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Ws9.!72~!2I~~~~'~M0frica V Am~~~~.~wS9.!72~!2i~~~~'~M0frica October 1981. STOPPING THE SPRINGBOKS Report on Campaign Against the South African Rugby Tour The arrival of the South African national rugby team, the Springboks, in the U.S. in September occasioned some of the liveliest controversy, pro­ test and coverage on an issue involving South Africa in recent memory. Op­ position to the tour was successful in cancelling scheduled matches in three major UoS. cities: New York, Chicago, and Rochester, and at the only public game, in Albany, several thousand protesters outnumbered spectators ten to one. ACOA played a major role in organizing and coordinating oppo­ sition through participation in the ad hoc Stop the Apartheid Rugby Tour (SART) coalition which emerged this summer. ACOA first learned of vague plans for the tour last December. Despite telegrams and letters of protest and consistent with its policy of "con-~ structive __ engagement" the Reagan Administration announced its approval of visas for the Springboks on July 13. We began receiving concrete informa­ tion about dates and locations for the three matches just as reports began to reach U.S o papers about te massive protests engulfing New Zealand in opposition to the tour in that country. The Springboks were originally to play three games, in Chicago, .New York, and A1banyo ACOA joined with board member, Richard Lapchick of the American Coordinating Committee for Equality in Sport and Society (ACCESS) and other groups in forming SART. SART was chaired by ACOA president, William Booth and ACOA project-asso~ ciate, William Robinson put major energy into organizing. SART's first victory came when New York City Mayor Edward Koch with­ drew the pennission he had extended for the game to be played in the city's facilities at Randall's Island. Koch, facing an election fight as opposi­ tion to the tour grew louder, recognised the depth of community feeling against the tour especially among black voters. Indeed, he was scheduled to meet a delegation of top black e\ected officials, including New York City Clerk David Dinkins and N.Y. Secretary of State Basil Patterson, organized by Booth the day he announced the reversal of his decision. The grounds listed by the Mayor for his decision, however, cited a report by~ police commissioner on the danger to public safety and the probable need for over 2,000 police at the expected demonstration. This elicited a public letter from the New York Civil Liberties Union (NYCLU) charging Koch with responsing to a"heck1er's veto" on a controversial issue and failing to make his decision on the basis of "neutral criteria". Mayor Erastus Corning of Albany (who has held that office for 40 years) took some of the NYCLU reasoning one step further in announcing his deci­ sion to allow the game to be held in Albany, citing "constitutional guar­ antees to espouse an unpopular cause" 0 Executive Director: George M. Houser/Associate Director: Paul Irish/Research Director: Jennifer Davis/Literature: Richard Knight .... 412 Springboks •••• #2 In.a letter to the NYCLU, William Booth, a former human rights commissioner for New York City, responded, urging the group to re­ consider their position. Booth argued that the issue was racial dis­ crimination in South African sport. "If the team were selected on the same basis in the U.S. the NYCLU would be among the first to take the issue to court," he said. Sport in South Africa is indeed through1y racist. At least 99% of all competition is segregated. Inequality in sport is expressed in government expenditure - 170 times more for each white person than for each black in 1979, resulting in vastly inferior training and facilities for blacks. Out of the 30 Springbok team members, who were picked from segregated rugby clubs, 29 were white. Errol Tobias, the one "Coloured" player, was allowed on the team only as preparations were underway for this tour. Not one of the country's 200,000 African rugby players was chosen for the team. Through August and September opposition to the tour grew nation­ wide. SART affiliates were established. in Chicago and Albany and de­ monstrations and pickets were organized in New York, Chicago and Albany. When the cancelled New York match was rescheduled for Rochester a rapid­ ly organized Rochester SART began protest there. Despite such pressure, including a meeting with U.S. rugby offi­ cials at PhelpS-Stokes Fund organized by William Robinson, rugby offi­ cials remained adamant. Part of the reason was revealed when documents released bo SART appeared in the Washington Post, showing that the Eastern Rugby Union (ERU) had received $25,000 from South African in­ dustrialist, Louis Luyt in December. This was five times their 1980 budget! Luyt was named in the information scandal in South Africa as a conduit for funding secret· government propaganda projects, including placement of full-page advertisements in international newspapers on behalf of a "Committee fo,[, Fairness in Sport". It was also later revealed that ERU president Tom Selfridge received a $50,000 gift from the racist South African Rugby Board. Unfortunately neither re~e1ations received the press coverage they deserved. Not all rugby fans supported the racist tour. Some strong opposition emerged in the rank and file of the rugby union. These "rugby dissifents" organized themselves into the Against South Africans Playing (ASAP) and provided valuable information on the tour to SART. Public pressure stopped the game from being played in Rochester. ERU officials, following the lead of the mid-west rugby union in Chicago then vowed to hold the match at an undisclosed location in secret. The Chicago City Council and Illinois Governor Thompson both publicly opposed the match, and after sites were discovered and protested in Lake Geneva, Wis­ consin and EvanSville, Indiana, the midwest game was eventually held Sep­ tember 19 after a predawn dash from Chicago to Racine, Wisconsin. Early in September SART members began focusing energies on Albany, the only known public site for a match. ACOA assigned William Rob-inson to devote full time attention as SART organizer for the demonstration planned .at Bleeker stadium, where the match was held. Groups from the NAACP to the New York State Employees Union endorsed the protest. Buses were organized and thousands were expected from all parts of the north- Springboks •••• #3 east, with a solidarity rally simultaneously being held in Washington. Africa subcommittee chairman, Harold Wolpe int+oduced a resolution of opposition to'~ tour Which gained majority support in the US House of Representatives. As the Albany match approached, what initially had seemed an iso­ lated issue in an obscure sport, had mushroomed into a threat to the 1984 Olympics, as African nations threatened future action. It was also a major policy issue for local public officials. Coverage shifted from the sports section to the front pages of the newspapers and radio and network TV programs examined the issue in some depth. The weekend before the match, New York Governor Hugh Carey, Who had earlier denied in a letter to ACOA any ability to act, cancelled the match through executive powers on public safety grounds o However, federal appeals Which eventually reached the Supreme Court hours before the match permitted the game to take place. In spite of the confusion over cancellation of the game, over 2,000 persons demonstrated in a driving rain midweek at the Albany stadium against the match. In the crowd were many local people from Albany, including a large contingent of students. Speakers included ACOA executive director Jennifer Davis, ACCESS national chairperson Richard Lapchick, ACOA board member Elombe Brath of the Patrice Lumumha Coalition and exiled South African poet and sports activist Dennis Brutus. Longtime ACOA supporter Pete Seeger highlighted the demonstration by leading singing of the South African freedom song ''Wimoweh''. Despite SART's consistent adherence to a clearly defined and announced position of organizing only non-violent demonstrations the protests were marred by a number of incidents. In one, four activists were arrested by Albany police in a predawn raid the night before the protest. The four were held illegally for 72 hours without bail and two were eventually charged for possession of miniature firecrackers! The unjustified arrests and the entire raid were viewed by SART as harassment aimed at intimidating protest organizers and diffusing the protests o On the evening of September 26 a small sect of protesters Who believed theSpringboks to be leaving from N.Y. clashed with police at JFK airport and were charged with throwing acid at an officer. Un­ claimed bombings at rugby offices in Schenectady, N~'Y~· and Evansville, INn were used by police and press to smear all rugby protesters. These acts ~ violence in fact served to divert attention from the issues at stake and to generate some sympathy for the Springboks Which they could not have created for themselves. As a coalition effort, SART was open to all groups who supported its principles, which included a clear understanding that protest was to be peaceful and non-violent. Up to two hundred groups, locally and nationally, from the National Black United Front, to the president of the United States Catholic Conference endorsed the campa~gn against the tour. Irresponsible acts of a few undisciplined individuals should not obs:::ure the significant victories that were won by the 'well-organized and widely s1lppO':ted peaceful pro­ tests of the matches. Springboks
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