Peter Hain and Peter Beattie files
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/in_depth/uk/2000/uk_confidential/1095031.stm Anti springbok demonstrator to foreign Minister. http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/2002/01/02/FFX6G5AKWVC.html Premier of Qld bashed by state police Your humble corresspondant was there at the Melb Demo.(aged 16)Had his wrangler press stud shirt ripped open by one fat P.I.Gs. It's been part of the Australian sporting ethos that politics and sport shouldn't mix. But mix it did during the 1971 Springbok Rugby Union tour of Australia. What an explosive mix it was! The tour was marked by violent demonstrations against the team because of the South African Government's apartheid policies. Wherever the Springboks travelled, they were greeted by demonstrations, and those demonstrations reached a crescendo in Sydney, Melbourne and Brisbane, when the tourists took the field. In Queensland, where Joh Bjelke-Peteson was premier at the time, a state of emergency was declared to allow the matches to be played. But the ugliest violence took place in Melbourne, when 138 demonstrators were arrested and five police were treated in hospital following clashes before, during and after the match against Victoria at Olympic Park. In Sydney 100 people were arrested.In Melb.1 P.I.Gs was carried off after a firecracker went off next to his ear.Police horses were charging at full gallop the length of the pitch as a deafening unending racket went on.Most violent demo I ever went on. They galloped right over at least 2 pitch invaders.
participants (1)
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Matthew X