Sport

Counter-demonstration by members of the far-right National Front at Twickenham, 16 March 1974. Anti-apartheid supporters were protesting against the British Lions tour of South Africa.

In 1977 Commonwealth Heads of Government made the Gleneagles Agreement on sporting contacts with South Africa. They agreed that Commonwealth governments should do all they could to discourage competition with sporting organisations, teams and individuals from South Africa. This leaflet reproduces the text of the agreement. In the 1980s the Conservative government did nothing to implement the Agreement.

The South African Barbarians rugby team’s tour of Britain in 1979 was part of an attempt by South Africa to get back into world rugby. This leaflet explained that although the team included African and Coloured players, rugby within South Africa was still racially segregated. The team played eight games against minor British sides. 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 an attempt by South Africa to get back into world rugby. This leaflet was distributed to Welsh rugby supporters outside the Barbarians games against Cardiff and Llanelli. Like all the material produced by Wales AAM, it was written in both Welsh and English.

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.