Blood and tears mingle on the face of this Wellington protester after a clash with the infamous police Red Squad in Molesworth St on July 29, 1981. Picture on the right hand side
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Police stan in front of the police line in a stand against the protestors http://www.museumnp.org.nz/exhibitions/previous.htm
Image to the left |
Hamilton was struck by protesters waning to voice their opinions which was shown through the actions they took
Protesting was one of the key actions that people took to let their thoughts on the Springbok tour be noticed, one of the most renowned and successful protests people were involved was in Hamilton. On the 25 July the Springbok were all geared up and ready to lay against Ranfurly shield holders Waikato, little did they know that anti-tour protesters had other ideas for the game. Word had spread to the police that this game was going to be packed with protestors because it was a weekend game and as more people could make it due to it being their day off, Police prepared themselves with 535 police officers present in the city that day - many had come down from Auckland and some had come up from other places to help the situation. One of the main protest actions had been disrupting matches. Waikato Rugby Union had realized this so they had taken extra precautions in preventing a pitch invasion.
Because it was a weekend game anti-tour groups such as HART had had previous meetings discussing tactics and it was decided that if anti-tour supporters were able to buy tickets to the game so that their presence would be known within the stadium they managed to get around 200 hundred or so protesters in the stadium seats and then they had another 5000 gathered at Garden Place to march onto the rugby field. This was to be achieved by tearing down the fence that surrounded the pitch and then the aim was to occupy the pitch - around 350 protesters managed successfully to get onto the pitch and this all happened just before kick off time.
Once on the field the protesters linked arms to form a block right in the centre of the pitch so know one could start the game, the police then started to arrest the protesters they managed to arrest about 50 protesters over the course of an hour but this was not enough. The protesters continued on the field supporters in the stand of the pro-rugby tour group began to throw all sorts of different things at the protestors and a fight soon broke out with people clashing from both sides.
Soon word got out to the police that a man called Pat McQuarrie had got ahold of a light weight lane from Taupo and was going to fly the plane into the grandstand as a sign of protest. Police were worried about the situation as they had had dealings with this man before as he had flown over and dropped flour bombs on a softball game going on between New Zealand and South Africa in 1976. Police were convinced that McQuarrie was a serious threat to the game and to the safety of the crowd.
Both of these factors soon led to the announcement that the game between the Springbok and the All Blacks on the 25th July 1981 was going to have to be cancelled. This was a huge success to all the anti-tour protests as this was the outcome that they had hoped for but for all the people supporting the tour howls of furry went up and chants of "we want rugby" "we want rugby" When the announcement was made this it made many people attack the protesters with whatever they have such things included boots, feet, cans and fists. The protesters had to be ushered out of the stadium. The match was being televised and the world watched on in shock as the events unravelled in New Zealand that day. Police say that the match was cancelled due to the threat of the plane but what ever way protesters saw it, it was a sign of success.
"Ripping down the fence took about 10 seconds – it was very fast, the crowd on the bank pulled away from us and a flood of people went through and onto the ground. We ran under the goal posts into the middle. I remember the priests struggling with a bloody big cross."
When Nelson Mandela heard that the match in Hamilton had been cancelled he said he sat in his prison cell on Robben island and said "it was as if the sun had come out"
From this quote from Mandela we can see what the effects the protests in New Zealand had on more of a global scale and their efforts were not going unrecognized. This protest at Hamilton was one of the most well known and successful.
Protesting was one of the key actions that people took to let their thoughts on the Springbok tour be noticed, one of the most renowned and successful protests people were involved was in Hamilton. On the 25 July the Springbok were all geared up and ready to lay against Ranfurly shield holders Waikato, little did they know that anti-tour protesters had other ideas for the game. Word had spread to the police that this game was going to be packed with protestors because it was a weekend game and as more people could make it due to it being their day off, Police prepared themselves with 535 police officers present in the city that day - many had come down from Auckland and some had come up from other places to help the situation. One of the main protest actions had been disrupting matches. Waikato Rugby Union had realized this so they had taken extra precautions in preventing a pitch invasion.
Because it was a weekend game anti-tour groups such as HART had had previous meetings discussing tactics and it was decided that if anti-tour supporters were able to buy tickets to the game so that their presence would be known within the stadium they managed to get around 200 hundred or so protesters in the stadium seats and then they had another 5000 gathered at Garden Place to march onto the rugby field. This was to be achieved by tearing down the fence that surrounded the pitch and then the aim was to occupy the pitch - around 350 protesters managed successfully to get onto the pitch and this all happened just before kick off time.
Once on the field the protesters linked arms to form a block right in the centre of the pitch so know one could start the game, the police then started to arrest the protesters they managed to arrest about 50 protesters over the course of an hour but this was not enough. The protesters continued on the field supporters in the stand of the pro-rugby tour group began to throw all sorts of different things at the protestors and a fight soon broke out with people clashing from both sides.
Soon word got out to the police that a man called Pat McQuarrie had got ahold of a light weight lane from Taupo and was going to fly the plane into the grandstand as a sign of protest. Police were worried about the situation as they had had dealings with this man before as he had flown over and dropped flour bombs on a softball game going on between New Zealand and South Africa in 1976. Police were convinced that McQuarrie was a serious threat to the game and to the safety of the crowd.
Both of these factors soon led to the announcement that the game between the Springbok and the All Blacks on the 25th July 1981 was going to have to be cancelled. This was a huge success to all the anti-tour protests as this was the outcome that they had hoped for but for all the people supporting the tour howls of furry went up and chants of "we want rugby" "we want rugby" When the announcement was made this it made many people attack the protesters with whatever they have such things included boots, feet, cans and fists. The protesters had to be ushered out of the stadium. The match was being televised and the world watched on in shock as the events unravelled in New Zealand that day. Police say that the match was cancelled due to the threat of the plane but what ever way protesters saw it, it was a sign of success.
"Ripping down the fence took about 10 seconds – it was very fast, the crowd on the bank pulled away from us and a flood of people went through and onto the ground. We ran under the goal posts into the middle. I remember the priests struggling with a bloody big cross."
When Nelson Mandela heard that the match in Hamilton had been cancelled he said he sat in his prison cell on Robben island and said "it was as if the sun had come out"
From this quote from Mandela we can see what the effects the protests in New Zealand had on more of a global scale and their efforts were not going unrecognized. This protest at Hamilton was one of the most well known and successful.