Written By: - Date published: 10:43 am, October 22nd, 2008 - 78 comments
Categories: activism -
Tags: patu
There’s been a bit of fuss about the ’81 tour lately and whether it is pertinent to today’s politics. For years now I’ve suggested to those too young to remember the tour to watch Patu because it provides a visceral sense of just how important the tour was as a formative political event and it captures the sense of near-civil war that people on both sides of the divide felt at the time.
Now, thanks to the wonders of the interweb and the vision of NZ on Screen, you don’t have to hunt Patu out at the Aro Street video store or from the local university archive.
You can watch Patu online here, and I challenge anyone to watch it and claim the tour is no longer important.
Hat tip: Russell Brown
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Scoopit!
“It’s a very left-wing view of the Tour”
Reality does tend to have a left-wing bias.
Felix
“It’s a very left-wing view of the Tour’
Reality does tend to have a left-wing bias.
Well looks like the only pro tour people were the racist rugby supporters who were all too drunk to manage a cormorant comment. Or the racist cops too scared to show their face on camera. Neither of which are exactly conducive to intelligent comment or observation.
Killing in the Name of:”A large number of those police acted in a criminal manner also.”
Would you care to back up your accusations? I don’t recall any police officers being arrested, charged or prosecuted for any criminal offences in relation to the tour.
That is why the military were concerned. They do get more of that training now because that is one of their primary missions.
I’m aware of the logistical support. The EME’s for instance made my home neighborhood(Kingsland) look like a urban war training area. That was a major reason that I quit the army subsequently, Muldoon didn’t bother to actually get an order in council to use those units.
I’ll back up KillingInTheNameOf’s accusations.
The police acted in a criminal manner – yes. Like the policeman that attacked me with a baton and shoved my teeth through my upper lip for no reason apart from the fact I was protesting. That was simple assault. I accurately got his badge number, but apparently that badge was meant to be elsewhere in the country that day.
The reason police weren’t charged was that they weren’t wearing anything identifiable because most of them had already swapped badges with police not at the protest (or they just lied about the duty rosters). Virtually every protester who put complaints into the police complaints got that response a year or so later. So of course there were no charges. Similarly the police were targeting any cameras that might identify them. The police were quite well aware that they were often acting illegally and took measures to ensure that they were not charged. Ask your police relatives about that.
After that protest (the third test) and the subsequent whitewash by the police complaints, my standing (and current) viewpoint is that if it is likely that the police assault me at a protest. Then I will cause those police some damage. I’d sure as hell go along armoured and armed. If the police were going to act like thugs out of a gang then that is how I’d treat them. It still pisses me off almost 30 years later.
There is no way that I’ll give up my ability to protest, and if the police insist on making it violent, then I’m not one to turn the other cheek.
And Joe Blogger, that is how close it got to widespread civil violence, all it would have taken was another test. The confidence in the police that the many of the protesters (like me) had at the start of the tour was completely shattered by the end. I still have very little confidence in a lot of the police today.
IrishBill:
I was ten years old, and cared more about the all whites making it to Spain. I do remember being on a bus going to New Brighton mall, and the bus had to let us off, because some protesters about ten of them was sitting in the middle of the road, on the Brighton bridge, I remember walking over the bridge, looking at the protesters who were chanting “no tour” the police picked them up and put them to the sidewalk, no batons, no violence, just a peaceful protest.
I do remember having a rugby loving teacher who was spitting tacks, telling us, no one has the right to tell him if he is allowed to watch a game of rugby, not being a union fan , I thought he was an idiot.
Just out of curiosity, what is the legal basis for Police preventing a non violent protest?
Generally some kind of dispersal of people performing an illegal act.
For instance blocking the door of a shop, blocking a road, rioting, etc….
In the case above, none of the above applied because the road was already closed to vehicles. The police never did around to explaining the rationale of their attacks on non-violent protesters at that last test. It had not been required at any of the previous games, so I guess that there were just a pile of fuckwits in command that day, or the police just rioted.
Killinginthenameof:
Damage to property, stopping civilians from going where they have to be, public safety, noise control, etc etc etc.
Brett Dale:
Non Violent.
lprent
Generally some kind of dispersal of people performing an illegal act.
For instance blocking the door of a shop, blocking a road, rioting, etc .
Fair enough, I guess we don’t have it as bad as protesters in the USA. All the tour stuff was before my time, I was how ever proud (and surprised) that both my parents marched against it.
In the case above, none of the above applied because the road was already closed to vehicles. The police never did around to explaining the rationale of their attacks on non-violent protesters at that last test. It had not been required at any of the previous games, so I guess that there were just a pile of fuckwits in command that day, or the police just rioted.
How about “impeding the lawful swinging of a baton”. *cough* *cough*
The video briefly mentioned and showed police plants amongst the protesters, what sort of role did they play? Ive read in Canada about police using plants to throw rocks and incite the police into action, or were they just there for intelligence purposes?
Iprent
“There is no way that I’ll give up my ability to protest, and if the police insist on making it violent, then I’m not one to turn the other cheek”
Since when have the police ever made a protest violent? Surely it is the other way round. I have seen a number of protests over the years, winding along lambton quay, and have never seen the police make any of the protests violent.
Unfortunately many of the (anti tour) protesters chose the path of confrontation, rather than protest. There was a deliberate strategy by (some) protesters to make the protests violent, to confront and to challenge the police. Perhaps you should accept the consequences of your actions rather than blaming others.
how do you know that dave? were you there?
Dave: Just FYI: protests which take place on Lambton Quay tend to be the most docile and well-behaved of anywhere in the country.
L
Dave – you’ll be pleased to know I’ve personally been assaulted by the cops three time. I got a payout on one…
Randal – Yes I was there, in fact I was beaten by anti tour for watching the third test on my tv in my bedroom at my parents house.
Lew – You are correct but im sure that the police still dont beat up protesters even in the rougher suburbs.
ha… that should have been beaten up by anti tour protesters
sounds like you were beating something…
Lew – You are correct but im sure that the police still dont beat up protesters even in the rougher suburbs
Let’s see. I’ve been put in an illegal choke hold until I blacked out. I’ve been repeatedly kicked in the ribs while taking part in a peaceful lock-down demonstration and I’ve been batoned across the hands and arms at a blockade after not moving out quick enough (there was nowhere to go because of crowd pressure behind me).
I’d say you are wrong Dave. Wrong. Wrong. Wrong.
Oh and I doubt you were beaten for watching a test. I’d say you just got your arse kicked because nobody liked you. Which is understandable really…
Dave: You should have worn your motorcycle helmet.
L
I’ll go for that last one
The army was used by the National govt during the tour – just not on the streets – I distinctly remember them dragging barbed wire around Carisbrook (we got past the barbed wire using the simple expedient of purchasing tickets – apparently there’s some unwritten law about only one guy being allowed to use a whistle at a rugby match … or at least the cops made it up that day).
And don’t forget why the tour happened at all – It was election year, Bob Jones had started a party to the right of the Nats and Muldoon had to shore up his support on the right if he wanted to win – in the end Labour got more votes but the Nats still won (FPP of course)
Randal – not while im watching rugby!
Robinsod – it wasnt my arse that got kicked it was my head…my skull was fractured. The only good thing that came out of it was my sister realising her boyfriend was a drop kick.
The only good thing that came out of it was my sister realising her boyfriend was a drop kick.
You were dating your sister???
quit while you are ahead dave
dating my sister…now thats funny!
not if the cops find out
I didnt think it was illegal
Dave – lol! You’re alright…
I remember this well, although I was quite young at the time. If your job requires you to stand up for apartheid, then you need to find another line of work. The anti-tour people were right and the pro-tour people were wrong, as history has confirmed. I can’t think of anyone I knew who was pro-tour who wasn’t a worthless piece of crap.
Any cop that got his ass kicked at these protests deserved it. And for me, anyone who went to a game, knowing what we knew, forfeited their own rights.
AG: Any cop that got his ass kicked at these protests deserved it.????
Charming. Great that you have respect for your common man, you sound some of the jackasses from “Peace Action New Zealand”
brett dale you just sound like a jackass fullstop!
Randal:
I just dont like people who make extreme statements, saying “Any cop that got his ass kick deserved it” is extreme.
And stomping on flowers at a memorial for the victims of 9/11 and saying the Holocaust is a Jewish lie is extreme, but that didn’t stop Peace Action NewZealand.
Fuck the police Brett.
Who remembers “Sleeping Dogs”? It was a vision of New Zealand that seemed fantastical. And then it was played out, in large part, in the 1981 Tour. That was an extraordinary loss of innocence. That was the biggest impact of the tour, I think. All of a sudden, New Zealand lost its self-belief and self-appointed right to be the sanctimonious guardian of everybody else’s morals.
Although big ups to the Standard Bloggers for doing their best to lead by example and restore that idealistic state of knowing that you’re always right and the world would be a better place, if only they’d listen.
Of course, some of us think that’s what leads to all the trouble in the first place.
KITNO: From word of mouth from protest activists. Police plants here are usually kind of obvious and are after intel. There have been reports of informers inciting, but I don’t really know – probably the best place to look would be indymedia.
Dave: That was the point. Sure there were parts of the protest that were violent. But we’re talking MASSIVE numbers of people in a number of different and separated groups. In the groups I was in, the worst that a couple of protesters did was use a few small paint bombs. Tell me, does that justify the police batoning all protesters indiscriminately. The few subsequent protests I’ve been on have been managed well by both the police and the organisers. However you tend to vividly remember the one where the police acted like thugs.
milo: The problem is that without an effort to improve things, societies always deteriorate. It is the same underlying principle as shows in economics. In the absence of external controls, a purely free market where there a significant barrier to entry to a particular area will tend towards producing monopolies. ie entrenched privilege. For instance look at early medieval Europe, which only eventually changed under the guise of ‘re-discovering’ the work of the earlier classical period and the stimulus of coping with the plague.
Sure the idealism can cause problems. So does the alternative of probable stasis. But the latter doesn’t survive changes in external conditions easily, the former helps people to deal with change. And of course we can always rely on the skeptics to temper the idealism.