Anti-Apartheid Movement

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In response to an appeal by Albert Luthuli, the British Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) was founded in London on 26 June 1959 at a meeting of South African exiles and their supporters [1]. Julius Nyerere would summarize its purpose:

We are not asking you, the British people, for anything special. We are just asking you to withdraw your support from apartheid by not buying South African goods.[2].

Originally called the Boycott Movement, it would expand its focus after the Sharpeville massacre eight months later. At the time, Britain was South Africa's largest foreign investor and the ANC was still committed to peaceful resistance. Armed struggle through Umkhonto we Sizwe would only begin a year later.

Based in Ruskin House, the organisation published the newspaper Boycott News. It organised public meetings in support of the African National Congress and the Pan Africanist Congress. Not limited to South Africa, it supported the struggles for freedom in Namibia, Zimbabwe and the former Portuguese colonies of Angola, Mozambique and, in West Africa, Guinea-Bissau.

The Anti-Apartheid Movement continued to operate in Britain until 1994[3]. After the first democratic elections in South Africa, AAM changed its name to Action for Southern Africa (ACTSA)[4].

The phrase "anti-apartheid movement" was also used as a general term to describe both the international movement against apartheid and the movement within South Africa.