House within hours of the banning of 18 organisations in South Africa on 19 October 1977. The apartheid government banned every significant national organisation opposed to apartheid within South Africa, including the Black People’s Convention and the Christian Institute.

Anti-apartheid women supporters demanded an end to police harassment of Winnie Mandela at a demonstration at South Africa House on 9 February, 1978. She was charged with breaking the banning order that confined her to Brandfort, an African township outside Bloemfontein.

Anti-apartheid supporters picketed around 250 branches of Barclays Bank all over Britain on 1 March 1978. The pickets were part of a March month of action against apartheid held to launch the UN International Anti-Apartheid Year. British-owned Barclays Bank was the biggest high street bank in South Africa. After a 16-year campaign by the AAM, Barclays withdrew from South Africa in 1986.