'A great cause': the origins of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, June 1959-March 1960

The Boycott Movement was initiated in June 1959 by exiled South African sup porters of the Congress Movement with the aim of internationalizing the boy cott campaign which the African and Indian Congresses had launched in South Africa. In South Africa the 1959 boycott campaign came at the end of a dec ade of intensifying repression which had closed off almost all peaceful mea ns of protest against apartheid. In Britain, the late 1950s was a period of disillusion with mainstream politics. A network of organizations and indiv iduals campaigned on three interlinked issues - peace and nuclear disarmame nt, racism and freedom for Britain's colonies, particularly in Africa. Work ing with organizations like the Movement for Colonial Freedom, Committee of African Organizations, Christian Action, the Africa Bureau and the Communi st Party, a group of committed Congress Movement supporters joined by Patri ck van Rensburg of the South African Liberal Party, worked within this netw ork to launch a campaign for the boycott of South African goods. This culmi nated in a month of action in March 1960. It was taken up by the Labour Par ty, which had lost the October 1959 General Election and was split over nat ionalization and nuclear disarmament and by the Trades Union Council. To ke ep its broad base of support, the campaign stressed that id was a moral cru sade of individual protest. The aim was to influence rather than overthrow the South African government The situation was transformed by the shootings at Sharpeville, which led to the banning of the African National Congress and Pan-Africanist Congress. The Boycott Movement became the Anti-Apartheid Movement which in April 1960 called for international economic sanctions a gainst South Africa.