Cacophony accompanies anti-tour marchers

Press, 29 June 1985, Page 9

Cacophony accompanies anti-tour marchers

A travelling band of about 50 pro-tour “musicians,” complete with old hub-caps, whistles, and push-button boat horns, accompanied a rally of about 500 anti-tour marchers through the streets of central Christchurch for more than an hour last evening. A thin blue line of about a dozen policemen kept between the two groups as they paraded down Colombo Street, and returned to Cathedral Square via Dundas Street, Manchester Street and High Street. Several bags of white flour and some balloons filled with engine oil were thrown at anti-tour marchers from the Smith’s City

Market pedestrian overhead walkway, in Dundas Street. No reports of violence were made, and at times there were good-humoured exchanges between individuals from the groups. The march began about 7.30 p.m., after amplified music by the Christchurch band. The Axemen, and an address by the Rev. Arnold Stofile, an executive member of the United Democratic Front of South Africa. Supporters of the All Black tour to South Africa grouped themselves on the southern side of Christchurch Cathedral and momentarily blocked the path of the anti-tour march as it began moving towards

Colombo Street. The police moved the protour demonstrators on and the two groups, separated by the police, marched through the streets. The anti-tour rally, organised by the Coalition Against the Tour, is the last march planned before the announcement of the All Black team next week. A spokesman for the Coalition Against the Tour, Mr Glenn McLennan, said that the message of the anti-tour marchers was that they did not want the All Blacks to go to South Africa. “It’s quite clear that the presence of the All Blacks in South Africa will lead to

the death and injury of blacks, because in protecting the All Blacks the police will undoubtedly unleash the forces they have available to them,” he said. Mr McLennan said that permission has been obtained from the Christchurch City Council for the rally in the Square and the march. He wondered why the anti-tour marchers had had to go through such “rigmarole” when the protour demonstrators had not. The presence of the pro-tour group had put anti-tour marchers “on edge,” he said. They had had confidence, however, that they would set forth to make their point in a non-violent

way and they had done so. Large numbers of antitour supporters had had their good clothes ruined by oil, and those in an opendecked truck accompanying the marchers had been “deluged” with both flour and oil. Mr McLennan said that one anti-tour supporter had been apprehended when he put a small anti-tour sticker on a window of Quill Humphries shop, yet the police had taken no action against those who were throwing flour and oil and a man who was using an air horn powered by a 12-volt battery to “blast the ears” of anti-tour marchers. A spokesman for the protour group, Mr Kevin Keenahan, said that the protour demonstration was to show that not everyone was against the tour. “There are some of us who still believe in the individual’s right to participate in whatever they wish and we’re not going to be dictated to by outside forces,” he said. He confirmed that protour supporters had been responsible for throwing oil and flour, and said that it was a case of “what’s good for the goose is good enough for the gander.” His sister, Miss Eileen Keenahan, who said that she was a keen rugby follower, said that at the last big anti-tour march on May 3 she had her hair burnt, her scarf burnt, been spat at and called a “fascist.” Mr McLennan said that it was “rubbish” and “laughable” for Miss Keenahan to claim that she had had her hair burnt.

The throwing of oil upset some of the anti-tour marchers. One middle-aged woman wearing dress clothes, stained by oil, was crying as she marched with her husband along Colombo Street. The anti-tour marchers paused for about five minutes twice during their march. The first was outside Quill Humphries liquor outlet and the second outside the head office of Trusteebank Canterbury in the Canterbury Centre. Both groups dispersed from Cathedral Square about 9 p.m. after about 30 minutes of music from the anti-tour side and disruptive noise from the pro-tour group. Two people were arrested in Auckland after a scuffle during an anti-tour march by about 2000 people in Queen Street, the Press Association reports. The police said that protesters and pro-tour people had exchanged verbal abuse during the march, which was orderly. Later in Aotea Square, Hart’s leader, Mr John Minto, made a plea for the All Blacks’ tour of South Africa to be called off. The two people arrested were not part of the protest, the police said. In Wellington, the column of anti-tour marchers was estimated at 1000. Protesters gathered at the Cenotaph, split into three groups at one stage, and ended the march outside the Town Hall. A huge papiermache rugby ball was burnt on the street outside the Rugby Union building.