Sports as Politics: The Battle of Båstad and ‘Stop the 70s Tour’

Abstract

In the late 1960s, a new generation of activists entered the Anti-Apartheid movement, extending its action repertoire. In this phase, the solidarity movement moved from opinion making by conventional means to extra-parliamentary actions of civil disobedience as the new generation introduced themselves through campaigns against sports events in which South Africa was involved.¹ When the South African cricket team toured in Britain in 1965, the AAM organized demonstrations outside every ground where a game was being played. Action against sports in Britain did however enter a new level after the cancellation of the British cricket tour in 1968, which was caused by the South African government’s refusal to accept that the British team included the coloured Basil D’Oliveira. It culminated with the Stop the 70s Tour, which caused a huge debate on the Anti-Apartheid movement and about the relations between apartheid politics and sport in the British press.