Transnational Protest, Australia and the 1960s (Palgrave Studies in the History of Social Movements)

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.' Preface 8 Acknowledgements 12 Contents 14 Abbreviations 16 Chapter 1: Introduction 18 Social Movements 24 Transnationalism 29 Part 1: Origins 33 Chapter 2: From Helpless Natives to Revolutionary Heroes: An Evolving Ethic of Solidarity 34 Solidarity and the Left 35 Apartheid, Civil Rights, and the Rise of a Questioning Constituency 40 Vietnam and a New Ethic of Solidarity 47 Conclusion 54 Chapter 3: Turning Over Marx and Mao and Intently Lengthening Their Hair: Writing, Debating, and Living the Global 56 The Real War Is Here in Prahran Not in Viet Nam: The Urban Fabric of Revolt 58 The Barrel of a Gestetner: Global Ideas, Print Culture, and Australian Social Movements 73 Conclusion 90 Part 2: Comings and Goings 92 Chapter 4: Revolutionary Tourists: Australian Activists, Travel and 1968 93 From Sympathetic Bystanders to Active Revolutionaries: Justifying and Explaining Political Travel 97 European Day-Trippers: Liminality and the Tourist/Traveller Dilemma 105 The Pilgrim’s Return: Translating and Debating the Global 114 Conclusion 123 Chapter 5: Our Unpolluted Shores: Radical Arrivals and the Politics of the Border 126 Proven Newsmakers: Excluded Radicals, National Anxieties and Border Debates 129 The War Is Obscene: Censorship, Vietnam and the Politics of Gore 149 Conclusion 158 Part 3: Possibilities and Disillusionment 160 Chapter 6: Wider Horizons: Indigenous Australians Abroad and the Limits of Global Activism 161 Our Common Enemies: Indigenous Australians and the Meaning of Black Power 163 In the Black Bag: Indigenous Australians at the Congress of African People, 1970 171 Red Blacks: Indigenous Travel to China and the Contradictions of a Transnational Politics 180 Conclusion 190 Chapter 7: A Dangerous Disease to Catch: Overseas Students, Transnational Policing and the Passing of an Idea 192 A Problem to be Managed: Laying the Foundations for Transnational Exchange 194 The Projection Screen Speaks: Australians Find Overseas Student Activists 198 Drop-Outs from Their Country: Policing Transnational Education and Activism 208 Smash the AUS Bureaucrats: Overseas Students and the ‘End of the 1960s’ 216 Conclusion 223 Conclusion 225 Bibliography 233 Index 255 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.' Front Matter....Pages i-xvi Introduction....Pages 1-15 Front Matter....Pages 17-17 From Helpless Natives to Revolutionary Heroes: An Evolving Ethic of Solidarity....Pages 19-40 Turning Over Marx and Mao and Intently Lengthening Their Hair: Writing, Debating, and Living the Global....Pages 41-76 Front Matter....Pages 77-77 Revolutionary Tourists: Australian Activists, Travel and 1968....Pages 79-111 Our Unpolluted Shores: Radical Arrivals and the Politics of the Border....Pages 113-146 Front Matter....Pages 147-147 Wider Horizons: Indigenous Australians Abroad and the Limits of Global Activism....Pages 149-179 A Dangerous Disease to Catch: Overseas Students, Transnational Policing and the Passing of an Idea....Pages 181-213 Back Matter....Pages 215-251 This book tells how Australian activists from a diversity of movements read about, borrowed from, physically encountered and critiqued overseas manifestations of the 1960s human rights 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. 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