Radical Students: The Old Left at Sydney UniversityFrom the 1920s to the 1960s the Australian Left struggled to make ideological sense of the Great Depression, the growth of fascism and militarism overseas, World War II, the atomic bomb, the Cold War and fear of communism. All these issues found expression on the campus of Australia's oldest university, where ardent youth pursued the ideal of social justice. Sydney's controversial philosophy professor John Anderson and his Freethought Society added volatility to the mix with their rejection of orthodox politics. Later, impassioned hostility between supporters of the Communist Party, the Labor Party and the Catholic 'Movement' led by B. A. Santamaria ruffled undergraduate life. Alan Barcan was himself a participant in the radical movement. This account of the period, leavened with anecdotes and lively undergraduate wit, recreates the texture of student life and the shifting faultlines of political loyalties. |
Contents
The Historian as Participant | 1 |
Sydney and Melbourne in the 1920s | 20 |
The Depression Four Turbulent Years | 37 |
Sectarianism Popular Front Apathy | 69 |
19391941 The New Radicalism | 97 |
The Andersonian Ascendancy | 128 |
Challenging the Andersonians | 150 |
Postwar Renaissance and the New Popular Front | 174 |
1951 A Turning Point | 260 |
Twilight of the Old Left | 273 |
The First New Left | 306 |
Student Politics Then and Now | 327 |
The Measure and the Meaning | 332 |
Notes | 349 |
Annotated Select Bibliography | 376 |
379 | |
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Common terms and phrases
academic activities Alan ALP Club Andersonians April Arts ASLF Australian universities B. A. Santamaria Barcan became Catholic Christian Club's College committee Communist Party conference Council cultural debate Dick Klugman discussion Donald Horne Economics editor of Honi elected Eric Aarons Evatt Faculty federal Freethought Society Gollan graduates H. V. Evatt Hermes Honi Soit included intellectual issue James McAuley Jim Staples Jockel John Anderson July June Labor Party Labour Club later League lecturer left-wing letter Liberal Club Libertarian literary March Marxist McAuley McCallum meeting Melbourne University Labour Milliss Movement munist Newman Society NUAUS October organised Peace philosophy Pittendrigh president Professor Public Questions Society radical Redrup schools secretary September social Socialist Club South Wales Soviet Union speakers student politics Sydney University Teachers Trainees Trotskyist undergraduate Union Hall Union Night Union Recorder University Labour Club University of Sydney wrote