Students

In September 1971 the National Union of Students, AAM and Committee for Freedom in Mozambique, Angola and Guiné set up a student network to coordinate student campaigning on Southern Africa. Every year through the 1970s and early 1980s the network held an annual conference to discuss campaign priorities. This is the report of the conference held at Salford University in July 1975.

AAM demonstrators picketed South Africa House in August 1975 to protest against continuing detentions without trial in South Africa, including that of the Afrikaans poet Breyten Breytenbach. They also called for the release of the nine leaders of the South African Student Organisation (SASO) and Black People’s Convention (BPC) leaders on trial under the Terrorism Act.

The Anti-Apartheid Society at University College Cardiff produced this report listing the university’s holdings in British companies with subsidiaries in South Africa. The report argued that investing in a racist society was inconsistent with the ethos of ‘free knowledge’ professed by the university. It showed that nearly 50 per cent of the university’s shareholdings were in companies with South African connections.

Poster produced for the campaign to make Barclays Bank withdraw from South Africa. The campaign started in 1969 in response to Barclays’ involvement in financing the Cabora Bassa dam in Mozambique. Students played a big part in the campaign, which asked individuals and organisations to withdraw their accounts. Barclays finally pulled out of South Africa in 1986. 

Thousands of people marched through central London on 27 June 1976 to protest against the South African police massacre of school students in Soweto. The march was led by ANC members carrying a symbolic coffin. Right to left: ANC members John Matshikiza, Billy Nannan and Garth Strachan.

Leaflet publicising the fifth annual conference held by the NUS/AAM student network, held at Sheffield University, 9–11 July 1976. The conference prioritised campaigns against investment in South Africa and collecting material aid for the liberation movements. It took place as student unrest erupted throughout South Africa after the police opened fire on school students in Soweto in June 1976.

Shortly after the Soweto uprising in 1976, NUS Executive Committee member Paul Blomfield made an undercover visit to South Africa at the request of the ANC. He visited Johannesburg, Cape Town, East London and Durban, and met leaders of the South African Students Organisation (SASO), trade unionists and representatives of the Christian Institute and Human Rights Committee. The report of his visit was published by the International Union of Students.

Letter from the Treasurer of Warwick University Students Union stating that a recent union meeting had unanimously supported the call for the university to disinvest from companies with subsidiaries in South Africa and to withdraw the university’s account from Barclays Bank. The union also decided to set up a student anti-apartheid group.