Photos

As part of the Boycott Apartheid 89 campaign the AAM converted a double-decker bus into a travelling exhibition area and video cinema. The bus was launched in London on 8 June, when a group of MPs took a symbolic ride from the House of Commons to the South African Embassy in Trafalgar Square.

Anti-apartheid supporters in Maidstone, Kent asked shoppers to boycott Cape Fruit as part of the AAM’s ‘Boycott Apartheid 89’ campaign. All over Britain local AA groups talked to shoppers and motorists outside supermarkets and Shell garages.

Anti-apartheid supporters in Nuneaton, Warwickshire, talked to shoppers at the city’s main branch of Tesco as part of the AAM’s ‘Boycott Apartheid 89’ campaign in March 1989. All over Britain local AA groups gave out campaign leaflets outside supermarkets and Shell garages.

Bristol AA Group supporters asked shoppers not to buy South African wine. They were taking part in the AAM’s ‘Boycott Apartheid 89’ campaign in March 1989. All over Britain local AA groups gave out campaign leaflets outside supermarkets and Shell garages. As well as wine and fruit, the campaign focused on tourism and imports of coal and gold.

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

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.