Battle lines are drawn - The 1981 Springbok Tour
Opinion on the Springbok tour
School kids protest
Police and protestors
A nation divided
Anti-tour cartoon
1981: a divided New Zealand
The tour supporters were determined that the first Springbok visit to New Zealand since 1965 would not be spoiled. The anti-tour movement was equally determined. Although HART committed itself to non-violent disruption, Prime Minister Robert Muldoon condemned the organisation for having 'spread lies about New Zealand' overseas. People involved in the anti-tour movement were described as 'stirrers' and 'trouble makers'.
John Minto, the National Organiser for HART in 1981, became one of the public faces of the anti-tour movement and attracted special criticism from Muldoon and pro-tour supporters. The long batons used by riot police during the tour were nicknamed 'Minto-bars'.
A number of other organisations gained prominence in their opposition to the tour, including CARE (Citizens Association for Racial Equality) and NAAC (National Anti-Apartheid Council); many others were based on local action. The widespread organisation of opposition to the tour was a feature of the protest movement.
SPIR (Stop Politics in Rugby) was one organisation that actively put forward an alternative view to the anti-tour movement, while men like NZRFU Chairman Ces Blazey and Ron Don, chairman of the Auckland Rugby Union and NZRFU councillor, also gave the pro-tour movement a public face. Over the course of the tour these people and organisations became household names due to their exposure in the media. Some people wore their allegiances on their sleeve with badges that promoted their position on the tour and heated debate and argument raged across the nation from dining room tables to smoko rooms as each side tried to make its point.
Many of the protestors had grown up in the relatively prosperous years of the 1950s. (Many of them were also rugby fans). Prosperity and peace had given them the freedom to challenge the old order. This generation had come to political consciousness marching against the Vietnam War, French nuclear testing and nuclear ship visits in the late 60s and early 70s. They included many urban, educated professionals but also enjoyed strong union support.
Historian, Jock Phillips, sees the tour as a clash between the 'old and the new New Zealand', which revealed itself in five main ways:
- the struggle between baby boomers and war veterans
- city versus country
- men versus women
- black versus white
- 'Britain of the south' versus independent Pacific nation.
Some people related the plight of black South Africans with racism here. For generations New Zealand prided itself on having the 'finest race relations in the world', but events during 1981 challenged this assertion. The protestors specifically attacked racism, and Maori increasingly joined the protests. As they did so they confronted non-Maori New Zealanders with the question: 'If you campaign about race in South Africa, what about at home?' John Minto has recently stated that the tour's greatest impact on New Zealand society was to stimulate debate about racism and the place of Maori in New Zealand.
Next page: Tour diary 
