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John Sheldon was the General Secretary of the Public and Civil Service Union. As a student at Ruskin College, Oxford, he helped set up the Ruskin College Kitson Committee to campaign for the release of gaoled trade unionist David Kitson and took part in the demonstrations against the 1969–70 South African rugby tour.

In this clip John Sheldon describes his involvement in a plan to stop the first game of the South African rugby Springboks tour of Britain, against Oxford University on 5 November 1969.

Protesters from the National League of Young Liberals and Young Communist League stopped play in the Britain v South Africa Davis Cup Inter-Zone semi-finals on 17 July 1969. The demonstrators ran onto the court with banners and leaflets and then sat down, delaying the game for several hours. Eventually they were carried off by police.

Police removed demonstrators from the pitch at the Springbok v Oxford University game at Twickenham on 5 November. The game was moved from Oxford after the police found out about plans to disrupt the game. Throughout the match demonstrators taunted the players with Nazi salutes and chanted ‘Sieg Heil’. There were protest demonstrations at all 24 games in the 1969/70 Springbok tour of Britain and Ireland.

Thousands joined a march to Welford Road rugby ground in Leicester on 8 November 1969, to protest against the Springboks game against Midland Counties East. They included students and a big contingent from Leicester’s Afro-Caribbean community. Later, demonstrators tried to stop the game by running onto the pitch and two people were wounded in clashes between the police and protestors. There were anti-apartheid protests at all 24 games in the 1969/70 Springbok tour of Britain and Ireland.

Outside Welford Road rugby ground before 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.

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.