"Between 1975 and 1979 young people in several major Italian cities entered the political scene as the protagonists of new forms of urban conflict. In Rome, Bologna, Turin, Naples, Milan and other cities, they organized themselves into collectives and ‘proletarian youth groups’, squatted in buildings and carried out autoriduzione (that is, fixed their own prices) of transport fares and cinema tickets, set up free radio stations. At the height of the movement in 1977, tens of thousands of young people were involved in mass protest and street battles with the police."
https://libcom.org/library/20-generation-year-nine-youth-revolt-movement-77

On June 16, 1976, several thousand students near Johannesburg began a peaceful march that turned deadly when the police attacked with guns and tear gas. The protesters were objecting to a law that mandated Afrikaans-language education, but they set in motion a global movement against apartheid. Images of police brutality — particularly a photograph of a high school student carrying the body of Hector Pieterson (12 or 13 years old; accounts differ) — drew international attention to the broader cruelty of South Africa’s government.

Thousands of students filled Sproul Plaza at the University of California, Berkeley, in April 1985 to protest the university’s business ties with apartheid South Africa.CreditPaul Sakuma/Associated Press

From the actions of the students of Soweto grew a vast campaign led by college students in the United States, who built shantytowns on campus quads, blockaded buildings and disrupted speeches by South African politicians. From Columbia University to the University of California, protests compelled administrators to withdraw billions of dollars in investments from companies tied to South Africa. Over time, the resulting economic stress contributed, along with other factors, to the dismantling of apartheid."
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/03/05/us/student-protest-movements.html

This was a man who'd made a fortune playing black American blues music in the Sixties and then had a huge hit with Bob Marley's "I Shot the Sheriff". It seemed so deeply hypocritical to turn around and say he didn't want black people to live in the same country as him.

The National Front were gaining electoral ground and becoming bolder in their attempts to intimidate immigrants with marches and violence. Blues and reggae fans like myself were appalled to see one of our heroes like Clapton pouring petrol on the flames.

So a group of music lovers wrote to the NME and Melody Maker denouncing Clapton's comments and calling for the formation of Rock Against Racism. "Who shot the Sheriff, Eric?" they asked. "It sure as hell wasn't you!"
https://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/features/rock-against-racism-remembering-that-gig-that-started-it-all-815054.html