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Global Thought, Local Action Australian Activism During the Vietnam War 1961-1972

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Global Thought, Local Action Australian Activism During the Vietnam War 1961-1972 Global Thought, Local Action Australian Activism during the Vietnam War 1961-1972 Nick Irving Faculty of Arts and Sciences The University of Sydney, 2017 A thesis submitted in fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy. Abstract This thesis is a history of protest practice in Australia during the ‘long 1960s’. It begins with the coordinated protests against nuclear proliferation in the eastern states in 1961 and 1962, and ends with the Vietnam Moratorium Campaigns. It examines the intersections between anti-war and anti-conscription protest, the anti-nuclear campaigns of the early 1960s, and the anti-Apartheid protests that emerged during the 1971 South African rugby team tour of Australia. Rather than offering a history of Australian activism as an organisational network or monolithic, homogenous ‘movement,’ it treats protest as an exercise in political meaning- making, and traces the development of protest practice over time. This focus contests the characterisation of the arrival of the New Left in Australia after 1966 as a watershed or moment of rupture, and draws out long-term continuities in Australian activism. It also provides for an analysis of the transnational influences on Australian protesters without falling into the contemporary trap of labelling protest derivative. This methodological approach reveals that Australian protesters in the Vietnam epoch shifted between two major ideological explanations for their protest. One framed protest as a representative activity on behalf of an imagined Australian public, on behalf of whom protesters critiqued government policy and held the government to account. Protest organisations attempted to position themselves as representatives of the public, and used public opinion to legitimate their ideas. By contrast, liberalism’s concentration on individual sovereign rights especially nourished anti-conscription activists, whose protests made much of the principle of non- interference in the private lives of citizens as a foundational model of citizenship. This thesis will chart the development and evolution of these two explanations of protest, their interactions and fusions. Through their careful articulation of protest as a democratic process and an individual right, and their sustained presence in public conversations about commitment and conscription, Australian protesters helped to change the meaning of the Vietnam War in Australian public political life. ii Author Attribution Statement & Declaration of Originality Material from Chapters 4 and 5 was published in Nick Irving, “‘Couldn’t we actually try and do this in Australia?”: Reading the Vietnam Moratorium in its Global Context,” in Phillip Deery and Julie Kimber, eds., Fighting Against War: Peace Activism in the Twentieth Century (Melbourne: Leftbank Press, 2015): 268-290. Material from Chapters 1 and 3 was published in Nick Irving, “Answering the “International Call”: Contextualising Sydney Anti-nuclear and Anti-War Activism in the 1960s,” Journal of Australian Studies 40:3 (2016): 291-301. Material from Chapters 2 and 5 was published in Nick Irving, “Anti-Conscription Protest, Liberal Individualism, and the Limits of National Myths in the Global 1960s,” History Australia 14:2 (2017), forthcoming. I certify that the intellectual content of this thesis is the product of my own work and that all the assistance received in preparing this thesis and sources have been acknowledged. This thesis has not been submitted for any degree or other purposes. Nick Irving, December 13, 2016 As supervisor for the candidature upon which this thesis is based, I can confirm that the authorship attribution statements above are correct. Stephen Garton, December 13, 2016 iii Acknowledgements A ten-year PhD incurs a lot of debts. I have been overwhelmingly grateful throughout the last decade to have been able to rely on my supervisors, Stephen Garton and Stephen Robertson. Stephen Garton gave up weekends to oversee this project’s troubled transition from first draft to final product over many years, despite the administrative hurdles of my complicated candidature. He endured the arrogance of purple prose, undigested theory and abuse of adverbs. Without his considered feedback, measured edits, even temper, and superb knowledge of the period and historiography this would be a greatly diminished thesis. Stephen Robertson also deserves thanks. He initially took me on first as an honours student and then as a PhD candidate. His passion and rigour shaped the early stages of research, and drove me onwards despite a lack of funding. Other members of the Department of History at the University of Sydney have shaped this project in small but significant ways. I want to thank Robert Aldrich for the suggestion of a transnational study, Frances Clarke for exposing me to gender history through the tutoring I did for her in her American Civil War course, and Clare Corbould for putting my name forward for teaching at Macquarie. My wonderful colleagues in the Department of Modern History, Politics and International Relations at Macquarie University gave me their time and advice, but they also stand as an example of how welcoming and supportive a department can be. Michelle Arrow, Tanya Evans and Kate Fullagar deserve special mention for the incisive but supportive commentary they gave on draft chapters and seminar papers. The collegial atmosphere in the corridor of W6A was a frequent source of emotional succour in difficult times, and a reminder that for all its occasional brutality, the academy has both confronted and surpassed the expectations I had of it as an impressionable and not-particularly-prepared 26-year-old. My dear friend Leigh Boucher was instrumental to this project in ways that defy simple explanation. He has acted as mentor, colleague, intellectual interlocutor, and therapist. His capacity to know when to ask about the thesis and when not to stood out amidst a professional skillset so broad as to boggle comprehension. iv Kyle Harvey deserves special mention. In addition to displaying extreme professional generosity, Kyle has been supremely supportive in the difficult last stages, proofreading chapters, checking footnotes and providing counsel on formatting. Rhiannon Davis (née Donaldson) gave me a proofreading voucher for the thesis years before its completion. It sat in my desk drawer for years, an expression of faith, but also a gentle admonishment to keep working. She fulfilled her promise despite personal hardship. In the final stages of writing I was energised and motivated by a number of writing partners. David Cunningham, Bec Hawkings and Kate Laing all provided at times the kind of panopticon- like mutual surveillance that it seems I cannot write without. Writing a thesis over such a long period led to moments of isolation and uncertainty. For this reason, I am also thankful for the informal but nourishing relationships I built with peers in my cohort. The writing circle that Mike Thompson, Sophie Loy-Wilson and I formed at John Hirst’s urging was a productive and energising experience that remains one of my fondest memories of Sydney University. The coffees I shared with Peta Greenfield in the Manning courtyard also belong in that category. In the long moments where it seemed like I faced insurmountable obstacles, Fiona Yardley (née Curran) was nothing short of an inspiration. Likewise, the supportive crew in the SUPRA offices provided a sympathetic refuge from research. In addition to their time, the ex-activists I interviewed in 2007 furnished me with suggestions for further research, and in some cases provided me with material from their own archives. Special thanks to Val Noone for helping me find my feet on a research trip to Melbourne Uni, Bob Scates for his help in understanding the complexities of the long-dead National Service Act, and John Lloyd and the late Pauline Mitchell for making the CICD archives easier to navigate. I would also like to thank the staff at the Mitchell Library and at the University of Melbourne Archives for help navigating the mammoth PND and CICD collections, as well as for their helpful suggestions for further research. I turn finally to my family. For the last three years, I have been lucky to share my intimate domestic space with Lindsay Jones. She has endured the rapid deterioration of mood that accompanied piles of papers to be marked, helped through long periods of financial instability, and repeatedly had to put up with coming home from a hard day’s office work to find her v layabout flatmate snoozing on the couch after a few hours’ gruelling writing. Through all of it she’s been a calming, encouraging, and rock-steady presence, ever-ready with a kind word and an excuse to celebrate small wins. My parents, Julie and Roger Irving, might have wondered at many moments what I was doing with my life. Despite many worried looks and objections both voiced and unvoiced, they have supported me unconditionally, emotionally, and materially throughout the entire endeavour. It is a rare and beautiful thing to experience unwavering faith, and it is a simple fact that I could not have done it without them. I should perhaps conclude by thanking my grandfather, Robert Irving, who inspired me to begin this intellectual journey in the first place. Dodo, this is for you. vi Glossary of Acronyms Where acronyms are not in common usage a brief description has been provided. AATTV Australian Army Training Team Vietnam. A small team of military advisers sent to Vietnam in 1962. ABC Australian Broadcasting Corporation. ACND Australian Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament. Notional peak body made up of state CND groups. Met only once in late 1963. ACTU Australian Council of Trade Unions. AICD Association for International Cooperation and Disarmament. The major NSW peace organisation between 1964 and the early 1980s. Originally the organising committee for the 1964 Sydney Peace Congress, this group superseded the NSW Peace Committee. ALP Australian Labor Party. ANU Australian National University.
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