from C. Ballantine
The active Anti-Racialist Society eat the University of Sussex took the initiative in organising protestse...eBy Friday lunchtime, the day on which the sentences ,yere announced, at least 600 of the 900 students at the University had sient protest..and had recorded their opposition to Apartheid. Even the University's Conservative Society, whilst explaining that it could not fully support the sims of An*vi-Apartheid, joined in the protests and urged its members to sign the petition, One of the largest-ever Students! Union meeting vas held to explain what could be done in order to register protests and was addressed by the Union President, officers of the A-R.S. and by South African students, both black and white. A number of faculty members sipported and spoke,
Early in the evening some 400 people sethered at Brighton's Peace Statue and, led by Thabo Mbeki, an economics suudent at the University and son of Goven Mbeki, one of those sentenced to life imprisonment, marched in silence through the centre of towmm, 200 were University students (who were joined by abour 15 members of the staff), and they were joined by students from Brighton Training College, who were holding an Anti-Apartheid weeks local L.P. members} C.N.Derss; Y.C.N.Ders, and the Sussex Committee of 100. The banner of the Brighton & Hove Trades Council was carried by local T.Uists, and a small group had even come 40 miles from Tunbridge Wells to join the protest.
After the demonstration, a group of about 100 left to march through the night to hand in the petitions at 10, Dowmming St., and join the vigils at the South African Embassy. They were again led by Thabo Mbeki...Soon after dusk a very severe thunder-storm broke out and the march carried on through torrential rain.e.sDespite the fact that the national press almost entirely isnored the demonstration, the local evening paper, which only a few weeks before had been complaining about the irresponsibility of the younger generation, gave 4 a page to the preparations for the demonstration, together with a profile of Thabo Mbeki and an informative and sympathetic account of the work of the African National Congress and the current situation in South Africa.