Not Playing Games The Young Liberals and Anti-Apartheid Campaigns, 1968 – 70

he YLs played a major and the leader of STST, observed Catherine Ellis and role in protests against as he reflected on a lifetime of anti- apartheid, particularly apartheid activism, ‘The Stop the Matthew Redding in the Stop the Seventy Seventy Tour was not about sport explore the Young Tour (STST), whose goal – it was the first step towards mak- Twas to prevent an all-white South ing apartheid unacceptable to the Liberals’ contribution African cricket team from tour- world’.1 ing in Britain in the summer of Despite the significance of STST to anti-apartheid 1970. STST was the most impor- and the importance of Young Liber- campaigns and sporting tant campaign in the Young Liber- als within it, the YLs have attracted als’ history and is often claimed as much less academic attention than boycotts in the late the most successful protest move- other British youth organisations ment in post-war Britain. As Peter of this period, and anti-apartheid 1960s and early 1970s. Hain, a prominent Young Liberal campaigning has tended to be

6 Journal of Liberal History 74 Spring 2012 Not Playing Games The Young Liberals and Anti-Apartheid Campaigns, 1968 – 70

overshadowed by other contempo- to a growing body of research on The YLs wanted to attract rary protest movements, particu- youth in British politics and politi- young people disillusioned by ‘the larly against nuclear proliferation cal responses to youth culture in hypocrisy and dishonesty of the big and the Vietnam War. This article a period of high-profile student parties’, and also sought to address attempts to redress the balance by sit-ins and youth-led single-issue what they saw as a lack of leader- examining the Young Liberals’ con- campaigns. ship and radicalism in the ‘senior’ tribution to international efforts Liberal Party.5 The YLs were rep- to end racial segregation in South resented on local and national Lib- Africa.2 The Young Liberals eral councils, and they pressed for Campaigns against apartheid The National League of Young greater radicalism in foreign and in the late 1960s took place against Liberals (NLYL) originated in Bir- domestic affairs through the writ- a background of anxiety about the mingham in 1903 as the League of ing of their New Orbits Group and results of Harold Macmillan’s ‘wind British Young Liberals, inspired by the presentation of often combative of change’ sweeping across Africa, Giuseppe Mazzini’s Young Italy resolutions at Liberal Assemblies Britain’s colonial legacy, and the Movement. The League spread and NLYL conferences. The YLs integration of Commonwealth rapidly through the Midlands and received significant credit for their immigrants into British society. the North-West while a separate role in the Liberals’ 1962 by-election The same period was marked by League of Young Liberals was victory in the previously safe Con- the rising profile of teenagers and formed in London. The two groups servative seat of Orpington, as well young people, whose political and amalgamated in 1908.3 as local electoral successes through social activities frequently dis- The NLYL grew to become the their ‘community politics’ initia- turbed their elders and challenged most influential, yet least studied, tives in the early 1970s. established mores. youth wing of Britain’s major polit- Like Britain’s other political par- These anxieties collided in ical parties, their significance often ties in this period, the Liberal Party anti-apartheid protests, which pit- overshadowed by the Young Con- tried to harness the dynamism of ted radical young activists against servatives’ extensive social activities young people. While the Young ‘white’, ‘imperial’ sports run by a and the Young Socialists’ flirtation Conservatives’ primarily social coterie of often elderly, upper-mid- with Trotskyism. The Young Lib- function ensured that relations with dle-class men. The struggle against erals developed their highest public the Conservative Party were fairly apartheid thus exposed contempo- profile in the 1960s and early 1970s, smooth, Labour was considerably rary tensions around race, empire, when they campaigned on issues as more troubled by the Young Social- social class, and age. An examina- diverse as trade union policy, educa- ists’ slide to the militant left. The tion of the YLs’ role in British anti- tion reform, the Middle East, apart- Liberals tried to present themselves apartheid campaigns demonstrates heid, and Britain’s role in NATO. as the ‘party of youth’ through ini- the importance of Young Liberal Indeed, Young Liberal activism tiatives such as the Charter for Youth contributions to the transnational was described by sociologists Philip (1964), which promised reforms in struggle against South African Abrams and Alan Little in 1965 as Left: Stop The education and vocational training, race laws. More broadly, it further ‘the most striking and only truly Seventy Tour community initiatives, and a reduc- develops our understanding of rela- distinctive aspect of political par- protesters tion in the voting age from twenty- tions between the Liberal Party and ticipation of youth in contemporary outside Lord’s, one to eighteen. Relations between its youth wing, and contributes Britain’.4 March 1970 the YLs and the ‘senior’ party were

Journal of Liberal History 74 Spring 2012 7 not playing games: the young liberals and anti-apartheid campaigns, 1968–70 often tense, however, particularly the 1950s, including support for over matters of defence and for- the international boycott of South eign affairs. The Young Liberals African goods that began in 1959. and the Liberal Party were usually Liberal MPs strongly condemned in broad agreement on major issues, the Sharpeville Massacre in March but they differed over the degree 1960, in which white South Afri- of radicalism and the methods of can troops opened fire on black campaigning, especially the prefer- protestors, and called for South ence of some YLs for direct action, Africa to be refused readmission to which intensified in the late 1960s. the Commonwealth in 1961. The By 1969, the party’s Annual Report Liberal policy statement, Partners noted that, even as the YLs’ mem- in a New Britain (1963), stated that bership was declining, there was Britain ‘must not compromise ‘new militancy’ in the organisation, with apartheid’, and the party both ‘with particular emphasis on cam- encouraged successive British gov- paigns of civil disobedience’, specif- ernments to support an embargo ically protests against international on the sale of arms to South Africa, tours by all-white South African and offered support to persecuted tennis and cricket teams.6 South African Liberals such as Randolph Vigne. Beyond South Africa, Ian Smith’s unilateral dec- Liberals and apartheid laration of Rhodesian independ- British colonial governments bore ence from Britain was also a focus considerable responsibility for of concern for Liberals. The 1966 introducing racial segregation to Brighton Assembly included an southern Africa beginning in the emergency motion calling for ‘an late eighteenth century, when a unambiguous pronouncement that sense of white superiority over independence will not be granted Anti-Apartheid were permitted on South African the native black population was to any Rhodesian government Movement Olympic teams. South Africa was encouraged to unite white British unless it is based on universal adult poster, 1969/70 subsequently banned from compet- and Afrikaner settlers. At the same suffrage’. At the same Assembly, ing in the 1964 and 1968 Olympics, time, apartheid offended against MP (and later party leader) Jer- and was officially expelled from the traditional liberal principles of emy Thorpe’s speech advocating Olympic movement in 1970. Lin- individual freedom and human the bombing of railway lines into gering international ambivalence rights, exemplified most clearly in Rhodesia earned him the nick- towards apartheid was apparent, the liberal humanitarianism that name ‘Bomber’ Thorpe. however, through the fact that a inspired nineteenth-century cam- Apartheid was firmly entrenched white South African delegate con- paigns to abolish slavery. Looking in all aspects of South African life, tinued to sit on the International back from the 1960s, the Liberal but it was particularly visible inter- Olympic Committee. Party claimed a proud history of nationally through racial segrega- Despite many other restrictions opposition to racial segregation in tion in sports. In 1957, the South on its sporting activities, South southern Africa. Herbert Asquith’s African Minister for the Interior, Africa remained active in interna- Liberal government had granted while denying that the government tional cricket and rugby, and these independence to the Union of South was interfering in sport, required two sports became the focus of Africa in 1910, which gave Liber- that ‘Whites and non-Whites should anti-apartheid protests in the late als a sense of ‘special responsibility’ organise their sporting activities 1960s. Both cricket and rugby were toward the region. Liberal informa- separately; that there should be no ‘imperial’ games, spread and trans- tion papers claimed that the party inter-racial competitions within fused into local cultures through had expressed concern about the our borders; and that the mixing of British rule. For the most part, ‘colour bar’ from 1906 onwards, races in teams to take part in com- international rugby and cricket and Liberal politicians consistently petitions within the Union and competition was confined to ‘white’ criticised the failure of later Brit- abroad should be avoided’.8 Commonwealth countries: the ish governments to honour their Both domestic and international United Kingdom, Australia, New commitments to improve political pressure mounted against such Zealand, and South Africa. Con- rights for black and coloured South measures. In 1958, the South African sequently, South African interests Africans.7 Sports Association was formed to were protected by an imperial ‘old Liberal condemnation inten- coordinate and advocate on behalf boy network’ committed to keep- sified as the policy of apartheid, of non-white athletes. In 1961, the ing politics out of sports and main- literally meaning ‘apartness’, was Fédération Internationale de Foot- taining traditional sporting ties. codified following the Afrikaner ball Association (FIFA) banned Earlier protests against all-white National Party’s victory in South South Africa, and the following South African cricket teams touring Africa in 1948. The Liberal Party year the South African Non-Racial England in 1960 and 1965 were dis- officially denounced apartheid in Olympic Committee (SANROC) missed as ‘feeble’ by the Secretary 1949 and 1950 and supported black was formed to press the Interna- of the Marylebone Cricket Club African interests against colonial tional Olympic Committee to expel (MCC) and had virtually no impact European pressure throughout South Africa unless black athletes on the sport; however, in 1968 the

8 Journal of Liberal History 74 Spring 2012 not playing games: the young liberals and anti-apartheid campaigns, 1968–70

South African government refused enough – mouthing ‘pious senti- Wooller was ‘our greatest ally … to allow the English cricket team ments’ was no better than the ‘cow- [e]very time he speaks up we get a to tour its own country because the ardly hypocrisy’ of Harold Wilson’s thousand more supporters’.10 Dur- team included a coloured (former Labour government that supported ing the International Cricket Con- South African) player named Basil British business interests in Africa at ference at Lord’s in June, the YLs D’Oliveira. The ‘D’Oliveira Affair’ the expense of human rights. Liber- also released a letter signed by their focused wider public attention on als must follow the YL example and Chairman, Louis Eaks, warning apartheid in sport and initiated an take real action. that a campaign of civil disobedi- international protest movement Early in 1968, the YLs formed a ence would go ahead if the 1970 that eventually resulted in South South Africa Commission and their tour were not cancelled. Africa’s exclusion from interna- involvement in the anti-apartheid In collaboration with SAN- tional test match cricket for more movement gained momentum. The ROC, groups of YLs began to than two decades.9 focal point of their campaigning disrupt cricket matches in the sum- In response to D’Oliveira’s was South Africa’s participation in mer of 1969, starting with a private exclusion, the Liberals passed a international sports competitions, South African cricket tour spon- resolution at their 1968 Assembly and their protests took place prin- sored by Wilf Isaacs, a Johannesburg calling on the MCC and other Eng- cipally through the Stop the Sev- cricket enthusiast. At the first match lish cricketing authorities to cut all enty Tour (STST) committee led in Basildon, ten YLs protested on ties with South Africa. At the same by Peter Hain. Hain was the son the pitch until they were dragged time, student protest and grassroots of white anti-apartheid and South off by police, a scene repeated in dis- activism were on the rise, and the African Liberal Party activists who ruptions at every match for the rest Young Liberals eagerly took up the had fled to London in 1966 after of the tour. Protestors invaded the cause. one of their friends was executed pitches and at least one cricket pitch by the South African government. was dug up. A Davis Cup tennis Upon arrival in England at the age match was also interrupted when Young Liberals and anti- of sixteen, Hain found the Young Hain and three other YLs ran onto apartheid campaigns Liberals a ‘vibrant, irreverent force the courts and were arrested. In a The Young Liberals’ involvement in The Young for radicalism’ and quickly joined – private prosecution later brought the anti-apartheid movement grew although first he had to set up a YL against him by barrister Francis naturally out of the Liberal Party’s Liberals’ branch in his local constituency. He Bennion, Hain was found guilty of long-standing opposition to racial became a member of the YL execu- conspiracy for disrupting the Davis segregation in South Africa, but it involvement tive and the Liberal Party’s national Cup match but was acquitted on was characterised by its own dis- executive, as well as Vice-Chair- three other charges related to the tinct methods and identity. in the anti- man of the South Africa Com- cricket tour. For the YLs in the 1960s, oppo- apartheid mission. Both he and Hellyer also The Liberal Party supported the sition to apartheid became a litmus served on the executive of the Anti- YLs’ efforts in their early stages. test for the ‘libertarian socialism’ movement Apartheid Movement (AAM), a Arguing that the cricket tour would and radicalism that many YLs major London-based protest group be ‘an affront to black South Afri- espoused. The YLs had already grew natu- with strong Liberal and Labour can sportsmen, and to Britain’s col- established their credibility through Party support. oured community, and in addition, direct action campaigns and pro- rally out of Building on their earlier an outright capitulation to racial- tests against the Vietnam War and speeches, rallies and demonstra- ism’, in July 1969 the Liberal Coun- Ian Smith’s rule in Rhodesia, as the Liberal tions, YL anti-apartheid activ- cil called for the 1970 cricket tour well as earlier anti-apartheid dem- ity intensified in early 1969. In to be cancelled and offered support onstrations, and thus they were Party’s long- response to news that an all-white for ‘the initiative taken by various well placed to take a leading role South African cricket team would individuals, including Young Lib- as momentum built against apart- standing tour in Britain the following year, erals, in mobilising opposition to heid in sport. Furthermore, other Hain and other YLs decided that the tour’.11 radical youth organisations such as opposition the AAM’s ‘legitimate’ protest Soon afterwards, STST was Trotskyists and Maoists were more methods were inadequate. In Janu- formed as a broad-based direct engaged in anti-Vietnam demon- to racial seg- ary, Hain submitted a resolution to action coordinating committee to strations than apartheid protests, the YLs’ South Africa Commission bring together opponents of apart- leaving the field open to the YLs. regation in pledging ‘to take direct action to heid in sport. Hain was STST’s Building on earlier Liberal pro- prevent scheduled matches from first Press Officer and subsequently tests against the situation in Rho- South Africa, taking place unless the 1970 tour became chairman of the organisa- desia, Peter Hellyer, the NLYL but it was is cancelled’. The resolution was tion. Although STST was formed International Vice-Chairman, sent to the MCC and other clubs, in response to rugby and cricket spoke to a resolution on southern character- where it met with considerable tours, Hain emphasised that its Africa at the 1967 Liberal Assem- hostility. For example, Wilfred goal was much more ambitious, to bly. He urged the Liberal Party to ised by its Wooller, a hard-liner within the make apartheid ‘unacceptable to the ‘show that we are in tune with the Cricket Council, told anti-apart- world’.12 present day world’ by rejecting own distinct heid campaigners that he had ‘no The YLs’ choice of direct action ‘fascist’ white regimes and support- sympathy with your cause in any for their anti-apartheid protests was ing the ‘wind of change’ blowing methods and way shape or form, and regard an explicit rejection of the ‘bridge- across Africa. But Hellyer insisted you as an utter nuisance’. Hain building’ approach (most often put that supporting a resolution was not identity. later claimed rather cheekily that forward by conservative business

Journal of Liberal History 74 Spring 2012 9 not playing games: the young liberals and anti-apartheid campaigns, 1968–70

interests) that argued that trade twenty-five-match tour attracted connections and the pressures of over 50,000 demonstrators who free-market capitalism, as well as faced over 20,000 police officers. exposure to successful multi-racial The first match (at Oxford) was societies such as Britain, would cancelled on the recommendation encourage South Africa to give up of the local police, two others were apartheid. The YLs rejected that moved to new venues, and some 400 position entirely, insisting that the people were arrested. STST distrib- only way to compel change was uted thousands of posters and leaf- to isolate South Africa completely lets featuring their slogan, ‘Don’t through direct actions such as boy- Play with Apartheid’. Although cotts, ‘militant political resistance’ the type of direct action espoused and ‘guerrilla struggle’.13 Such tac- by STST and the YLs was supposed tics also had the advantage of pro- to be peaceful, if highly disruptive, ducing attention-grabbing images, violence did break out, including a point that was not lost on the serious clashes in Swansea in which YLs in an increasingly televisual STST demonstrators were sav- age. During protests against the agely beaten by local rugby players rugby tour, for example, newspa- hired by the police. The scale of the pers carried images of the Spring- protests so demoralised the South boks retreating behind barbed-wire African players that they voted to fences. go home. They were required to STST was inspired by the ‘Com- continue, but at the end of the tour mittee of 100’, a militant offshoot the Springbok manager, Corrie of the Campaign for Nuclear Dis- Bornman, confessed that ‘The last armament (CND) that used direct three months have been an ordeal to action in its protests, as well as the which I would never again subject anti-Vietnam War and American young sportsmen’.14 Civil Rights movements that politi- The rugby tour was the ‘perfect cised many young people across spring-board’ for STST’s protests the industrialised world. While against the cricket tour, which was single-issue campaigns often took due to start in May 1970. From the support of young people away Hain’s perspective, direct action, from mainstream political par- previously relatively untried, was ties, the Liberals tried to become evolving into a natural part of the an ‘umbrella organisation’ that protests: ‘the movement had grown encouraged single-issue pressure out of a campaign of demonstra- groups to work together with the tions and consequently was already Liberal Party, and the Young Liber- geared to action’.15 In late November als became an attractive outlet for 1969, while the rugby tour contin- young people looking to change the ued, anti-apartheid groups includ- system. This was part of the Young ing the Young Liberals, STST, and Liberals’ efforts to bring politics SANROC sent a petition and letters back to the grassroots and establish to the MCC threatening to disrupt a ‘coalition of radicals’, an area in summer cricket matches along the which they had some success. same lines, including mass dem- The initial focus of STST was onstrations and pitch invasions, if the cricket tour, but the South the tour were not called off. The African rugby team was sched- Liberal Party, together with one uled to come to England before the hundred Liberal and Labour MPs, cricketers in the winter of 1969–70 also demanded the cancellation of (their first appearance in Eng- the tour and pledged to join in pro- land since 1960–61, and only the tests. The Labour Minister of Sport, sixth since 1906). STST therefore Denis Howell, echoed that view on decided to target the rugby tour television, criticising South Africa’s as a dry run for the cricket tour reaction to D’Oliveira the previ- the following summer. At a press ous year and stating that he had ‘no conference, Hain warned Brit- time for any sport based on racial ish sporting authorities that ‘their considerations’.16 complicity in apartheid sport will Meanwhile, the tone of protests no longer be tolerated’, and one against the cricket tour became week later the Liberal Party called increasingly violent and the role for the rugby tour to be cancelled. of the Young Liberals attracted The rugby tour went ahead increasing attention, to the growing but was met with sustained pro- dismay of the ‘senior’ Liberal Party. tests. Hain claimed that the In early January 1970, weedkiller

10 Journal of Liberal History 74 Spring 2012 not playing games: the young liberals and anti-apartheid campaigns, 1968–70 was sprayed on the Worcester a crusade to defend ‘civilised pur- a meeting with Callaghan. The cricket grounds ‘as a warning of suits’ against ‘the great unwashed’. extensive media coverage gener- things to come’. Two weeks later, Cricket administrators branded ated by groups such as STST had on the night of 19 January, fourteen AAM campaigners ‘a minority mobilised existing opponents of of the seventeen grounds that were who seeks to impose their views by apartheid and galvanised thousands to host the tour were simultane- violent demonstrations’, and they of others to join in international ously raided. Many pitches were argued for ‘the rights of the indi- boycotts and protest movements. painted with anti-apartheid slogans, vidual to play and watch cricket’.18 As a consequence, South Africa some were dug up, and weedkiller But no effective or coordinated became increasingly isolated in the was sprayed on the Warwickshire opposition group ever emerged. early 1970s, banned from the Davis ground. These actions had a ‘phe- Among large-scale organisations Cup and international competition nomenal impact’, according to in Britain, only the Conserva- in weight lifting, squash, wrestling, Hain: tive Party remained mostly silent gymnastics, and athletics, in addi- against apartheid; indeed, in the tion to the Olympics and the Com- Everyone had been caught by early 1980s, the Young Conserva- monwealth Games. New Zealand’s surprise and the widespread tives still produced ‘Hang Nelson cricket authorities also cut off all strength of the movement had Mandela’ badges. STST put politi- communication with South African been strikingly demonstrated in cal parties in a very difficult situa- cricket authorities, and in 1971 the one night. More than this, the tion, particularly after the Prime South African rugby tour to Aus- fear at the back of the cricket Minister, Wilson, announced that tralia was met by protests very simi- authorities’ minds, and prob- a general election would be held on lar to those that had accompanied ably at the back of most people’s 18 June 1970. Although the Con- matches in Britain two years earlier. minds, had suddenly been real- servatives wanted the cricket tour South Africa’s cricketers pressed ised: the image of the cricket to go on and tried to use the STST their government to avoid complete tour collapsing amidst a series protests to smear both Labour and exclusion from international com- of torn pitches and weedkiller the Liberals, none of the parties petition by choosing a team strictly was conjured, and began to wanted to campaign in the midst of on ‘merit’, but Prime Minister B.J. crystallise.17 what was likely to be a very tense Vorster would not concede. Facing summer. the threat of more protests, Aus- Responsibility for the raids was Protests intensified through the tralian cricket authorities then can- unclear until journalists asked Eaks, early months of 1970 as tour prepa- celled the planned Springbok tour the Chairman of the YLs, for a com- rations continued in a siege-like to Australia in 1971–72, and South ment and he claimed to have been atmosphere complete with barbed Africa was effectively removed involved along with ‘some Young wire, guard dogs, and heavy secu- from international sports for the Liberals’. Although the YLs had not rity. After the rugby tour protests, next twenty years. organised the vandalism, the press many British sports journalists The Young Liberals’ commit- quickly associated the organisation and radio hosts announced they ment to ending apartheid contin- with the incident, which exacer- would not cover the cricket tour. ued. Building on the success of bated existing tensions between the The Queen also said she would STST, leading YLs such as Greaves, Liberal Party and Young Liberals neither attend matches nor invite Hain, and Gordon Lishman pro- over the use of direct action. the South African team to Buck- duced a Radical Manifesto for the In response to his support for ingham Palace. The tour came 1970 election. This manifesto the attacks on the cricket grounds, under even more pressure when promised to ‘project an alterna- the Liberal Party executive passed African and Caribbean countries tive concept of society’ based on a vote of censure against Eaks in declared they would boycott the the fundamental liberal values of February 1970. YLs, led by Hain, Commonwealth Games to be held ‘love, reason, and freedom’, includ- reacted angrily, questioning the in Edinburgh in July. Wilson’s gov- ing commitment to ‘a multi-racial right of an ‘arrogant’ party execu- ernment debated whether it should Britain in a multi-racial world’. tive to ‘interfere’ in YL affairs, intervene and cancel the tour as Accordingly, the YLs called for and pledging full support for their the prospect of an all-white Com- the immediate repeal of the 1968 chairman. Two months later, how- monwealth Games ‘raised implica- Commonwealth Immigration Act ever, Eaks was voted out at the tions which went well beyond the because it denied some British citi- annual YL conference, replaced sphere of sport’. The Home Secre- zens the right to enter Britain, and by Tony Greaves. The following tary, James Callaghan, shied away they condemned British govern- year, Hain was elected YL Chair- from direct political intervention ments for basing foreign policy on man, largely on the strength of his but hoped the high cost of polic- pragmatism rather than principle. leadership in the anti-apartheid ing the matches would encourage They pledged to continue their campaigns. the Cricket Council ‘to reconsider Left, from top: support for ‘the spontaneous moral While the protests galvanised the desirability of proceeding’ on Peter Hain, May protest of youth’ against nuclear the anti-apartheid movement, they its own.19 1970 arms, the Vietnam War, apartheid also strengthened the resolve of Peter Hain, June in sports, and white supremacy. those who wished to see the cricket 1971 At their 1970 conference, the tour go on. The gulf between the Conclusion Peter Hain YLs passed a motion reaffirming Young Liberals’ perspective and The Cricket Council finally can- arrested in their belief that ‘international capi- that of their opponents was clear celled the South African cricket Downing Streer, talism’ was shoring up apartheid. when the Cricket Council called for tour on 22 May 1970, following 1969 They emphasised their support for

Journal of Liberal History 74 Spring 2012 11 not playing games: the young liberals and anti-apartheid campaigns, 1968–70

‘participatory and socially just soci- For the YLs, youth groups including the YLs, 1970 South African Tour of Eng- eties’ and called on the Young Lib- the National Union of Students, land’, South African Historical Journal, eral Movement to fight ‘southern STST built on the Young Communists, and the 46 (2002), pp. 219–249; Rob Skinner, African racialism and oppression’ Labour Party Young Socialists tried ‘Facing the Challenge of “Young through various means, particu- their existing (unsuccessfully) to stop the British Africa”: Apartheid, South Africa larly the use of ‘militant non-vio- Lions from playing in South Africa and British Decolonisation’, South lent direct action’ against South credibility in in 1974. African Historical Journal, 54 (2005), African sports tours. The YLs also For the Liberal Party, the Young pp. 54–71; Rob Skinner, ‘The Moral demanded a ‘detailed investigation’ protest cam- Liberals’ anti-apartheid activities Foundations of British Anti-Apart- to uncover South African finan- paigns, and provided an effective, if not unprob- heid Activism, 1946–1960’, Journal of cial interests among Liberal Party lematic, response to the attraction Southern African Studies, 35, 2 (2009), members, and pressed the Liberal fitted well of single-issue campaigns for young pp. 399–416; Håkan Thörn, Anti- Party to require that members who people in the late 1960s. For the Apartheid and the Emergence of a Global refused to give up such interests with their YLs, STST built on their existing Civil Society (Palgrave Macmillan, must resign their membership. On a credibility in protest campaigns, 2006). community level, the YLs encour- distinctive and fitted well with their distinc- 3 Audrey Downs and Evan Richards, aged their members to take action tive amalgam of mainstream politi- Fifty Years Young: The Story of the against local firms with South Afri- amalgam of cal activity, grassroots ‘community National League of Young Liberals, 1903– can connections. politics’, and a commitment to 1953 (Liberal Publication Depart- The 1970 election was disas- mainstream direct action to achieve real change. ment, 1953). trous for the Liberals: the party lost Like other political youth organisa- 4 Philip Abrams and Alan Little, ‘The seven of its thirteen MPs and saw its political tions, the YLs were rarely ideologi- Young Activist in British Politics’, proportion of the vote fall to 13.5 cally coherent but they were deeply British Journal of Sociology, 16, 4 (1965), per cent. The YLs’ leading role in activity, committed to racial equality and p. 325. anti-apartheid activities ensured the eradication of racial segregation 5 George Kiloh, NLYL Chairman that the Young Liberals were the grassroots in South Africa. When it came to 1966–68, cited in Hellyer, ‘Young most publicised aspect of the Liberal apartheid, the Young Liberals were Liberals and the Left’, pp. 60–61. Party during the election campaign. ‘community not playing games. 6 Liberal Party Archives, London Many senior party members blamed School of Economics (hereafter the poor election results on the YLs’ politics’, Dr. Catherine Ellis is an Associate LPA), YL 9/4/5 Box 10, Liberal Party direct action tactics, although other and a com- Professor in the Department of History Organisation, Report & Accounts 1969. commentators looked to more sys- at Ryerson University, Toronto. Her 7 LPA, LIB 16/81, Liberal Party Infor- temic weaknesses in the party’s mitment to research focuses on post-war British poli- mation Department, ‘Liberals and leadership and policy-making. tics, and she has previously published on South Africa’, June 1964. Nonetheless, the momentum devel- direct action the Conservative and Labour Parties’ 8 Cited in Hain, Don’t Play, p. 52. oped by the YLs within the party relationships with young people. She 9 Bruce K. Murray, ‘Politics and over the previous eighteen months to achieve would like to acknowledge the support of Cricket: The D’Oliveira Affair of was evident at the 1970 Liberal Ryerson University’s Office of the Vice- 1968’, Journal of Southern African Stud- Assembly, where delegates passed real change. President Research and Innovation, ies, 27, 4 (2001), pp. 667–684. a YL resolution that established the Office of the Dean of Arts, and the 10 The Times, 14 January 1969; Guardian ‘community politics’ as the guiding Department of History for this project. Weekly, 30 May 1970. principle of party activism until the 11 LPA, LIB 16/81, Liberal Party Coun- mid-1970s. Matthew Redding is a recent graduate of cil, ‘1970 Cricket Tour’, 26 July 1969. While debate continues over the Ryerson University’s Arts and Contem- 12 Hain, ‘Away Defeat’. role of international protests and porary Studies program. He contributed 13 LPA, YL 9/4/5 Box 9, ‘Motion passed direct action in bringing apartheid to this project as a Ryerson Undergradu- at Y.L.M. Conference 1970: Southern to an end in the early 1990s, the YLs’ ate Research Opportunities Scholar. Africa’; Fieldhouse, Anti-Apartheid, p. leading role in STST provided the 469. youth organisation with an unprec- 1 Peter Hain, ‘Away Defeat for the 14 Murray, ‘Sports Boycott and cricket’, edented level of unity and public Springboks’, New Statesman, 25 Octo- p. 228. profile and connected them to larger ber 1996. 15 Hain, Don’t Play, p. 161. contemporary debates around 2 The following sources have contrib- 16 LPA, LIB 16/81, ‘South African human rights, imperial and colonial uted to this article: Roger Fieldhouse, Cricket Tour’, September 1969; issues, and radical political activism. Anti-Apartheid: A History of the Move- Guardian Weekly, 1 November 1969. The Stop the Seventy Tour solidi- ment in Britain (Merlin Press, 2005); 17 Hain, Don’t Play, p. 166. fied the Young Liberals’ position Peter Hain, Don’t Play With Apart- 18 Murray, ‘Sports Boycott and cricket’, on the extra-parliamentary left and heid (George Allen & Unwin, 1971); p. 228. reinforced their radical credentials. Peter Hain, Sing the Beloved Country: 19 UK National Archives, CAB 128/45, STST also remained a touchstone The Struggle for the New South Africa Cabinet Minutes, 30 April 1970. for the Young Liberal Movement (Pluto Press, 1996); Peter Hellyer, in forums such as their newspaper, ‘The Young Liberals and the Left, the Liberator, through the 1970s, and 1965–70’, Journal of Liberal History, provided inspiration for a new ‘Stop 67 (Summer 2010), pp. 60–67; Bruce the Apartheid Rugby Tour’ (SART) K. Murray, ‘The Sports Boycott and organisation in 1973, in which Cricket: The Cancellation of the

12 Journal of Liberal History 74 Spring 2012