The Relationship Between the Established and New Left Groupings in the Anti Vietnam War Movement in Victoria 1967-1972
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THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE ESTABLISHED AND NEW LEFT GROUPINGS IN THE ANTI VIETNAM WAR MOVEMENT IN VICTORIA 1967-1972 A thesis submitted to the Departmentof Social Inquiry and CommunityStudies, in fulfillmentof the requirements of the degreeMaster of Arts Victoria University · of Technology GLEN ANTHONY DAVIS DECEMBER2001 July 4 1970 Conclusion Chapter 6: ''No More War", The Vietnam Moratorium Committee: Mobilising forCivil Disobedience.......................................... ..... pl14 Introduction Background to the Moratorium Political direction of theMoratorium 2ND National Consultation and followup The 2nd Moratorium National Anti-War Conference Third Moratorium Suburban Regional branches TheRole of theTrade Unions Moratorium Decline 1971/1972 Impact of theVMC on the anti-Vietnam War movement in Victoria Chapter 7: "We Won't Go", The Anti-Conscription Movement 1967-1972 ............................................................................p160 Introduction Preliminary Actions Conscription and theEstablished Left Radical new Approaches Underground Conscription versus service in the Army Conscription versus voluntary exile Electionof Whitlam Conclusion Chapter 8: Conclusion.......... ; .....................................................p203 Chronology.................................... ........................................p217 Bibliography................................... · ........................................ p219 11 CHAPTERl INTRODUCTION 1 In 1965, conscripted Australian soldiers were sent to fight in Vietnam. Although these were not the first Australian troops to be committed to action in Vietnam, they brought to public attention a war that was happening to our north. 2 It was one that would gradually embroil Australian society in a political struggle over the rights and wrongs ofAustralian involvement, and the politics of Vietnameses ociety. Initial opposition to Australian involvement to the conflict in Vietnam was small, but the ensuing years saw the anti-Vietnam War groups develop into a movement that altered the Australian political landscape, andproduced an active and influential growth in the Australian extra parliamentary political Left. Early opposition centered on the issue ofAustralian troops being used to fight in Vietnam, and especially the re-introduction ofconscription foroverseas service. Previously Australia's conscription scheme had only applied in its own territories. This time, 34 however, conscripts were being sent to fightan u ndeclared war in South East Asia. During this period the Leftgroupings within the anti-VietnamWar movement were divided over the direction that the movement should take.The existing Left,which consisted ofthe Communist Partyof Australia (CPA), the AustralianLabor Party (ALP) (or at least its more progressive elements), and anti-war groups closely aligned to these two parties, found itselfrequired to 1 Langley G., A Decade of Dissent, Allen and Unwih, p 24. 2 ibid, p 1 After a parliamentary announcement on 24/5/62, 30 military advisors were sent to SouthVietnam acknowledgea nd co-operate with a new presence on the Left, consisting ofstudent groupings like Students for Democratic Society (SDS), and Monash Labour Club, with activist anti-conscription groupss uch as the DraftResisters Union (DRU). This new forceof the Left was amorphous and often hardto categorise. Its alliances could be fluid and its politics rangedfrom eclectic to dogmatic strains ofMarxism-Leninism. It is the relationship within the lefti n Victoria and how it shaped the anti-Vietnam War movement in this period that this study will focuson. The period encompassed, 1967-1972, was not chosen arbitrarily. It was the time when the movement reached its zenith between the two important Federal elections markingthe commencement andconclusion ofthis period. The 1966 election saw the peace movement throw its support behind the ALP, the main opposition parliamentaryparty, only to see their hopes shattered when the incumbent Liberal Country -Party (LCP) coalition governmentretained power. The period's end is markedby the 1972 ALP Federal election victory that saw the conclusion of23-years ofLCP governments. The final years of the period, 1971-72, saw the end ofAustralian m ilitaryinvolvement in the Vietnam conflict, the withdrawal ofthe last Australianmil itary personal from Vietnam, and the ending ofcr iminal proceedings against, and incarcerationof yo ung men and their supporters who resisted being conscripted to fightin Vietnam. These gains were not merely achieved through the benevolence ofthe incoming government. They were the result of a long period ofstruggle by those opposed to Australianinvolvement in Vietnam, and it is on these opponents of the war that this study focuses. 34Burstall T., Vietnam The Australian Dilemma, University of Queensland Press, 1993. 2 To understandthe differencesthat existed within andhelped shape the nature anddirection of the anti-VietnamWar movement, we need to examine the politics of those who comprised the movement. As I have already suggested, the movement involved two Lefttendencies: one comprised those older, more established groups, who utilised a cautious style of work; the other comprised newer or resurgent groups, the New Left, with more radical tactics and strategies. To help understandthe origins of the termNew Left, one needs to returnto the height of the Cold War, in the mid 1950's. The New Leftas a termhad its origins in the splits in the British Communist Party (CPGB) afterKruschev's speech at the 20th Congress of the Communist Partyof the Soviet Union (CPSU) in which he launcheda vehement attack on the previous leadership of the CPSU under his predecessor Stalin, revealing previously secret information about their alleged crimes and violations. The result of this speech was dramatic, as communist partiesacross the world beganto split, amongst them the CPA. Some of those who leftthe CPA adopted a position similar to their British comrades who refusedto remain loyal to the politics of the Soviet Union whilst not being prepared to returnto the influenceof the major social democratic party in Australia, the ALP. 5 Though the New Leftcan be an arbitraryterm, I have followedMansell, in defining the Australian New Leftas a non homogeneous grouping that broke with the Old Left, seeking new practices and styles to fill the void in a context where the Old Leftwere unable to effectivelychallenge an oppressive system. Manselldiscusses the contradictionsand complexities of the term, acknowledgingits origins as farback as 1956. However, rather thancalling the New Leftof the late 5 Gordon R., (ed.) The AustralianNew Left,Heinemann, Melbourne, 1970, pp 12-16, O'Lincoln T., Into the Mainstream, Stained Wattle Press, Sydney 1985, pp 95-100. 3 1960's- early 1970's a New-New Left, he just describes them as the New Left. As the Polish MarxistKolakowski's talks of a 'Left'in relation to the 'Right', thisNew Leftis definedas New in relation to the established Left.6 This definition of the New Leftrepresents the so called, 'generation of 68', a movement of late-sixties radicals, some of whom were influenced and guided by the Leninist and Marxist influencest hat were also pivotal in the established Left.7 However these newer radicals interpretedLenin and Marx differentlyfr om their established Leftc omrades, of whom they tended to be scornful.Whilst there are variousother definitionsof the AustralianNew Left, for instance, that of Murphy who definesthem as "a different generation, little preoccupied with orthodox communism andcritical of existing socialism", 8 it is Mansell's definitiont hat I believe to be most appropriate forthis thesis. It captures the wide mix of differentideologies, tactics andstrategies that were adopted by these radicals who, untainted by the stiflingconformity of the Cold War,were not willing to play by the political rules of the established order. Confrontationan d militancy, which the Old Leftseemed to have forgotten, came back on the political agenda. The New Leftpractice andstyle sought to reach out and radicalise people to oppose the system that oppressed them, something the existing leftcould, or would, not do. As someone who was an activist in the politics of the period giving him both an empathy and experience of the various strandsof politics that made up the New Left, Mansell has an in-depth understanding of the political relationships at this time. This understandingo f the differentpolitical ideologies and tactics that were reflectedi n the actions of these radicals, combined with a refusal to categorise to excess, provides an appropriate analytical framework to complements the conceptual approach of Kolakowski. 6 Kolakowski L., 'Theconcept of theleft' in, Marxis'm and Beyond, Paladin Press, London 1971, pp 88-104. 7 Mansell K., The Yeast is Red, MA, MelbourneUniversity, Parkville, 1994, pp 4-9. 4 The early 1960s similarlysaw the development of a New Left in the United States (US). To an observer at the time it was, "a loose amalgam of civil rights activists, Black Power advocates, ghetto organisers, student rebels, and Vietnam protesters. "9 Active in campuspolitics, racial and communitystruggles, the US New Leftwas probably best exemplified by the Students for Democratic Society (SDS), aneclectic organisation, not tied to a ideological line but instead motivated by a model of participatory democracy that allowed all to have input into decision making. The influenceof SDS, as we will see later, was important in the anti-VietnamWar