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Australia is rarely considered to have been a part of the great
political changes that swept the world in the 1960s: the struggles
of the American civil rights movement, student revolts in Europe,
guerrilla struggles across the Third World and demands for women's
and gay liberation. This book tells the story of how Australian
activists from a diversity of movements read about, borrowed from,
physically encountered and critiqued overseas manifestations of
these rebellions, as well as locating the impact of radical
visitors to the nation. It situates Australian protest and reform
movements within a properly global - and particularly Asian -
context, where Australian protestors sought answers, utopias and
allies. Dramatically broadens our understanding of Australian
protest movements, this book presents them not only as
manifestations of local issues and causes but as fundamentally tied
to ideas, developments and personalities overseas, particularly to
socialist states and struggles in near neighbours like Vietnam,
Malaysia and China.'Jon Piccini is Research and Teaching Fellow at
The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. His research
interests include the history of human rights and social histories
of international student migration.'
The far left in Australia had significant effects on post-war
politics, culture and society. The Communist Party of Australia
(CPA) ended World War II with some 20,000 members, and despite the
harsh and vitriolic Cold War climate of the 1950s, seeded or
provided impetus for the re-emergence of other movements. Radicals
subscribing to ideologies beyond the Soviet orbit - Maoists,
Trotskyists, anarchists and others - also created parties and
organisations and led movements. All of these different far left
parties and movements changed and shifted during time, responding
to one political crisis or another, but they remained steadfastly
devoted to a better world. This collection, bringing together 14
chapters from leading and emerging figures in the Australian and
international historical profession, for the first time charts some
of these significant moments and interventions, revealing the
Australian far left's often forgotten contribution to the nation's
history.
Australia is rarely considered to have been a part of the great
political changes that swept the world in the 1960s: the struggles
of the American civil rights movement, student revolts in Europe,
guerrilla struggles across the Third World and demands for women's
and gay liberation. This book tells the story of how Australian
activists from a diversity of movements read about, borrowed from,
physically encountered and critiqued overseas manifestations of
these rebellions, as well as locating the impact of radical
visitors to the nation. It situates Australian protest and reform
movements within a properly global - and particularly Asian -
context, where Australian protestors sought answers, utopias and
allies. Dramatically broadens our understanding of Australian
protest movements, this book presents them not only as
manifestations of local issues and causes but as fundamentally tied
to ideas, developments and personalities overseas, particularly to
socialist states and struggles in near neighbours like Vietnam,
Malaysia and China.'Jon Piccini is Research and Teaching Fellow at
The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. His research
interests include the history of human rights and social histories
of international student migration.'
This groundbreaking study understands the 'long history' of human
rights in Australia from the moment of their supposed invention in
the 1940s to official incorporation into the Australian government
bureaucracy in the 1980s. To do so, a wide cast of individuals,
institutions and publics from across the political spectrum are
surveyed, who translated global ideas into local settings and made
meaning of a foreign discourse to suit local concerns and
predilections. These individuals created new organisations to
spread the message of human rights or found older institutions
amenable to their newfound concerns, adopting rights language with
a mixture of enthusiasm and opportunism. Governments, on the other
hand, engaged with or ignored human rights as its shifting
meanings, international currency and domestic reception ebbed and
flowed. Finally, individuals understood and (re)translated human
rights ideas throughout this period: writing letters, books or
poems and sympathising in new, global ways.
The far left in Australia had significant effects on post-war
politics, culture and society. The Communist Party of Australia
(CPA) ended World War II with some 20,000 members, and despite the
harsh and vitriolic Cold War climate of the 1950s, seeded or
provided impetus for the re-emergence of other movements. Radicals
subscribing to ideologies beyond the Soviet orbit - Maoists,
Trotskyists, anarchists and others - also created parties and
organisations and led movements. All of these different far left
parties and movements changed and shifted during time, responding
to one political crisis or another, but they remained steadfastly
devoted to a better world. This collection, bringing together 14
chapters from leading and emerging figures in the Australian and
international historical profession, for the first time charts some
of these significant moments and interventions, revealing the
Australian far left's often forgotten contribution to the nation's
history.
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