John Minto

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For the Oregon Pioneer, see John Minto (Oregon pioneer).

John Minto is a New Zealand based political activist known for his involvement in various left-wing groups and causes, most notably Halt All Racist Tours. A 2005 documentary on New Zealands top 100 history makers listed him as number 89. Today he is involved with Global Peace and Justice Auckland and the Unite Union. He writes a weekly column for The Press and is editor of the Workers' Charter newspaper.

[edit] Halt All Racist Tours

John Minto, along with Trevor Richards, Tom Newnham and others, was involved in forming Halt All Racist Tours, a group set up to protest rugby union tours to and from Apartheid South Africa, in 1969. He became the National Chairman of the organisation in 1980. During clashes between police and protesters he was seriously assaulted (by rugby supporters the evening after the disruption at Rugby Park in Hamilton). In 2005 a police batton owned by Ross Meurant, a former member of Parliament who was second in charge of the "Red Squad" during the 1981 Springbok Tour was put up for auction online labeled as a "Minto Bar" ^[1]

The New Zealand Security Intelligence Service (SIS) listed Minto in 1981 on a list of 'subversives' for the events of that year.^{[citation needed]}