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Demonstrators tried to break through a police cordon around Welford Road rugby ground in Leicester before the game between the Springboks and Midland Counties East on 8 November 1969. Two people were wounded in clashes between the police and protestors. Thousands joined a march to the ground before the match. There were anti-apartheid protests at all 24 games in the 1969/70 Springbok tour of Britain and Ireland.

Police drag a protester off the pitch at the Springboks v Midland Counties East game at Leicester on 8 November. Thousands joined a march to the ground before the match. There were anti-apartheid protests at all 24 games in the 1969/70 Springbok tour of Britain and Ireland.

Peter Loewenstein was born in South Africa, grew up there and then in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), where he became involved in liberation politics and later lived in Zambia in exile. From 1966 to 1969 he was a student at Nottingham University, and was the chairperson of the university’s student Anti-Apartheid Group and was active in the national Anti-Apartheid Movement. In November 1969 he helped organise the demonstration at the Springbok match against Midland Counties East in Leicester and was forcibly removed by police after protesting inside the ground. Two weeks later he took part in action to halt the Spingboks’ game against North West Counties in Manchester and lodged a formal complaint against police brutality against student activists.

This is the transcript of an interview conducted by Geoff Brown for ‘Apartheid is Not a Game: Remembering the Stop the Seventy Tour Campaign’ by Geoff Brown and Christian Høgsbjerg, a Redwords pamphlet published on the 50th anniversary of the Stop the Seventy Tour Campaign in 2019.   

Anti-apartheid members handed out leaflets outside Cardiff Arms Park on 11 November 1969 asking rugby supporters to boycott the Springboks rugby tour. The Springboks were scheduled to play Newport next day. There were anti-apartheid protests at all 24 games in the 1969/70 Springbok tour of Britain and Ireland.

Stewards dragging a protester off the pitch at the Springboks v Swansea rugby match at St Helen’s ground on 15 November 1969. Police turned a blind eye while stewards assaulted demonstrators and many were badly injured. There were demonstrations at all 24 games in the 1969/70 Springbok tour of Britain and Ireland.

This pamphlet detailed South Africa’s arms build-up in the 1960s and argued that Western military support for apartheid could lead to a global racial conflagration. It was widely distributed and ran into several editions.

The Stop the Seventy Tour (STST) committee organised direct action at many of the games played by the all-white Springbok rugby team on their 1969–70 tour. This briefing was for demonstrators attending the Springboks game against London Counties at Twickenham on 22 November. Protesters ran onto the pitch and interrupted the game.

Police lined the pitch at Twickenham at the Springboks game against London Counties on 22 November.