Peaceful protest away from game

Press, 3 August 1981, Page 1

Peaceful protest away from game

PA Palmerston North A large crowd of protesters marched peacefully when the Springboks played Manawatu at Palmerston North on Saturday, but left the clear impression they have not lost their resolve to stop the controversial tour. They roared “no, no” when the former HART leader, Mr Trevor Richards, asked what they thought of today’s talks centred on the possibility of shortening the Springboks’ 16-match tour.

Cries of “Yes, yes" rang across the city when Mr Richards suggested the only acceptable proposal was to stop the tour. The police’s “operation Rugby” commander, Chief Superintendent Brian Davies, described the security mounted for the match as the biggest by the police in New Zealand.

More than 1000 policemen and women were on duty in the Showgrounds and the streets round the match venue and the Showgrounds themselves resembled a barbed-wire surrounded fortress.

Heavy trucks were backed up to wire gates, the Army was on stand-by in case logistics support was needed, and the police had set aside an indoor skating rink to process arrested people.

As it turned out, however, only five people were arrested for what the police described as minor offences unrelated to the demonstration.

A feature of the march was the tight discipline exercised by the protest marshalls. Among the crowd,

which the police estimated to be about 2500. were numerous protesters wearing crash helmets and steel-capped boots. Several placards were secured to heavy objects, such as pick-handles.

There were the hardliners, among them a Maori activist. Donna Awatere, who asked through a loudhailer if the crowd intended to do something “serious." She said she and her group had not come all the way from Auckland to do nothing. Others also urged the crowd to take a strong line during the march.

Visibly upset by these protestations, the Palmerston North HART member, Ms Rosemary Baragwanath. opposed any mood for confrontation, saying that it would play into the hands of the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) for calling a snap election and setting up a “police State." Throughout the march, marshalls, led by the Wellington C.O.S.T. member, Mr Alick Shaw, moved up and down the long line urging restraint and unity. Just before they set out marchers were handed a notice declaring that the march was a peaceful one. However the only serious confrontation during the day occurred when the main march left the Square and proceeded up Cuba Street, one of the main access routes to the ground. A 50-strong squad of police equipped with riot gear and long batons waited to turn the march into a side street and back to its assembly point.

However the marchers forged straight toward the riot police. As the crowd advanced on them, the police moved a few paces forward, stabbing upward with their batons and shouting “move, move."

In the mounting tension the line came to a halt before the police touched the crowd.

During ;a confrontation lasting about 20 minutes, Mr Shaw said over a loudhailer that it was an extraordinary situation for New Zealand.

“There, is no way the Government could justify that row of blue thugs." he said. The marchers responded to his orders to move on and the protesters filed past the riot police back to their assembly point. Mr Shaw told the protesters afterward that he did not believe they had achieved nothing. It was very important to discover the level of force the anti-tour movement would have to deal with in the future if it was going to stop the tour, he said.

Mr Richards said the movement’s efforts must now clearly be directed toward a strategy that would achieve its objective to stop the tour.

At the end of the match, which continued uninterrupted, an announcement came over the public address system thanking the police on behalf of the Manawatu Rugby Union for the role they had played in staging the fixture. The announcement was greeted by prolonged applause.