Sport

This cartoon showing the Springbok rugby team on their 1969/70 tour of Britain appeared in the February 1970 issue of Anti-Apartheid News. Thousands of police were drafted in to stop demonstrators disrupting the games and there were anti-apartheid protests at every game.

Stop the Seventy Tour (STST) organised direct action against the 1969–70 Springbok rugby tour of Britain. Protesters ran onto the pitch and held up play, and harassed the South African team on their arrival at Heathrow Airport and in their London hotel. Although the tour went ahead, the protests helped secure the cancellation of the Springbok cricket tour planned for 1970.

Stop the Seventy Tour (STST) planned direct action to stop the Springbok cricket tour scheduled for the summer of 1970. The threat of disruption, together with mass demonstrations planned by the AAM and opposition from churches, trade unions and race relations councils, forced the cancellation of the tour.

Masked anti-apartheid supporters protest before the Springboks v Wales game in Cardiff, 24 January 1970. There were anti-apartheid protests at all 24 games in the Springboks 1969/70 tour of Britain and Ireland.

Poster advertising a march at Twickenham before the final match of the1969–70 Springbok rugby tour. Together with Stop the Seventy Tour (STST), the AAM organised protests at all the 24 games in the tour. The protests included mass marches and direct action. They involved a wide range of participants – students, trade unionists, ethnic minority organisations and political parties. Although the tour was completed, the demonstrations paved the way for the cancellation of the Springbok cricket tour in 1970.

With Stop the Seventy Tour (STST) and the Fair Cricket Campaign, the AAM won a big victory in 1970 by forcing the Cricket Council to cancel a planned all-white South African cricket tour. This poster helped mobilise opposition to the tour.

David Steel was first elected to Parliament as the Liberal MP for Roxburgh, Selkirk and Peebles in 1965 and was the Leader of the Liberal Party, 1976–88. He served as President of the Anti-Apartheid Movement, 1966–1969 and as a Vice-President until its dissolution in 1994. He now sits in the House of Lords as Lord Steel of Aikwood.

In this clip Lord Steel talks about how he nearly lost his parliamentary seat in the 1970 general election because of his opposition to the 1969 Springbok rugby tour.

The planned tour of England by an all-white Springbok cricket team in 1970 sparked widespread protest. The photograph shows protesters outside Lord’s cricket ground. On the left is Chris de Broglio from the South African Non-Racial Olympic Commttee (SANROC) with AAM staff member Alan Brooks. After a campaign involving threats of direct action from Stop the Seventy Tour (STST) and mass protests co-ordinated by the AAM, the Cricket Council cancelled the tour in May 1970.