National Flag.png
The black, green and gold "national flag" of the liberation struggle
June 26th: South Africa Freedom Day
Part 5
A-A sign.png
Anti-Apartheid Movement Logo
June 26th 1959:
Formation of the Anti-Apartheid Movement
Christabel Gurney, former editor of Anti-Apartheid News, wrote in 1999:
"On June 26th, 1959, a group of South African exiles and their British
supporters met in London's Holborn Hall to call for a boycott of fruit,
cigarettes and other goods imported from South Africa."
Summing up the situation in South Africa, Gurney records:
"By the end of the 1950s the government had outlawed almost all forms of
public political activity and arrested or placed bans on most of the
Congress leaders. So Congress turned to boycott. In 1957, the people of
Alexandra township walked to work for over three months and forced the local
bus company to rescind a penny increase on fares. At its 1958 annual
conference the ANC announced: 'The economic boycott is going to be one of
the major political weapons in the country.' In the spring of 1959 it
announced plans to boycott potatoes grown on farms using forced labour and
launched a boycott of goods made by firms which supported the National
Party. This was to begin on June 26th, the day marked every year since 1950
as South Africa Freedom Day."
The body that was launched on 26 June 1959 in London became the
Anti-Apartheid Movement. It was a voluntary, mass democratic movement of
British people in solidarity. It did not ask for government sanctions.
Instead it called for citizens' direct action in the form of boycott of
South African goods and services of all kinds, beginning with Outspan
oranges and Cape apples.
This campaign grew over the years until it became a major force in British
politics, and it gave rise to similar movements in other countries. It used
South African tactics of "the mass offensive" and boycott. It became a
pillar of the struggle against the apartheid regime.
The Anti-Apartheid Movement observed June 26th as South Africa Freedom Day.
Mike Terry 2.png
Mike Terry, OBE, 1947 - 2008, Teacher.
Executive Director of the Anti-Apartheid Movement from 1975 to 1994.
Photographed in the Charlotte Street, London, office of the AAM.
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