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From 1972 students at Durham University campaigned for the university to sell its shares in all companies with interests in South Africa. The University Council responded by selling shares in Consolidated Gold Fields and writing to the Secretary of State for Trade and Industry asking for the code of conduct for companies investing in South Africa to be given the force of law. This student press release set out the progress of the campaign to November 1974.

This circular to Durham University teaching staff asked them to choose between advocating the sale of the university’s shares in companies with South African interests and using the shares to press for higher wages for African workers. This was a major debate in the 1970s. The AAM and its supporters argued that all economic involvement in South Africa strengthened the apartheid system and called for total disinvestment.

As part of a long-running campaign to pressure Durham University to sell its shares in companies operating in South Africa, in the autumn of 1974 Durham Students Union asked Junior Common Rooms at all the university’s constituent colleges to discuss and vote on the issue. This poster asked students to call for disinvestment. In the subsequent votes, over 63% of those who voted supported the disinvestment campaign.

From 1972 Durham University Students Union ran a long-running campaign to pressure Durham University to sell its shares in companies operating in South Africa. This poster asked students to support the campaign. In the early 1970s more than half of all British universities and colleges campaigned for their governing bodies to disinvest from South Africa.

As part of a long-running campaign to pressure Durham University to sell its shares in companies operating in South Africa, in the autumn of 1974 Durham Students Union asked Junior Common Rooms at all the university’s constituent colleges to discuss and vote on the issue. This poster, asking students to vote for disinvestment, echoes an iconic first world war army recruitment poster. At the subsequent meetings, over 63% of students who voted supported the disinvestment campaign.

As part of a long-running campaign to pressure Durham University to sell its shares in companies operating in South Africa, in the autumn of 1974 Durham Students Union asked Junior Common Rooms at all the university’s constituent colleges to discuss and vote on the issue. This poster asked students to vote for disinvestment. At the subsequent meetings, over 63% of those who voted supported the disinvestment campaign.

US civil rights leader and former prisoner Angela Davis visited London to campaign for South African political prisoners, 10–13 December 1974. She spoke at a meeting at Friends House organised by the AAM, International Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF) and Liberation. She said black Americans felt a special responsibility to support the struggle of their sisters and brothers in Southern Africa. On the right is future Labour Cabinet Minister Charles Clarke.

From 1973, as guerrilla warfare escalated within Zimbabwe, the Smith regime carried out secret hangings of its opponents and charged thousands of people with political offences. This leaflet highlighted the repression and stressed the continued responsibility of the British Labour government as the legal authority in Zimbabwe.