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"THE FUTURE IS YOURS TO MAKE" In August of 2021 I was invited to speak at a forum reflecting on the 40th anniversary of Springbok Tour.  In 1981, I had been a young high school teacher, and since many of the attendees at the August forum were expected to be students,  I prepared a short address, explaining how that winter of discontent had played out for me and my students half a lifetime ago.  As it turned out, the forum was cancelled beause of the Delta lockdown and my address and slideshow have sat on my computer since then. I found them tonight and figured I might as well share.  Late, but I reckon, still relevant.  I want to talk about the power of young people to change the world. About them taking the opportunity to raise their voices; to speak out for the present and for the future. To advocate for a world where their dreams can blossom – a planet that is habitable and fair for everyone. Just as importantly, I want to speak to the obligation of those of us who are old
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Scabs, bombers and a spider weaving its web

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  Many have compared Covid’s divide to the winter of ’81. On the 40th anniversary of the Springbok tour it is easy to analogise family division, broken friendships and community hostility. Seldom mentioned however, has been another anniversary of social discord. It's 70 years since the great strike/lockout of 1951. It remains New Zealand’s biggest industrial confrontation, one that created schisms in towns and communities that lasted for decades. My siblings, Don and Gair McRae were children at the time of the strike and shared some of their recollections of the splitting of a town. Gair: We were a mining family and we had moved from Puketihi in the King Country to the Waikato coalfield in 1949. Puketihi had been pretty much idyllic for us children. Literally half the families in the village were relatives. We were a big but tight clan, and us kids looked after each other, played at each other’s homes and in the bush. Dad was already influential in the King Country miners’ unio
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