Students

The tenth NUS/AAM annual student conference, held at Queen Mary College, London in July 1981, focused on campaigning for the isolation of South Africa and placed renewed emphasis on the consumer boycott. This paper highlighted campaigns for an oil embargo, against South Africa’s nuclear bomb, against Barclays Bank’s involvement in South Africa, for disinvestment and an academic and recruitment boycott. The conference was attended by around 100 students from 50 colleges.

Flyer advertising a fundraising gig with Orchestre Jazira at the University of London Union in January 1982. The concert was organised by the recently-formed London Anti-Apartheid Committee, set up to co-ordinate the work of local anti-apartheid and other sympathetic groups in London. It was the first of many gigs promoted by the London AA Committee over the next decade.

Students from King’s College, London blocked the entrance to the government-owned South African Airways at Oxford Circus on 10 February 1982 in protest against the death in detention of South African trade unionist Neil Aggett.

Agenda and registration form for the annual NUS/AAM student conference held at City University, London in June 1982.

This Action Programme was adopted by the annual NUS/AAM conference held at City University, London in June 1982. It called attention to military action by SWAPO in northern Namibia and Umkhonto we Sizwe in South Africa and to anti-apartheid protests by workers, students and churches. The conference was attended by 50 delegates, fewer than in previous years.

Because of a shortage of skilled white labour, South African companies were keen to recruit students from British universities. The National Union of Students produced this poster to urge students not to emigrate to South Africa.

Students at Newcastle University protested against a visit by representatives of South African mining companies Gencor and Rand Mines in April 1983. The companies were recruiting mining and metallurgy graduates to work in South Africa. Newcastle students also banned the sale of South African Airways tickets through the Student Union and named part of their union building after Nelson Mandela.

Students from University College London built a hut from scrap materials on the steps of St Martin’s in the Fields to show passers-by how black South Africans lived in shanty towns like Crossroads, October 1983.