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.

In 1976 the AAM publicised Barclays Bank’s purchase of South African defence bonds, issued to help the apartheid government fight SWAPO guerrillas in Namibia. This letter from Prime Minister James Callaghan to AAM Chair Bob Hughes MP acknowledged that public opinion in Britain was opposed to the purchase and promised to raise the matter with Barclays.

Letter following up a meeting between an AAM delegation and Foreign Office Minister Ted Rowlands to discuss the AAM’s memorandum of 19 April 1976 on Britain’s arms embargo. The letter detailed loopholes in the arms embargo and exposed the fact that South Africa had access to the NATO Codification System.

In 1977 the British government set up the Bingham Inquiry into allegations that Shell and BP had supplied oil to Rhodesia in contravention of UN sanctions. This submission exposed Shell and BP’s sanctions busting operations. It asked the British government to press South Africa to allow international scrutiny of British-owned oil companies in South Africa. 

After the killing of Steve Biko and banning of anti-apartheid organisations in South Africa in 1977, the British government voted for a UN mandatory arms embargo against South Africa. At the same time it announced it would veto a draft UN Security Council resolution imposing economic sanctions. This letter from the AAM’s President Bishop Ambrose Reeves expressed dismay at the decision to veto and asked for a meeting with the Prime Minister. 

The Bingham Inquiry found that British oil companies Shell and BP had supplied oil to Rhodesia in contravention of UN sanctions. This memorandum asked the British government to ensure that the companies restricted oil supplies to South Africa to pre-UDI levels to prevent the re-export of oil to the illegal Smith regime. It called for the extension of sanctions to South Africa unless it gave assurances that it would implement UN sanctions against Rhodesia.

Letter to Foreign Secretary David Owen from the AAM’s Hon. Secretary Abdul Minty in November 1978 enclosing evidence of breaches of the British arms embargo against South Africa and calling for a parliamentary inquiry. 

Memorandum presented by the AAM at a meeting with Richard Luce, Under Secretary at the Foreign Office, in June 1980. The AAM protested at Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s statement welcoming changes in South Africa’s domestic policies, after police had opened fire on students in Cape Town. It questioned the British government’s claim that it had no standing on the issue of the release of Nelson Mandela.

Letter from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher commenting on the AAM’s memorandum of June 1980. She reiterated that the government had no standing in the case of Nelson Mandela, although she said his release would be ‘widely welcomed’. 

Letter to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher calling on the British government to support UN mandatory economic sanctions against South Africa in response to South Africa’s invasion of Angola in 1981.

Memorandum asking the British government to enforce the Gleneagles Agreement on sporting links with South Africa.

Ruth First was assassinated by South African agents in Mozambique in August 1982. The AAM wrote to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher showing that the killing was part of an escalating pattern of South African aggression, including the bombing of the ANC’s London office in March 1982. It asked her to instruct the British Ambassador in Cape Town to make a formal protest to the apartheid government.

On 14 March 1982 undercover South Africa agents planted a bomb at the ANC’s London office which did extensive damage. The bomb followed a series of burglaries at the offices of the AAM and other Southern African solidarity groups. This memorandum was presented to the British government by representatives of the AAM at a meeting with the Home Secretary on 13 October 1982. It asked the government to investigate the activities of staff at the South African Embassy in London. It alleged that South Africa used London as a centre for planning subversive activities against independent African states.

Letter from Cranley Onslow, Minister of State at the Foreign Office, acknowledging receipt of the AAM’s petition calling for sanctions against South Africa in November 1982.

In May 1983 the AAM’s new office in north London was broken into and burgled. This memorandum set out evidence showing that the break-in was the work of South African agents and listed other similar incidents. It repeated the proposals for government action in the AAM’s memo of October 1982 and asked the Home Secretary to make a formal protest to the South African government.

The 1980s Conservative government was strongly opposed to sanctions against South Africa, arguing instead for ‘internal reform’. This letter from Malcolm Rifkind, Minister of State at the Foreign Office, followed up a meeting with a delegation from the AAM which focused on Namibia, sanctions and South African involvement in the building of an airfield in the Falkland Islands in the aftermath of the Falklands war.

In November 1983 the South African Supreme Court turned down an appeal by Umkhonto we Sizwe activist Benjamin Moloise against the death sentence. This letter from Des Starrs, Chair of Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society (SATIS), asked Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe to intervene with the South African Foreign Minister, who was visiting London. Benjamin Moloise was hanged on 18 October 1985.

Letter from Malcolm Rifkind, Minister of State at the Foreign Office, replying to a request from Des Starrs, Chair of Southern Africa the Imprisoned Society (SATIS), for the British government to intervene on behalf of the Kassinga detainees. In 1978 South African armed forces killed around 600 Namibian refugees at Kassinga refugee camp in Angola and took hundreds more prisoner. Five years later some of them were still held in detention in Namibia. Malcolm Rifkind turned down the request for a meeting on the grounds that he had already met an AAM delegation to discuss repression in the Ciskei.

Letter from AAM President Bishop Trevor Huddleston to Prime Minister Thatcher asking her to stop the English rugby tour of South Africa in 1984. The government refused to intervene and the tour went ahead in spite of widespread protests.

Letter from AAM President Archbishop Trevor Huddleston expressing the widespread opposition in Britain to Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s invitation to President P W Botha to visit Britain in June 1984. Thatcher held talks with Botha at her country residence Chequers, rather than at 10 Downing Street, in order to avoid protesters. More than 50,000 people marched through central London on the day of the talks, the biggest anti-apartheid demonstration to date.

President P W Botha’s visit to Britain in June 1984 was the first such visit since South Africa left the Commonwealth in 1961. It followed South Africa’s adoption of a new constitution in 1983. This memo sought assurances from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher that the British government was committed to universal suffrage in a united South Africa. Thatcher was sufficiently concerned about opposition to the visit to agree to meet a delegation from the AAM.

Letter from Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher about her meeting with P W Botha in June 1984. Instead of calling for one person one vote, she told him that the British government would accept a system of government that had ‘the consent of the South African people’. She said she had ‘expressed concern at the continued detention of Nelson Mandela’.

Six leaders of the United Democratic Front and the South African Indian Congress entered the British consulate in Durban to avoid detention by the South African authorities in 1984. Three of them were immediately detained on leaving the consulate. This letter from Prime Minister Thatcher to the AAM’s Chair Bob Hughes MP defended the British government’s decision to bar access to the lawyers of the remaining three men. Five of the six were charged with high treason.

Memorandum arguing for a review of British government policy on Namibia. The memorandum urged the British government to support mandatory measures against South Africa under Chapter VII of the UN Charter if South Africa continued to obstruct talks on Namibian independence.

Letter from Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe in response to the AAM’s memorandum ‘Britain and Namibia’. He stated that although the British government did not regard the withdrawal of Cuban forces from Angola as an essential precondition of Namibian independence, in practice withdrawal offered the best prospect for the success of negotiations.

Letter to Prime Minister Thatcher urging her to support the imposition of Commonwealth sanctions against South Africa at the meeting of Commonwealth Heads of Government held in Nassau in October 1985.

Letter from Prime Minister Thatcher to AAM President Archbishop Trevor Huddleston rejecting his appeal for the British government to impose sanctions against South Africa. She argued that change would come about through the operation of market forces.

AAM memorandum arguing that British and US policies were the main obstacles to effective international action against apartheid. The memorandum was presented to Foreign Secretary Geoffrey Howe by a delegation led by AAM President Bishop Trevor Huddleston on 18 June 1986.

Memorandum drawing attention to the steep rise in death sentences for political offences in South Africa. The memorandum made detailed proposals for intervention by the British government and asked it to initiate action by the UN Security Council, the European Economic Community and the Commonwealth.

Letter from AAM President Archbishop Trevor Huddleston sent to Prime Minister Thatcher on behalf of anti-apartheid supporters demonstrating in favour of sanctions against South Africa in October 1987.

Letter from Prime Minister Thatcher replying to Trevor Huddleston’s letter of 24 October. Thatcher reiterated her opposition to sanctions and argued that change was already taking place in South Africa. She said the British government would press for the release of Nelson Mandela ‘in the context of a cessation of violence on all sides’.

Letter from Richard Caborn MP asking Prime Minister Thatcher to withdraw her remark describing the ANC as a ‘typical terrorist organisation’.

Letter from Prime Minister Thatcher defending her description of the ANC as a ‘typical terorrist organisation’ and reiterating her opposition to sanctions.

Memorandum to Foreign Secretary Sir Geoffrey Howe, urging the British government to support the UN Secretary-General in implementing Security Council resolution 601 authorising him to arrange a ceasefire in Namibia. The memorandum criticised Prime Minister Thatcher’s effective endorsement of the US argument that Cuban troops must withdraw from Angola before agreement could be reached on Namibian independence.

Letter from Lynda Chalker, Minister of State at the Foreign Office, telling the AAM Women‘s Committee that the British government had asked the South African government to commute the death sentences on the Sharpeville Six. One of the six was a woman, Theresa Ramashamola. The six were condemned to death for taking part in a demonstration at which a black deputy mayor was killed. They were eventually reprieved in July 1988 after spending two and a half years on death row. 

Briefing for MPs speaking in the House of Commons debate called in response the banning of the United Democratic Front and other anti-apartheid organisations in South Africa in 1988. The AAM argued that the bannings showed that the British government’s strategy of encouraging President Botha to negotiate the ending of apartheid lacked credibility.

Letter asking Prime Minister Thatcher to intervene directly with South African President Botha urging him to reconsider his rejection of an appeal for clemency for the Sharpeville Six. The Six were condemned to death for taking part in a demonstration at which a black deputy mayor was killed. They were reprieved in July 1988 after a huge international campaign and released in 1991 and 1992.

Letter from Archbishop Trevor Huddleston asking Prime Minister Thatcher to meet the freedom marchers who walked from Glasgow to London as part of the AAM’s ‘Nelson Mandela: Freedom at 70’ campaign. The British government changed its attitude in response to the growing campaign for Mandela’s freedom and by 1988 was calling for his unconditional release.

An English cricket team, led by Mike Gatting, planned to tour South Africa in 1990. This letter from the AAM’s President Archbishop Trevor Huddleston expressed dismay at Prime Minister Thatcher’s failure to implement the Commonwealth Gleneagles Agreement, committing governments to do all in the power to end sporting relations with South Africa.

Letter from Prime Minister Thatcher’s office responding to the AAM’s request for the British government to intervene on behalf of the Upington 14. The 14 were sentenced to death because they were present at a demonstration during which a black policeman was killed. After international protests they were reprieved in May 1991, after two years on death row. The letter set out the government’s criteria for intervening in cases where political prisoners were condemned to death.

Letter asking Prime Minister Thatcher to intervene with the South African government to stop the hanging of the Upington 14. The 14 were sentenced to death because they were present at a demonstration during which a black policeman was killed. After international protests they were reprieved in May 1991, after two years on death row.

This memorandum from the Liaison Committee of the Anti-Apartheid Movements of the European Community expressed concern about the EC’s plan to send a high-level troika of government ministers to South Africa. It proposed terms of reference for the mission. The Liaison Committee was set up in the late 1980s to co-ordinate anti-apartheid action in the European Community.

After the lifting of the bans on the liberation movements and the release of Nelson Mandela in February 1990, the AAM argued that the British government should press President de Klerk to create a climate conducive to negotiations. This submission to the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee called for the maintenance of sanctions and the recognition of the central role of the African National Congress.

In the immediate aftermath of the lifting of the bans on the liberation movements in February 1990, the AAM accused the British government of allowing President de Klerk to dictate the scope and pace of change. This memorandum showed how Britain was encouraging the apartheid government to hold out for a constitution that fell short of universal suffrage in a united South Africa. It argued that the lifting of the State of Emergency and release of political prisoners were essential to create a climate conducive to genuine negotiations.

Submission to the Parliamentary Foreign Affairs Committee showing Britain’s failure to enforce the limited restrictive measures it had placed on trade and investment in South Africa.

This memorandum to the Foreign Office and Overseas Development Administration described the impact of apartheid on the countries of the Southern African region. It argued that Britain had a special responsibility to help them overcome the legacy of aggression and destabilisation.

Memorandum prepared for a meeting with Lynda Chalker, Minister of State at the Foreign Office, in May 1993. It asked the government to put more pressure on the Pretoria government to end the violence in South Africa. In the aftermath of the murder of Chris Hani, it urged the government to press for a breakthrough in negotiations and to stress that the only acceptable outcome was a universal franchise in a united South Africa.

Lynda Chalker was MP for Wallasey from 1974 to 1992 and served as a minister in successive Conservative governments from 1979 to 1997. Since 1992 she has sat in the House of Lords as Baroness Chalker of Wallasey. As Minister of State in the Foreign Office from 1986 to 1997, her responsibilities included relations with Africa and the Commonwealth and she was one of the key figures in the British government’s relations with South Africa in the period 1986–94. From 1989 she served as Minister for Overseas Development. Baroness Chalker now travels widely in Africa as Chair of the consultancy Africa Matters.   

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2014.

Frank Judd was a Member of Parliament from 1966 to 1979. During the 1966–70 Labour government he was one of a group of Labour MPs who opposed the government’s attempts to reach a settlement with the illegal regime in Rhodesia that fell short of majority rule. He was also on the Executive Committee of the Committee for Freedom in Mozambique, Angola and Guiné. He served as a Minister in the 1974–79 Labour government. Since 1991 he has sat in the House of Lords as Baron Judd of Portsea.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out by Christabel Gurney in 2000.

Richard Caborn was the Labour MP for Sheffield Central, 1983–2010, and Minister for Sport, 2001–2007. He joined the Anti-Apartheid Movement when he was a trade union official in the 1970s and was a founder member of Sheffield Anti-Apartheid Group. He served as the Anti-Apartheid Movement’s national Treasurer, 1989–1994. In 1984 he became Secretary of the all-party parliamentary group on Southern Africa.

This is a complete transcript of an interview carried out as part of the Forward to Freedom history project in 2013.