Protest Movements
Key Historical Idea:Anti-Tour feeling had been growing in New Zealand. Halt All Racist Tours (HART) and other radical activist groups and organisations were gaining support in the lead up to the 1981 Springbok Tour.
HART emerged in the 1970’s after the Springbok’s classed Maori’s as honorary whites in order to play in the All Black tour of South Africa after initially being banned from going all together. HART was made up of Auckland University students who were opposed to sporting contact with South Africa while they enforced the policy of Apartheid. HART organised a ‘stop the tour’ conference at Porirua in 1979. A hundred people gathered, and the policy which emerged was for mass mobilisation of opinion on the issue. Many who attended expected the 1981 tour to be called off but continued a campaign to build public pressure. John Minto was the protest organiser of the group during the 1981 tour. Pro-Tour majorities began to diminish in the late 1970’s. Polls taken in 1981 showed a balance of opinion against the tour and for the tour. Many came to political consciousness as they realised the immorality of letting a racially selected team play in New Zealand. They became committed to a policy of non-violent disruption and create a protest on a wide scale such as the one in the 1960’s “No Maori’s, No Tour”.
HART emerged in the 1970’s after the Springbok’s classed Maori’s as honorary whites in order to play in the All Black tour of South Africa after initially being banned from going all together. HART was made up of Auckland University students who were opposed to sporting contact with South Africa while they enforced the policy of Apartheid. HART organised a ‘stop the tour’ conference at Porirua in 1979. A hundred people gathered, and the policy which emerged was for mass mobilisation of opinion on the issue. Many who attended expected the 1981 tour to be called off but continued a campaign to build public pressure. John Minto was the protest organiser of the group during the 1981 tour. Pro-Tour majorities began to diminish in the late 1970’s. Polls taken in 1981 showed a balance of opinion against the tour and for the tour. Many came to political consciousness as they realised the immorality of letting a racially selected team play in New Zealand. They became committed to a policy of non-violent disruption and create a protest on a wide scale such as the one in the 1960’s “No Maori’s, No Tour”.