The 1981 Tour remembered

President, Auckland Branch Local 13

I have always admired battlers, like union leader Dave Morgan, or activists John Minto, Sue Bradford, Tame Iti and many others as they put in the hard yards, in your face and behind the scenes for their cause, as they try to create meaningful change for the country (while in many cases becoming some of the most hated people in the country for their efforts.)

We recently had the fortieth anniversary of one of the most divisive events in New Zealand history, the 1981 Springbok Tour.

The struggle against apartheid went back to after the Second World War where the first anti-apartheid demonstration was held at Wellington with about thirty people, seamen and watersiders among them, who were sworn at and spat on as they marched from the Library to the Cenotaph.

They were led by one of the Nation’s most distinguished soldiers, Brigadier-General Sir Howard Kippenberger, who clumped along on calipers, having had his feet blown off by a landmine during the Italian campaign in 1944, in the last months of the Second World War. Kippenberger said “if it was good enough for Māori to fight and bleed and die on the battlefields of North Africa, it is good enough for them to play rugby on the sports fields of South Africa.”

It took a long time for this message to sink in, as the NZRFU continued to dance to the apartheid tune for another forty years.

By 1960 the No Māori–No Tour campaign was gaining momentum. Trade unionists were among its prominent leaders. Seamen and waterfront workers were in the frontline in many battles. They regularly walked off ships and joined in local protest, against visiting Springbok teams, as did our comrades in Australian ports in 1973. By 1981 the National Government’s endorsement of the Springbok Tour of New Zealand turned New Zealand cities into armed camps with barbed wire around playing fields and police in riot gear. Seamen and watersiders were out in big numbers in every centre, along with other unionists. Seafarers took strike action in every main centre on the day of each test.

One of the most dramatic events was a pitch invasion shortly before the Springbok versus Waikato game was due to kick off in Hamilton.

A large group occupied the centre of the field in a tense standoff and the live media coverage put South Africa's apartheid regime at the centre of global attention. The match was stopped before it even started.

Political activist and founding member of Halt All Racist Tours (HART) John Minto who led that protest says it was a special day although they did not realise at the time how significant it was. One veteran of the protests was Sir Tim Shadbolt who said the 1981 Springbok Tour was a historical event. “It was a victory in a way and changed New Zealand for the better … I’ll remember those days for the rest of my life.”

After the dust had settled in New Zealand, apartheid ended in South Africa in 1991 and the first free elections where all citizens voted regardless of race were in 1994.

Newly elected President Nelson Mandela was in Auckland in 1995 to attend the Commonwealth Heads of Government meeting. Mandela personified the long, hard struggle against apartheid and eventual victory, and he was attracting more interest at the time than the Queen.

Although it was good to see him recognised, it wasn’t so good the struggles against apartheid by New Zealand trade unionists including seafarers and watersiders were ignored.

Of the two hundred and seventy people invited by the then National Government to attend the State luncheon for Mandela, nobody was invited to represent a New Zealand trade union.