Students

From 1970 the National Union of Students worked closely with the AAM, and students all over Britain joined anti-apartheid campaigns. This poster, showing South African school students in Soweto in 1976, called for a boycott of South African goods and support for the ANC.

The 1980 NUS/AAM annual student conference, held at Coventry Polytechnic, discussed on the new situation in Southern Africa after the independence of Zimbabwe. One of its main focuses was the need to set up more student anti-apartheid societies.

On 14 March 1981 the National Union of Students organised a National Day of Action against British Nuclear Fuels contract for the supply of uranium from the Rossing mine in Namibia. In the photograph are protesters at the Department of Energy in Millbank, London. The day was marked by 30 demonstrations all over Britain outside Electricity  Board depots. The action was part of a long-running campaign co-ordinated by the Campaign Against the Namibian Uranium Contract (CANUC). Throughout the 1970s and 1980s Britain imported Namibian uranium in contravention of UN resolutions. 

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.

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.