This weekend, 50 years ago, Norman Kirk became Labour’s first New Zealand born Prime Minister. On being elected, Kirk and Labour immediately carried out their promise to abolish national military service. Wellington documentary maker Anna Cottrell writes that sending young Kiwi men to boot camp ended partly as a result of a campaign of civil disobedience.
Robert Reid was a kid on a mission. A principled, Christian teenager he led a protest movement throughout the country in 1972. He opposed war on principle. The campaign was short, sharp and effective. Compulsory Military Training needed to go and so did the cadet scheme for schoolboys.
Reid discovered activism at Kaikorai Valley High School in Dunedin. With a group of students he drafted a petition to get rid of school cadets. One of his school mates, Don Clarke (not The Boot of rugby fame,) delivered the petition to parliament and by the end of 1970 cadets, military training for schoolboys was abolished. At the time Air Chief Marshal Sir Keith Park (a New Zealander famous for his role in the battle of Britain) described the decision as "an absolute tragedy".
By 1972 Robert was a student at Lincoln College. The Vietnam War was still raging and protest marches were regular noisy events. The National government under Keith Holyoake sent regular troops who volunteered but no national service conscripts were sent.
Reid came up with a name for his activist group, OHMS, not On Her Majesty’s Service, but Organisation to Halt Military Service. And he says, if you know physics the Ohm’s symbol means resistance. Compulsory Military Training was in his sights and the campaign was underway.
Under the Military Services Act there was a ballot. Once you turned 19 young men were required to register. If your birthday fell on a certain date you were sent to either Burnham Military Camp or Waiouru for a total of 18 weeks training. Some enjoyed playing soldiers and being paid. Others pleaded conscientious objection. A number of those who resisted were arrested. By then Robert Reid had built up a head of steam and he and his merry band of activists launched OHMS in February 1972.
Reid was 19 and OHMS members, school pupils, students and teachers, carried out a series of acts of civil disobedience throughout the country. A protest at the gates of Christ’s College in Christchurch completely disrupted an Army display featuring a Bren Gun carrier.
A loud ticking clock in a shoe box left on the floor of a government department toilet and smoky bora bombs created diversions when the ballot was held and marbles with dates pulled by the Head of the RSA. Or that was the plan. It went awry. The fire brigade arrived and the police swooped.
Years later one of the key disrupters, Ken Howell said he met a policeman who recognised him. He thanked Howell saying he was promoted for all the good work he did on OHMS during 1972.
All young men had to register and failure to do so incurred a fine.
Hundreds didn’t register including Reid. Fines were dished out. Some chose not to pay. Others hid in cupboards when the police came to call. A few were sent to prison, including Roger Fowler in Auckland, Bruce Preston and Geoff Woolford in Wellington.
Both Robert Reid and Geoff Woolford had clergymen fathers. Woolford’s was a pacifist in the Second World War and implacably opposed to war. When Geoff’s name came up in the ballot he decided to give the army a go to see if he agreed with his father’s views. He was halfway through his final six weeks at Burnham when he decided not to carry on. He neatly folded his military uniform, put it on the grass outside his flat, called the Defence Department and told them he wasn’t coming back.
He was sentenced to periodic detention which he ignored but was shocked when a judge later handed down a sentence of three months’ imprisonment.
He ‘worked’ in the prison laundry and spent time setting exams and marking papers for his students. Distressed by his sentence he was overjoyed when he received a card designed signed by his students and staff.
During all the activities up and down the country Robert Reid was marrying OHMS activist, teacher Sandra McCallum. She later became the popular Principal of Mt Cook School in Wellington. There was some concern that Reid might end up in prison instead of at the Victoria University altar.
The wedding went ahead. But the bridal party’s families were surprised when the wedding party and militant friends headed off to protest at Geoff Woolford’s incarceration, instead of having a traditional wedding dance.
November 1972 was election time and Norman Kirk’s Labour Government swept to power. One of the first things the government did was abolish CMT. Geoff Woolford was released from prison and the OHMS campaign was judged to have played a key role in Labour’s thinking.
This weekend in Wellington the old campaigners are gathering to remember.
The founder and National Chair of OHMS, Robert Reid paid tribute to his ‘fellow travellers’.
"Many of yesterday’s resisters have gone on to play major roles in New Zealand - we have teachers, professors, doctors, economists, NGO leaders, trade unionists, long term peace advocates, and lawyers (including a Kings Counsel) within our ranks."
Anna Cottrell is making a documentary, Te Patoi! Protest! On the OHMS campaign.
