Students

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.

Poster advertising a concert organised by University of London students to raise funds for the AAM. 

ANC representative Ruth Mompati spoke at the renaming of Sheffield Polytechnic Student Union building as the Nelson Mandela Building. Sheffield Polytechnic was one of many student unions to rename buildings after Nelson Mandela in the 1980s.

Leaflet advertising an Anti-Apartheid Week of meetings and film shows on South Africa and Namibia organised by students at Leeds University in February 1984.

In August 1984 the South African government detained the leaders of the United Democratic Front (UDF). The UDF organised a boycott of the segregated elections held under South Africa’s new constitution. After being temporarily freed, six of the detainees took refuge in the British consulate in Durban. Students in Britain picketed the South African embassy to demand safe passage for the detainees.

Leeds City Council, local trade unions, and Leeds City and University AA Groups came together to organise a week of anti-apartheid events in October 1984. Activities included a vigil for political prisoners, collection of material aid, film shows and fundraising concerts, and an activists conference.

The National Student Convention held in November 1984 was the final event in a five-week speaking tour of British colleges by representatives of the ANC (African National Congress) and SWAPO (South West Africa People’s Organisation). It was attended by over 200 students.