Anti-Apartheid Movement

The Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM) was a British organisation that was at the centre of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system and supporting South Africa's non-White population who were persecuted by the policies of apartheid.^[1] The AAM changed its name to ACTSA: Action for Southern Africa in 1994, when South Africa achieved majority rule through free and fair elections, in which all races could vote.

This article is about the British organisation. For opposition to apartheid from within South Africa, see Internal resistance to apartheid.

After apartheid[edit]

Mandela was released in February 1990, which started the negotiations to end apartheid in South Africa. For the Anti-Apartheid Movement, Nelson Mandela's release was a moment of celebration, but it also started an enormously challenging period in which they struggled to maintain the momentum of the 1980s, and sustain public interest in South Africa. Historians Matt Graham and Christopher Fevre have argued that South Africa's transition proved to be the most challenging period in the Anti-Apartheid Movement's existence due to a decline in public interest, a reduction of its membership base, questions about its long-term future as an organisation, a poor financial situation, and the difficulty of explaining the fast-paced negotiations and the political violence to the British public.^[14] The Anti-Apartheid Movement assisted the ANC's election campaign through fundraising, lobbying, and public rallies. These activities were part of the international support provided for the ANC's victory in South Africa's first democratic elections in April 1994.

After the first democratic elections in South Africa, the AAM changed its name to ACTSA: Action for Southern Africa.

"The Anti-Apartheid Movement: A 40-year Perspective"

Arianna Lisson, PhD Dissertation, 15 September 2000

"The Anti-Apartheid Movement, Britain and South Africa: Anti-Apartheid Protest vs Real Politik"

Bodleian Library's Catalogue of the archive of the Anti-Apartheid Movement

. Lecture give by Archie Dick, George A. Miller Endowment Professor. 30 January 2007. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

Librarians and Readers in the South African Anti-Apartheid Struggle

Dated 4 March 1961

Letter of Anti-Apartheid Movement to Dr HF Verwoerd

: A curricular resource for schools and colleges on the struggle to overcome apartheid and build democracy in South Africa, with 45 streamed interviews with South Africans in the struggle, many historical documents and photographs, and educational activities for teachers & students.

South Africa: Overcoming Apartheid, Building Democracy

(africanactivist.msu.edu): An online archive of materials of the solidarity movement in the U.S. that supported the struggle against apartheid and for African freedom, including documents, posters, streamed interviews, T-shirts, photographs, campaign buttons, and remembrances.

African Activist Archive

: A digital archive of 90 hours of videos taken in South Africa in the late 1980s and early 1990s. This raw footage documents anti-apartheid demonstrations, speeches, mass funerals, celebrations, and interviews with activists that capture the activism of trade unions, students and political organisations, including the activities of the United Democratic Front.