Photos

The AAM’s National Convention for Sanctions, held on 27 June 1987, called for a mass movement of ‘people’s sanctions’. The AAM was responding to Prime Minister Thatcher’s refusal to implement any significant measures against the apartheid government. The Convention was attended by trade unionists, local councillors, students, church and women’s groups and representatives of political parties. It adopted a Programme of Action and pledged support for a mass demonstration on 24 October.

South African Youth Congress representatives Joe Nkuna and Faye Reagon launched a campaign to save the lives of 32 people sentenced to death in South Africa for their anti-apartheid activities. They planned to present over 32,000 signatures – 1,000 for each prisoner – to the British, West German and US embassies in South Africa to internationalise the campaign. In London 43 MPs signed an early day motion backing the initiative. Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society (SATIS) and the AAM organised a meeting chaired by Betty Heathfield of Women Against Pit Closures.

In September 1987 a conference in Harare heard testimony from children who had been tortured by the South African security forces. Over 200 health workers, lawyers, social workers and representatives of student, trade union, religious and women’s organisations from 45 countries met children from within South Africa and exiles living in the frontline states. The conference was organised by Bishop Ambrose Reeves Trust (BART). In the photograph Glenys Kinnock listens to one of the witnesses.

Glenys Kinnock and Larry Whitty of the British Labour Party handed over a cheque for the ANC’s Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College in Tanzania at the Labour Party conference in 1987.

There was widespread support among British trade unionists for striking miners in South Africa and Namibia in September 1987. AAM supporters and the British NUM held daily protests outside the London headquarters of Anglo-American, Consolidated Goldfields and other South African mining conglomerates. Over £75,000 was raised for the miners. In the picture Labour MPs Tony Banks and Jeremy Corbyn hold leaflets that the police stopped them distributing outside the offices of the Anglo-American Corporation.

AAM supporters asked British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher to impose ‘Sanctions Now’ at the entrance to Downing Street, 23 October 1987.

Sixty thousand people marched through London from Embankment to Hyde Park on 24 October 1987 to call for sanctions against South Africa. The demonstration took place before the Commonwealth conference in Vancouver. A delegation handed in a letter to 10 Downing Street. The speakers in Hyde Park included SWAPO President Sam Nujoma, Johnstone Makatini from the ANC, TUC General Secretary Norman Willis, Glenys Kinnock, Labour MPs Bernie Grant and Joan Lestor, and AAM activist Rekha Patel.

Sixty thousand people marched through London from Embankment to Hyde Park on 24 October 1987 to call for sanctions against South Africa. The demonstration took place before the Commonwealth conference in Vancouver. A delegation handed in a letter to 10 Downing Street. The speakers in Hyde Park included SWAPO President Sam Nujoma, Johnstone Makatini from the ANC, TUC General Secretary Norman Willis, Glenys Kinnock, Labour MPs Bernie Grant and Joan Lestor, and AAM activist Rekha Patel.