S.A. non-issue to students

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34045, 8 January 1976, Page 10

S.A. non-issue to students

(By

JOHN BROWN)

Sports contacts with South Africa are becoming a “non-issue" ' with students at the I'niversity of Canterbury. In 1970. when an All Black tour of South Africa was made amidst vociferous opposition from anti-tour groups, students at the university were among the opposition leaders. Christchurch students nurtured the Halt AH Racist Tours organisation. They «ampaigned and won support ’.rom most students. By then Rugby was no longer the social entree it had been in preceding de- ■ ides and opposition to an AH Black tour was the way to express opposition to the old student Establishment. Student-, in 1970 sincerely believed that they could change the nature of apartheid in South Africa by their opposition to the All Black tour All they earned was an often-vindictive response from the. Government to the point that one .Minister of •

the Crown and an associate Minister took the unprecedented 'tep of opposing the right of students and universities to hold views contrary to the Government of the time. Such Government reaction elicited a blacklash from the university administrators. This restored some of the fire to the student protest movement, which was beginning to tire of its involvement in international affairs. The University of Canterbury Students’ Union at Ham resolved that student facilities should not be used for the Commonwealth Games if sports contacts with South Africa were maintained. The Games issue was solved in 1973. and with its solution died the last vestige of large-scale opposition to sports contacts with South Africa. Students still oppose apartheid. They still turn out to anti-tour rallies but longlasting opposition to All Black tours to South Africa are no longer predictable. 1 in the last three years, I

students at the University of! Canterbury, in common with most of their counterparts throughout the country, have; become more interested in domestic and personal affairs ! than with the plight of black (South Africans 6000 miles away. Internal academic assessment. a combined campus for , the first time in 15 years, a , swing to the Right in student ; politics, and a growing belief that there are more import- , ant issues on their own doorstep have “deactivated” student response to South Africa. Three years ago the Ngaio , Marsh Theatre at Ham would be packed when anti-tour and anti-South Africa meetings were held. Now the new president of the University of Canterbury Students' Association (Mr Don Leonardo) i must appeal to speakers from both sides of the question to i ensure a response from stud- ■ ents. i A series of talks from such ; people as Mr W. R Fenton. . of the War Against Recre- ; ational Disruption, and M.P. I ifor Hastings, and Mr Trevor 1

!Richards, of Halt All Racist Tours, has been organised for the start of the next univer-, isitv term. j That the students’ associa-! [tion ha , had to resort to such i 'steps indicates a swing away from interest in the anti-tour! issue. 1 A proposal to hold a refer-; endum of students in March; on sports contacts is an almost desperate gesture. If the proposed referen-i dum follows previous at-! tempts to gain a consensus of student opinion on international affairs it will fail, as! only a dedicated minority; will record its vote. The average Canterbury student is as uninterested in sporting contacts with South Africa as he is in the plight of black South Africans living under apartheid. If Mr Leonardo can cajole the 6800 members of the students’ association into ac-l tive concerted opposition to< sports contacts with South j Africa he will have achieved; a victory which has eluded; his predecessors in the last! five years. '