Divestment Now! Student Activism and the Anti-Apartheid Movement at UC Berkeley

The Bay Area’s anti-apartheid movement gained momentum in the early 1970s as protesters demanded divestment from South Africa and educated the public on the oppression of Black South Africans living under the racist regime of apartheid.

Apartheid, which means “separateness” in Afrikaans, was a system of institutionalized racial segregation in which non-white South Africans were subjected to hundreds of discriminatory laws that governed all aspects of human life. Failure to comply with these laws was met with imprisonment and violence by the white minority government.    

The massacre of students during the 1976 Soweto Uprising led to activists, churches, and labor unions intensifying their calls for divestment.. Building on the Free Speech Movement, anti–Vietnam War protests, and the Third World Liberation Front strikes, student groups, including Students for Economic and Racial Justice, and Campuses United Against Apartheid, mobilized on campus to demand divestment.

In 1985, escalating state repression of protests in South Africa fueled support for global campaigns against apartheid. The South African president, P. W. Botha, declared a state of emergency, granting sweeping powers to police and limiting press coverage. Within months, more than 500 people were killed, and thousands were detained without due process. This intensified outrage on campuses worldwide. At Columbia University, students began a hunger strike and blockaded an administrative building. These actions influenced students nationwide, including at UC Berkeley.

In April 1985, students gathered daily at Sproul Plaza (renamed "Biko Plaza,” after anti-apartheid activist Steve Biko), demanding that the university divest from South Africa. They transformed the plaza into a hub of protest—leading teach-ins, hosting film screenings, and organizing rallies that drew thousands. Students occupied the plaza overnight, creating a persistent reminder of their demands.

Student protesters were supported by a wide network of allies, including faculty and staff, labor unions, and community members. Faculty from across the University of California system formed the group UC Faculty for Full Divestment. The group endorsed the students’ demands and called for the dismissal of legal charges and disciplinary action against protesters. Labor unions such as the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), and the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) stood in solidarity with students.

During the protests, hundreds of students, faculty, staff, and community members were arrested or violently detained by riot police during sit-ins, shantytown raids, and mass demonstrations. The university administration justified the arrests, citing violations of the campus’s “time, place, and manner” rules, which dictated the parameters of free speech on campus. As the strategies and tactics of the students evolved, the administration developed new techniques to silence and control protests.

The arrests and subsequent trials galvanized students, strengthening their belief that the administration was suppressing their rights to free speech and due process. Campus groups and legal advocates organized support networks for detained students. Faculty and campus allies publicly called for charges to be dropped and demonstrated solidarity with those facing disciplinary action by participating in class boycotts and worker strikes. 

In 1986, after years of pressure from students, the University of California Board of Regents voted to begin divesting $3 billion from South Africa. The election of President Nelson Mandela and the formation of a multiracial democracy in 1994 officially ended apartheid, although many of its structural legacies persist even today. Undeterred, Black South Africans continue to struggle for self-determination and justice.  

Since 1986, students have continued to lead divestment campaigns targeting companies operating private prisons, extracting fossil fuels, producing tobacco, and conducting business in countries implicated in genocide in Darfur and Gaza. Other protests have addressed systemic racial barriers on campus, demanding faculty diversity, curriculum reform, and accountability to students of color.

The anti-apartheid movement proved that sustained activism and coalition-building can drive institutional change—especially when rooted in the philosophy of collective liberation.