Sport

Anti-apartheid demonstrators marched through Exeter to protest at a visit by the South African ‘Barbarians’ rugby team in the autumn of 1979. The team’s game against Devon was part of an eight-match tour of Britain. There were protests at every match. The Sports Council, TUC, British Council of Churches, and Labour and Liberal Parties all called for the cancellation of the tour.

The South African Barbarians rugby team’s tour of Britain in 1979 was part of South Africa’s attempt to get back into world rugby. This leaflet publicised a protest at the team’s fixture against Coventry organised by the local anti-apartheid group. It appealed to British trade unionists to support their fellow workers in South Africa.

Demonstrators protested in Coventry on 17 October 1979 against a visit by the South African ‘Barbarians’ rugby team. The eight-match tour of Britain was part of South Africa’s attempt to get back into world rugby. There were protests at every match. The Sports Council, TUC, British Council of Churches, and Labour and Liberal Parties all called for the cancellation of the tour.

‘Racism in Sport’ tells the story of the campaign to exclude apartheid sports teams from international sport from 1946, when black weightlifters protested to the British Empire Games Weightlifting Federation, to the eve of the cancellation of the 1970 Springbok cricket tour. Its author, Chris de Broglio, was the co-founder of the South African Non-Racial Olympic Committee (SANROC). It was one of many pamphlets published by the International Defence and Aid Fund (IDAF) and distributed by the Anti-Apartheid Movement.

In 1981 disabled sportspeople called for the exclusion of South Africa from the Stoke Mandeville International Games, forerunner of the Paralympics. This leaflet publicised a demonstration outside the stadium. After a four-year campaign South Africa was finally expelled from the Games in 1985.

Disabled AAM supporters picketed the opening day of the International Stoke Mandeville Games, forerunner of the Paralympics, in July 1981. They were calling for South Africa to be barred from the Games. The following year a new group, Disabled People Against Apartheid was formed with support from all the main organisations representing disabled people in Britain. South Africa was expelled from the Games in 1985.

In 1981 the South African Springbok rugby tour of New Zealand provoked mass opposition and the biggest demonstrations in New Zealand’s history. New Zealanders in London picketed the New Zealand High Commission to show their support for the protests back home. 

Memorandum asking the British government to enforce the Gleneagles Agreement on sporting links with South Africa.