social pfkim project

Running head: ANTI-APARTHEID MOVEMENT 1

ANTI-APARTHEID MOVEMENT 4

Anti-Apartheid Movement

The social movement that I have chosen is the Anti-Apartheid Movement (AAM). The AAM social movement was initially aimed at opposing the apartheid system in South Africa. Undeniably, it was formed in support of the non-White population who were being persecuted by the policies of the apartheid regime (Gurney, 2000). The reason I have chosen AAM is that it advocated for the rights of the non-whites who were being persecuted. What I know is that AAM was like a Boycott Movement from Britain at the center of the international movement opposing the South African apartheid system. Imperatively, AAM was born from a Boycott Movement after the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC) were banned in 1960.

As an original Boycott Movement, it grew into a mass movement (AAM) that united trade unions, political parties, churches, and local authorities in action against the infamous apartheid in the 1980s. The Boycott Movement in Britain and other countries was an extension into the international arena of the South African Congress Movement’s call for a boycott of goods produced by firms that supported the National Party (Brown, 2018).

The AAM incessantly campaigned for the eradication of apartheid. The resolve of AAM was to work for the total isolation of the apartheid system in all areas of jurisdiction and to support the individuals who were struggling and subjugated by the apartheid system. The AAM strategy was to press for a range of measures to isolate the regime, support the liberation movement and inform world public opinion the need to continue pressing for effective sanctions as the only means for a peaceful solution (Culverson, 1996). This is to say that AAM wanted to persuade other Western countries to co-operate in action to the greatest feasible extent and to find ways that would promote public opinion and public action against apartheid. As I conclude, I hope to learn through my research the impact that AAM had on its intention. I also hope to learn whether it succeeded in achieving its objectives and attain its goals.

References

Brown, G. (2018). Anti-apartheid solidarity in the perspectives and practices of the British far left in the 1970s and 1980s. In waiting for the revolution. Manchester University Press.

Culverson, D. R. (1996). The politics of the anti-apartheid movement in the United States, 1969 1986. Political Science Quarterly, 111(1), 127-149.

Gurney, C. (2000). 'A Great Cause': The Origins of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, June 1959 March 1960. Journal of Southern African Studies, 26(1), 123-144.