six7s
28th August 2007, 10:21 PM
In 1981, the New Zealand Rugby Football Union invited the South African Springboks to tour the country and play against 12 provincial teams, the NZ Maori team and, of course, the All Blacks - NZ's iconic first XV
The spectacle of watching fierce rivals battle on the pitch was eagerly anticipated by rugby fans around the world. However, for many - including ardent rugby fans - the enduring memory of 'The Tour' concerns what happened in most unsporting circumstances; in the homes, workplaces and streets of a relatively peaceful and isolated country and the impact of is widely regarded as being one the most significant turning points in post-colonial NZ history
I look back on 'The Tour' as a coming of age, in the political sense for the country as a whole (six years later, the Labour government of David Lange told Uncle Sam where he could stick his nuclear ships) and, on a more immediate level, for 1000s and 1000s of 'ordinary, red-blooded Kiwis', like me, who hung up our boots and donned helmets and cricket boxes - not to beat the 'Boks on an oval, but to protect ourselves from the mental and physical abuse of our neighbours and our police force to demonstrate that bully-boy tactics cannot and will not be tolerated
There is an adage that 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger'. Added to this is the notion that 'time heals all wounds'
NZ Rugby suffered a dramatic decline in support, but somehow managed to bounce back enough for the ABs to win the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987 and later this year, they are tipped to beat the strongest opposition: either the Aussies of the 'Boks who, since the apartheid regime was finally dismantled, have been welcomed by one and all (including me) as worthy opponents in a game worth millions and millions in any currency
No-one died as a result of 'The Tour'
Instead, the heated exchanges fuelled a growing awareness that we were hypocritical in focusing solely on South Africa as it slowly dawned on many that we in 'Godzone' were not only institutionally racist but also sexist and all the similar 'ists' to boot
My memories of this time inspired me, an ex-christian turned atheist/humanist, to post to the words "He who has not sinned may cast the first stone", followed by a SPOILER tag to show - to those interested - my opinions. My saying that there "was almost a civil war over" was simply a rhetorical device to presage my thoughts on hypocrisy, which are perhaps not particularly relevant in a debate over the premise that The JREF is not an atheist organization
However, the JREF is not an apologists organisation and the notion that the JREF is a sceptical organisation is only debated by those hung up on spelling, so it came as rather a disappointment that someone who professes to be both a sceptic and a New Zealander should not only accuse me of spouting "garbage" but also suggest that the events of 'The Tour' have been exaggerated out of proportion; seemingly a 'fact' worthy of drawing to the attention of all those who might read that thread
Just in case non-Kiwis get the wrong idea, I'd ask people to please not buy into this "almost civil war" garbage - it was nothing like a civil war, unless there have been civil wars where one side runs homebefore the rugby game has finished and the potential opponents come out to play. I've seen lots of people attempt to oversell a few bottle-throwers as "almost civil war" and it's nothing less than historical revisionism.
The Queen St riot was closer to a civil war than any rugby protest.
Does it make it all seem more important somehow to oversell it that way?
As a sceptic, I simply have to wonder... was it only a nightmare?
Or is there some hidden agenda to promote an apologist dream
So... like all aspiring sceptics, I have sought and found documented evidence that suggests history might be messy, but it can't simply be rubbished
I hope that the following links and quotes might be of interest to those who care about history recording things as they were, not as the pretenders would like things to be
Review of the Police Complaints Authority: Chapter3, Background (http://www.justice.govt.nz/pubs/reports/2001/police_complaints/chapter_3.html)
3.4.5 In New Zealand demonstrations against the Springbok Tour in 1981 brought the changes in society and societal attitudes into sharp focus. Opposition to the Vietnam War had come largely from students and more radical elements in society. The opposition to the Springbok Tour and to Apartheid generally was much more broadly-based.
New Zealand History Online
(http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/)
1981 Springbok Tour
It was simply called 'The Tour'. For 56 taut days in the winter of 1981, New Zealanders were divided against each other in the largest civil disturbance seen since the 1951 waterfront dispute. More...
A country divided (http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/1981-springbok-tour)
For 56 days in July, August and September 1981, New Zealanders were divided against each other in the largest civil disturbance seen since the 1951 waterfront dispute. More than 150,000 people took part in over 200 demonstrations in 28 centres, and 1500 were charged with offences stemming from these protests
<snip/>
In many ways the playing of rugby took a back seat in 1981, and the sport suffered in the following years as players and supporters came to terms with the fallout from the tour.
Some commentators have described this event as the moment when New Zealand lost its innocence as a country and as being a watershed in our view of ourselves as a country and people.
Tour diary - 1981 Springbok tour (http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/1981-springbok-tour/tour-diary)
'A war played out twice a week'
The Springboks were officially welcomed to New Zealand on the Poho-o-Rawiri marae in Gisborne (just as they had been in 1965) on 19 July 1981. Despite all the pre-tour rhetoric and debate, few could have anticipated that the country was about to descend into near civil war, 'a war played out twice a week' as the Springboks moved from game to game.
29 July, Molesworth Street, Wellington – an 'eruption of violence'
The Springboks defeated Taranaki in New Plymouth, but the real action that day occurred on Molesworth Street, outside Parliament in Wellington. Police used batons on anti-tour protestors for the first time. Former Prime Minister Norman Kirk's prediction almost a decade earlier that a tour would result in the 'greatest eruption of violence this country has ever known' was realised.
See the related film clip and more about the Molesworth Street protest.
6MB Video: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz//files/videos&videoFile=81tour-007.flv
The third test: Eden Park, Auckland, 12 September 1981 (http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/?q=node/2449)
Outside the ground 'all hell broke loose'. Fighting erupted in the streets surrounding Eden Park and police were pelted with rocks and missiles. Some commentators argued that hard core protestors were joined by opportunists who just wanted to fight with police.
While security around the ground was the tightest of the tour, the battle was taken to the sky above Eden Park. The actions of Marx Jones and Grant Cole in their hired Cessna aeroplane probably made the abiding memories of the game. Jones and Cole buzzed Eden Park and dropped flares and flour bombs in a bid to halt the game. In surreal conditions, befitting the nature of the tour, the game continued. All Black prop Gary Knight was felled by a flour bomb, and the South African captain asked 'whether New Zealand had an air force or not?'
Impact of the 1981 Springbok tour (http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/1981-springbok-tour/impact-of-the-tour)
The division between city and country
Support for the Springbok tour was particularly strong in rural and small-town New Zealand. In the Taranaki dairy town of Eltham, 50 lonely protestors were showered with eggs and bottles as they marched up the street one Friday night.
<snip/>
One survey at the time found that over half of the anti-tour protestors had a university degree and another third had university entrance. In 1981 there were over 50,000 students enrolled in tertiary institutions. The educated middle class was critical to the anti-tour movement. Exposed to the international world of learning, they were articulate in their promotion of the issues.
The unions and working-class activists played an important role in anti-tour protest, but the largest numbers in the streets were educated middle-class people.
Battle lines are drawn - 1981 Springbok tour (http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/1981-springbok-tour/battle-lines-are-drawn)
1981: a divided New Zealand
Many of the protestors had grown up in the relatively prosperous years of the 1950s. Many of them were also rugby fans.
<snip/>
The anti-tour protest movement 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.
Leaving the beat (http://masseynews.massey.ac.nz/magazine/2006_Apr/stories/04-20-06.html)
Retired Commissioner of Police Rob Robinson talks to Professor George Shouksmith
GS One of the watersheds in your time in the police and in the relationship between the police and the public was the 1981 Springbok tour.
RR ...There’d been a demonstration at Parliament. They’d marched to the South African ambassador’s residence in Wadestown. We’d been deployed there, along with many other staff. Some arrests were made at the ambassador’s residence and the arrestees were returned to Wellington Central Police Station... <snip/>...what really distressed me and gave me a view of the vigour and the feeling in the protest was the range of middle New Zealanders, young and old, confronting and abusing my constables for hours, calling them Uncle Toms. This was preominantly white New Zealand confronting police officers of Maori or Pacific Island ethnic origin and abusing them for doing their duty. So there were things that really did push the community and the police apart.
GS A low point in terms of policing in New Zealand, do you think?
RR Yes, it was. It was a strange time, the period of the 1981 Springbok tour. ... <snip/>...There was the level of feeling that was expressed from within the community after the Hamilton game. There were the difficulties when police were called on to police members of their own families. There were those police officers who, following their consciences, were allowed to stand down from active duty on the Springbok tour – which was, I think, enlightened policy from the leadership of the day.
It has taken a long time for some of these wounds to heal.
The spectacle of watching fierce rivals battle on the pitch was eagerly anticipated by rugby fans around the world. However, for many - including ardent rugby fans - the enduring memory of 'The Tour' concerns what happened in most unsporting circumstances; in the homes, workplaces and streets of a relatively peaceful and isolated country and the impact of is widely regarded as being one the most significant turning points in post-colonial NZ history
I look back on 'The Tour' as a coming of age, in the political sense for the country as a whole (six years later, the Labour government of David Lange told Uncle Sam where he could stick his nuclear ships) and, on a more immediate level, for 1000s and 1000s of 'ordinary, red-blooded Kiwis', like me, who hung up our boots and donned helmets and cricket boxes - not to beat the 'Boks on an oval, but to protect ourselves from the mental and physical abuse of our neighbours and our police force to demonstrate that bully-boy tactics cannot and will not be tolerated
There is an adage that 'what doesn't kill you makes you stronger'. Added to this is the notion that 'time heals all wounds'
NZ Rugby suffered a dramatic decline in support, but somehow managed to bounce back enough for the ABs to win the inaugural Rugby World Cup in 1987 and later this year, they are tipped to beat the strongest opposition: either the Aussies of the 'Boks who, since the apartheid regime was finally dismantled, have been welcomed by one and all (including me) as worthy opponents in a game worth millions and millions in any currency
No-one died as a result of 'The Tour'
Instead, the heated exchanges fuelled a growing awareness that we were hypocritical in focusing solely on South Africa as it slowly dawned on many that we in 'Godzone' were not only institutionally racist but also sexist and all the similar 'ists' to boot
My memories of this time inspired me, an ex-christian turned atheist/humanist, to post to the words "He who has not sinned may cast the first stone", followed by a SPOILER tag to show - to those interested - my opinions. My saying that there "was almost a civil war over" was simply a rhetorical device to presage my thoughts on hypocrisy, which are perhaps not particularly relevant in a debate over the premise that The JREF is not an atheist organization
However, the JREF is not an apologists organisation and the notion that the JREF is a sceptical organisation is only debated by those hung up on spelling, so it came as rather a disappointment that someone who professes to be both a sceptic and a New Zealander should not only accuse me of spouting "garbage" but also suggest that the events of 'The Tour' have been exaggerated out of proportion; seemingly a 'fact' worthy of drawing to the attention of all those who might read that thread
Just in case non-Kiwis get the wrong idea, I'd ask people to please not buy into this "almost civil war" garbage - it was nothing like a civil war, unless there have been civil wars where one side runs homebefore the rugby game has finished and the potential opponents come out to play. I've seen lots of people attempt to oversell a few bottle-throwers as "almost civil war" and it's nothing less than historical revisionism.
The Queen St riot was closer to a civil war than any rugby protest.
Does it make it all seem more important somehow to oversell it that way?
As a sceptic, I simply have to wonder... was it only a nightmare?
Or is there some hidden agenda to promote an apologist dream
So... like all aspiring sceptics, I have sought and found documented evidence that suggests history might be messy, but it can't simply be rubbished
I hope that the following links and quotes might be of interest to those who care about history recording things as they were, not as the pretenders would like things to be
Review of the Police Complaints Authority: Chapter3, Background (http://www.justice.govt.nz/pubs/reports/2001/police_complaints/chapter_3.html)
3.4.5 In New Zealand demonstrations against the Springbok Tour in 1981 brought the changes in society and societal attitudes into sharp focus. Opposition to the Vietnam War had come largely from students and more radical elements in society. The opposition to the Springbok Tour and to Apartheid generally was much more broadly-based.
New Zealand History Online
(http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/)
1981 Springbok Tour
It was simply called 'The Tour'. For 56 taut days in the winter of 1981, New Zealanders were divided against each other in the largest civil disturbance seen since the 1951 waterfront dispute. More...
A country divided (http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/1981-springbok-tour)
For 56 days in July, August and September 1981, New Zealanders were divided against each other in the largest civil disturbance seen since the 1951 waterfront dispute. More than 150,000 people took part in over 200 demonstrations in 28 centres, and 1500 were charged with offences stemming from these protests
<snip/>
In many ways the playing of rugby took a back seat in 1981, and the sport suffered in the following years as players and supporters came to terms with the fallout from the tour.
Some commentators have described this event as the moment when New Zealand lost its innocence as a country and as being a watershed in our view of ourselves as a country and people.
Tour diary - 1981 Springbok tour (http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/1981-springbok-tour/tour-diary)
'A war played out twice a week'
The Springboks were officially welcomed to New Zealand on the Poho-o-Rawiri marae in Gisborne (just as they had been in 1965) on 19 July 1981. Despite all the pre-tour rhetoric and debate, few could have anticipated that the country was about to descend into near civil war, 'a war played out twice a week' as the Springboks moved from game to game.
29 July, Molesworth Street, Wellington – an 'eruption of violence'
The Springboks defeated Taranaki in New Plymouth, but the real action that day occurred on Molesworth Street, outside Parliament in Wellington. Police used batons on anti-tour protestors for the first time. Former Prime Minister Norman Kirk's prediction almost a decade earlier that a tour would result in the 'greatest eruption of violence this country has ever known' was realised.
See the related film clip and more about the Molesworth Street protest.
6MB Video: http://www.nzhistory.net.nz//files/videos&videoFile=81tour-007.flv
The third test: Eden Park, Auckland, 12 September 1981 (http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/?q=node/2449)
Outside the ground 'all hell broke loose'. Fighting erupted in the streets surrounding Eden Park and police were pelted with rocks and missiles. Some commentators argued that hard core protestors were joined by opportunists who just wanted to fight with police.
While security around the ground was the tightest of the tour, the battle was taken to the sky above Eden Park. The actions of Marx Jones and Grant Cole in their hired Cessna aeroplane probably made the abiding memories of the game. Jones and Cole buzzed Eden Park and dropped flares and flour bombs in a bid to halt the game. In surreal conditions, befitting the nature of the tour, the game continued. All Black prop Gary Knight was felled by a flour bomb, and the South African captain asked 'whether New Zealand had an air force or not?'
Impact of the 1981 Springbok tour (http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/1981-springbok-tour/impact-of-the-tour)
The division between city and country
Support for the Springbok tour was particularly strong in rural and small-town New Zealand. In the Taranaki dairy town of Eltham, 50 lonely protestors were showered with eggs and bottles as they marched up the street one Friday night.
<snip/>
One survey at the time found that over half of the anti-tour protestors had a university degree and another third had university entrance. In 1981 there were over 50,000 students enrolled in tertiary institutions. The educated middle class was critical to the anti-tour movement. Exposed to the international world of learning, they were articulate in their promotion of the issues.
The unions and working-class activists played an important role in anti-tour protest, but the largest numbers in the streets were educated middle-class people.
Battle lines are drawn - 1981 Springbok tour (http://www.nzhistory.net.nz/culture/1981-springbok-tour/battle-lines-are-drawn)
1981: a divided New Zealand
Many of the protestors had grown up in the relatively prosperous years of the 1950s. Many of them were also rugby fans.
<snip/>
The anti-tour protest movement 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.
Leaving the beat (http://masseynews.massey.ac.nz/magazine/2006_Apr/stories/04-20-06.html)
Retired Commissioner of Police Rob Robinson talks to Professor George Shouksmith
GS One of the watersheds in your time in the police and in the relationship between the police and the public was the 1981 Springbok tour.
RR ...There’d been a demonstration at Parliament. They’d marched to the South African ambassador’s residence in Wadestown. We’d been deployed there, along with many other staff. Some arrests were made at the ambassador’s residence and the arrestees were returned to Wellington Central Police Station... <snip/>...what really distressed me and gave me a view of the vigour and the feeling in the protest was the range of middle New Zealanders, young and old, confronting and abusing my constables for hours, calling them Uncle Toms. This was preominantly white New Zealand confronting police officers of Maori or Pacific Island ethnic origin and abusing them for doing their duty. So there were things that really did push the community and the police apart.
GS A low point in terms of policing in New Zealand, do you think?
RR Yes, it was. It was a strange time, the period of the 1981 Springbok tour. ... <snip/>...There was the level of feeling that was expressed from within the community after the Hamilton game. There were the difficulties when police were called on to police members of their own families. There were those police officers who, following their consciences, were allowed to stand down from active duty on the Springbok tour – which was, I think, enlightened policy from the leadership of the day.
It has taken a long time for some of these wounds to heal.