Although I was only a child at the time, I remember seeing the student protests against the war in Vietnam, and in support of civil liberties, on television. Just because you didn't experience something yourself doesn't make it less valid, and like it never happened in the first place.
It made me smile when I read this today in the Sunday Times.
Barclays bankrolls Mugabe’s brutal regime - Times Online
In the eighties no student worth their politcal salt would bank at Barclays, because of their business links to South Africa, and their direct support of the apartheid system. There was not one student account held at a Barclays bank in Liverpool in 1983. Not bad when there were only four main banks to chose from then, and there was a student population of over 50,000 students.
Skip forward twenty odd years. Barclays are still supporting an African regime that has a terrible record on human rights.
Are students boycotting the bank?
Are they protesting outside branches of Barclays, like students did outside South Africa House in London for over twenty years, night and day, year in, year out?
If Barclays gives students a twenty quid voucher to spend a W H Smiths, when they become a student, probably not.