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. This issue of Sphinx, the student newsletter, explains the background to the sit-in.

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.

In September 1971 the National Union of Students, AAM and the Committee for Freedom in Mozambique, Angola and Guiné set up a student network to coordinate student campaigning on Southern Africa. The aim was 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 within South Africa. This handbook provided information for student 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.

In September 1971 the National Union of Students, the AAM and the Committee for Freedom in Mozambique, Angola and Guiné set up a network to coordinate student campaigning on Southern Africa. The aim was to recruit representatives at every British university and college. This letter to student activists publicised the first of the annual conferences held by the network in the 1970s and 1980s. The 1972 conference set out three priorities: disinvestment from companies involved in South Africa, fundraising for the liberation movements and educational work on Namibia.

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 the network held an annual conference to share information and discuss campaign priorities. This is the report of the first NUS/AAM student network conference, held in September 1972.