Students

In March 1970 Liverpool students occupied the university’s Senate House to press five demands that included disinvestment from South Africa and the resignation of the University’s Chancellor, the Marquess of Salisbury. Lord Salisbury was an outspoken supporter of the minority white regime in Rhodesia. The sit-in lasted 10 days and got national press coverage. Nine students were suspended and one, Pete Cresswell, was expelled. Among the suspended students was Jon Snow, seen here interrupting a meeting with representatives of the university authorities.

Gerry Cordon remembers the student occupation of Liverpool University Senate House in March 1970 in support of ‘Five Demands’ that included an end to Liverpool University’s connections with South Africa.

Liverpool University students campaigned against the appointment of Lord Salisbury as the university’s Chancellor and for the university to disclose whether it held investments in companies involved in Southern Africa. This pamphlet, published after the suspension of students for occupying the university’s Senate House in March 1970, exposed Lord Salisbury’s support for the Smith regime in Rhodesia and set out arguments for disinvestment from South Africa.

The NUS conference held in Bradford in spring 1970 for the first time called for a total academic, cultural and sporting and economic boycott of South Africa. This campaign briefing asked student unions to campaign for a ban on South African arms sales, to raise funds for the Southern African liberation movements, and to research and campaign to end all links between their colleges and South Africa. It announced a Southern Africa week of action, to be launched at a rally in London on 31 October and regional meetings throughout the country.

Circular to university and college student unions announcing a rally in London on 31 October to launch the National Union of Students Free Southern Africa Week, and meetings in centres throughout the country. The NUS action followed up on the decision at its spring conference in 1970 to campaign for a total academic, cultural, sporting and economic boycott of South Africa. The following year the NUS set up a joint network with the AAM establishing anti-apartheid action groups in universities and countries all over the country.

In September 1971 the National Union of Students, AAM and the Committee for Freedom in Mozambique, Angola and Guiné set up a network to coordinate student campaigning on Southern Africa. It aimed to recruit representatives at every British university and college. The network campaigned for universities to disinvest from companies involved in South Africa and for a boycott of Barclays Bank. It raised funds for the Southern African liberation movements and organised protests against the arrest of students in South Africa. This handbook provided information for activists.

The first issue of the University of East Anglia Anti-Apartheid Group’s newsletter publicised fundraising for the African National Council of Rhodesia. The ANC was spearheading African rejection of British government proposals for an agreement with the white minority regime. Fundraising for the liberation movements was one of the main student activities on Southern Africa in the 1970s.

In the early 1970s University of East Anglia students set up a scholarship for a student from Southern Africa. This issue of the UEA Anti-Apartheid Group’s newsletter publicised events to raise funds for the scholarship. It also publicised African opposition to the British government’s proposals for a deal with the white minority regime in Rhodesia.