Monday 23 March 1998
An exhibition marking the 30th anniversary of student unrest in 1968, and to chart the role of current Home Secretary Jack Straw in those rebellious events, opens today. This is the first virtual exhibition to be held by the University of Leeds.
As President of the Union at the University of Leeds, Jack Straw led a four-day occupation of the University in June 1968. The students were demanding a public inquiry into allegations that University security staff had been collecting political intelligence on students.
The University Archive is marking the 30th anniversary of the 1968 protests with an exhibition in the Parkinson Building and its first virtual exhibition on the World Wide Web. Exhibits include press cuttings, leaflets, minutes of the University Senate, and contemporary articles by Jack Straw himself.
The Leeds sit-in stemmed from disturbances on 3 May 1968, when Tory MP Patrick Wall was invited to address a meeting of the Conservative Association in the Students’ Union. The meeting attracted around 400 protesters who objected to the MP’s support for the white regime in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and for the US war effort in Vietnam.
Unrest was sweeping European universities at the time, and Leeds was no exception. On 25 June members of the Students’ Union voted to occupy the Parkinson Building, then the administrative heart of the University. They demanded a public inquiry into the actions of the University’s security staff following the May 3 fracas.
This official sit-in was fully supported by Union President Jack Straw. After the future Home Secretary stood on a table and addressed a 500-strong meeting in the Parkinson Court, he was given a standing ovation lasting ten minutes. After four days the sit-in ended on the evening of Friday 28 June with a march to the Union building.
The Union demanded a full and public enquiry into the activities of security staff, the handover of files on students' political activities, the establishment of a Security Service watchdog and the suspension of the Security Adviser and his Assistant pending the enquiry.
A public enquiry was not held, but an internal committee was set up to examine the students' concerns. The committee found there was no systematic recording of students' political activities or affiliations.
For more information contact the Press Office, tel 0113 233 4031.