Skip to main content
Apartheid: Protests do work — just ask Thatcher
Government papers from 1984 show how rattled the South Africans and their British allies were over anti-apartheid activism, writes SOLOMON HUGHES

Is it worth it? Do demonstrations, pickets and strikes change anything?

This question reappears with annoying regularity.

Especially near elections, as part of the linked argument that voting is a realistic way of getting modest change, while campaigns are a big waste of time.

The 95th Anniversary Appeal
Support the Morning Star
You have reached the free limit.
Subscribe to continue reading.
Similar stories
broad ap
Books / 29 May 2026
29 May 2026

NADIA JOSEPH welcomes a survey of the role that TV played in the debate over apartheid and race relations in Britain

Pic: Chris Hani Baragwanath Hospital only hospital in Soweto and the largest in sub Saharan Africa in 2017 / Pic: amanderson2/CC
Features / 22 May 2026
22 May 2026

ROGER MCKENZIE recalls the one-in-a-generation communist leader murdered at the dawn of a new South Africa 33 years ago last April 10

me and the party from Manifesto Press with the Bakoena Royal Council in KwaZulu Natal
South Africa / 14 May 2026
14 May 2026

ROGER McKENZIE looks at how ancient traditions practiced today can be the cornerstone of anti-imperialism in Africa

first
Book Review / 11 July 2025
11 July 2025

SALEEM BADAT and VASU REDDY introduce a new book about an outstanding interpreter of the world, and an activist scholar committed to changing society