Evan Smith | Flinders University of South Australia (original) (raw)
Books by Evan Smith
Histories of Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Australia, 2023
This book is the first to outline the history of the tactic of ‘no platforming’ at British univer... more This book is the first to outline the history of the tactic of ‘no platforming’ at British universities since the 1970s, looking at more than four decades of student protest against racist and fascist figures on campus.
The tactic of ‘no platforming’ has been used at British universities and colleges since the National Union of Students adopted the policy in the mid-1970s. The author traces the origins of the tactic from the militant anti-fascism of the 1930s–1940s and looks at how it has developed since the 1970s, being applied to various targets over the last 40 years, including sexists, homophobes, right-wing politicians and Islamic fundamentalists. This book provides a historical intervention in the current debates over the alleged free speech ‘crisis’ perceived to be plaguing universities in Britain, as well as North America and Australasia.
No Platform: A History of Anti-Fascism, Universities and the Limits of Free Speech is for academics and students, as well as the general reader, interested in modern British history, politics and higher education. Readers interested in contemporary debates over freedom of speech and academic freedom will also have much to discover in this book.
British Communism and the Politics of Race explores the role that the Communist Party of Great Br... more British Communism and the Politics of Race explores the role that the Communist Party of Great Britain played within the anti-racism movement in Britain from the 1940s to the 1980s. As one of the first organisations to undertake serious anti-colonial and anti-racist activism within the British labour movement, the CPGB was a pioneering force that campaigned against racial discrimination, popular imperialism and fascist violence in British society. The book examines the balancing act that the Communist Party negotiated in its anti-racist work, between making appeals to the labour movement to get involved in the fight against racism and working with Britain's ethnic minority communities, who often felt let down by the trade unions and the Labour Party. Transitioning from a class-based outlook to an embrace of the new social movements of the 1960s–70s, the CPGB played an important role in the anti-racist struggle, but by the 1980s, it was eclipsed by more radical and diverse activist organisations. This book will be of interest to readers of British left-wing history and politics, as well as those interested in the history of British race relations, including academics, postgraduate students and activists.
The far left in Australia had significant effects on post-war politics, culture and society. The ... more 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.
"Against the Grain" is the first general history of the British far left to be published in the t... more "Against the Grain" is the first general history of the British far left to be published in the twenty-first century. Its contents cover a range of organisations beyond the Labour Party, bringing together leading experts on British left-wing politics to examine issues of class, race and gender from 1956 to the present day. The essays collected here are designed to highlight the impact made by the far left on British politics and society. Though the predicted revolution did not come, organisations such as the International Socialists, the International Marxist Group and Militant became household names in the 1970s and 1980s. Taken as a whole, the collection demonstrates the extent to which the far left has weaved its influence into the political fabric of Britain.
"Race, Gender and the Body in British Immigration Control" provides the most detailed account of ... more "Race, Gender and the Body in British Immigration Control" provides the most detailed account of the virginity testing controversy in the late 1970s, and demonstrates that this abusive practice, which was endured by South Asian women for more than a decade, was part of a wider culture of mistreatment and discrimination that occurred within the immigration system authorized by the state. Using recently opened government documents, Smith and Marmo offer a unique insight into this matter and uncover the extent to which these women were scrutinized, interrogated and subject to physical examination at the border. Combining cutting-edge criminological theory and historical research, this book proposes that the contemporary British immigration control system should be viewed as an attempt to replicate colonial hierarchies upon migrants in the post-imperial era. For this reason, the abuses of human rights at the border became a secondary issue to the need of the post-imperial British nation-state to enforce strict immigration controls.
This collection presents essays by emerging and established historians from Australia, New Zealan... more This collection presents essays by emerging and established historians from Australia, New Zealand and Europe, arising from the XVIIth Biennial Conference of the Australasian Association of European Historians, organised by Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, in July 2009.
The collection centres around the theme of Europe’s expansions and contractions that have occurred over the last five centuries and the profound way in which the idea of ‘Europe’ has shaped the globe. The collection spans a wide range of topics within this overall theme, with essays focusing on militarism in inter-war Germany, the Jewish diaspora, Australia’s migrant communities, Eastern European national identities, the shifting and lingering concept of European ‘civilisation’ and history, anthropology, post-colonialism and Marxism, and comparative empires.
The collection demonstrates that detailed case studies, often categorised by periodisation, regionalism and theme, can be weaved together to present a challenging and thought-provoking idea of what European history can look like in the twenty-first century.
INTRODUCTION ONLINE FOR DOWNLOAD
LIST OF CHAPTERS:
1. Introduction - Evan Smith
2. The Reichwehr's Anti-Pacifist Campaign in the Final Years of the Weimar Republic - Steven Welch
3. Hindenburg, Hitler and Heusinger: A Fresh Look at German Military Policy, 1919-1955 - Juergen Foerster
4. The Fischer Controversy Revisited - John A. Moses
5. 'Privileged' Jews, Holocaust Representation and the 'Limits' of Judgment: The Case of Raul Hilberg - Adam Brown
6. In Search of Fritz Philippsborn: The Double Diaspora of a Jewish German - John Milfull
7. Blurred Borders: German Language Newspapers and Deutschtum in Australia- Rebecca Vonhoff
8. Italians Abroad: Critical Factors in the Development of Italian National Identity - Karen Agutter
9. Migration Generated Expansion of European Influence and the Role of Croatian Diaspora - Walter F. Lalich
10. Cigars as Symbols of Hungarian Patriotism: The Economic Origins of Cultural Nationalism - Alexander Maxwell
11. 'Our Faithfully Kept, Age-Old Inheritors': Transylvanian Saxon Folk Customs, Particularism and German Nationalism Between the Wars - Sacha E. Davis
12. 'The Dirtiest... Most Insignificant and Unpleasant Branch of Military Operations': Warfare and Civilisation in the Political Thought of Adam Ferguson - Bruce Buchan
13. The New Woman at Home and Abroad: Fiction, Female Identity and the British Empre - Sharon Crozier-de Rosa
14. The Anthropologist as Cold Warrior: The Interesting Times of Frederick Rose - Peter Monteath
15. 'Back to the USSR': Frederick Rose, the 'Stalin Criticism' and Anthropological Criticism During the Cold War - Valerie Munt
16. Bridging the Gap: The British Communist Party and the Limits of the State in Tackling Racism - Evan Smith
17. A New Perspective on European History in Australian Senior History Curricula from the Last 30 Years - Reinhard Kuehnel
18. Eurasian Contiguity and Russia's 'Stunted Nationhood' - Tania Rafass
Papers by Evan Smith
Academic Freedom in Higher Education, 2024
In recent years, there has been much attention paid by the media and by politicians to the allege... more In recent years, there has been much attention paid by the media and by politicians to the alleged free speech ‘crisis’ at universities in Britain, with ‘woke’ students and left-wing academics blamed for the shutting down of freedom of speech and academic freedom on campus. This increased media spotlight on student activism and controversies around platforms afforded to certain speakers has led to calls for stronger intervention to ‘protect’ free speech, resulting in the Conservative Government introducing new legislation that passed in May 2023. This chapter historicises this contemporary ‘moral panic’ about freedom of speech at British universities, demonstrating that for over 50 years, the issue of who should be allowed a platform on the university campus has been a contested issue. Many of the tropes that we see used today have an older lineage, going back to the 1960s.
Irish Studies Review, 2024
Irish Democrat was the paper of the Connolly Association, a diaspora organisation established to ... more Irish Democrat was the paper of the Connolly Association,
a diaspora organisation established to build support for Irish republicanism
within the British labour movement. The Connolly
Association and the Irish Democrat had strong links to the
Communist Party of Great Britain, which advocated for a peaceful
mass movement to challenge the British presence in Northern
Ireland and to remove discrimination faced by Catholics in the Six
Counties. Encouraged by the wave of decolonisation across the
British Empire in the 1950s-60s, both the CA and the CPGB saw
the struggle against Unionist rule in Northern Ireland as analogous
to events in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. This paper explores the
narration of anti-colonial and national liberation movements elsewhere
in the British Empire in the pages of the Irish Democrat and
the overdetermination of Irish national questions by post-war discourses
of radical decolonisation. It also traces the formation across
difference of specific solidarities between the Connolly Association
and other migrant communities within the multicultural political
geography of post-war Britain, including out of campaigns against
racial discrimination, the “colour bar” and post-war immigration
controls.
Journal of Contemporary History, 2022
As the conflict in Northern Ireland heightened in the early 1970s, the Australian authorities bec... more As the conflict in Northern Ireland heightened in the early 1970s, the Australian authorities became worried that political violence might spread amongst the Irish communities in Australia. Coming at a time when there was a concern about political extremism and violence linked to overseas conflicts, such as the Palestinian struggle in the Middle East and the anti-communist opposition to Yugoslavia, the Australian government and security services were also anxious about militant Irish Republicanism transgressing borders, particularly representatives of the Irish Republican Army entering the country. Unlike nearly all migrants and visitors from Europe and the Middle East, people coming from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland could enter Australia without visa, and few criminal or security checks were conducted upon them. This article examines the ways in which the Australian authorities attempted to prevent militant Irish Republicans coming during the 1970s and how the favoured status of British (including Northern Irish) and Irish citizens was seen as an impediment to Australia's national security in the era of international terrorism.
International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 2023
The overall aim of the paper is to present evidence on the factors underpinning historical deport... more The overall aim of the paper is to present evidence on the factors underpinning historical deportation cases, by exploring the reasons, explanations and patterns related to deportation in Australia. The purpose is to consider whether these historical factors are antecedent to current forms of deportation occurring in Australia, and to bring to the fore potential recurring patterns. Deportation is currently conceptualised by border criminologists as a punitive tool of discipline and control, within the realm of penal powers. Some of this work on the ‘deportation regime’ asserts that certain migrants, or groups of migrants, are undesirable: their identity, (not)belonging and punishment have become inherently intertwined, and their mobility has become politicised and criminalised. This article theorises that deportation has been used in Australia, now and in the past, to expel individuals who are viewed as detrimental to the ‘health’ of the host society. The ‘deportation categories’ demonstrate that migrants’ desirability has historically been a temporary condition, shifting over time in line with the state’s requirements. They also demonstrate the historical regime of criminalisation of undesirable others enacted through Australia’s border control regime.
Contemporary British History, 2023
In recent years, one of the most controversial stories on the British left is the trajectory of t... more In recent years, one of the most controversial stories on the British left is the trajectory of the far left Trotskyist group, the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) to the libertarian/contrarian online publication Spiked!, via the magazine Living Marxism. The evolution of the RCP into Spiked! has been explored somewhat by journalists, but it has yet to be explored in depth by historians. This paper argues that in the history of the RCP, The Red Front is an often overlooked turning point for the party towards rejection of conventional left thinking in the 1990s and eventual rejection of Marxist politics.
Immigrants & Minorities , 2022
Labour History Review, 2017
The International History Review, 2021
Global White Nationalism: From Apartheid to Trump, 2020
Social Sciences, 2020
In the early 1960s, the American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell was invited by neo-Naz... more In the early 1960s, the American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell was invited by neo-Nazi groups in Australia and Britain to come to their respective countries. On both occasions, the minister for immigration in Australia and the home secretary in Britain sought to deny Rockwell entry to the country on the grounds that he was not conducive to the public good and threatened disorder. This was done using the border control and visa system that existed in both countries, which allowed the government to exclude from entry certain individuals that were proponents of extreme or "dangerous" political ideologies. In the postwar period, explicit neo-Nazism was seen as a dangerous ideology and was grounds for exclusion of foreigners, even though domestic political parties espousing the same ideology were allowed to exist. Rockwell never came to Australia, but illicitly entered Britain via Ireland in 1962 before being deported, which highlighted potential problems for the British controlling passage across the Irish Sea. Rockwell's exclusion and deportation also became a touchpoint for future debates in British politics about the denial of entry and deportation of political figures. This article reveals that the Australian and British governments, while allowing far-right organisations to lawfully exist in their countries, also sought to ban the entry of foreign actors who espoused similar politics. This was due to concerns about potential public disorder and violence, but also allowed both governments to portray white supremacism and racial violence as foreign to their own countries.
Histories of Fascism and Anti-Fascism in Australia, 2023
This book is the first to outline the history of the tactic of ‘no platforming’ at British univer... more This book is the first to outline the history of the tactic of ‘no platforming’ at British universities since the 1970s, looking at more than four decades of student protest against racist and fascist figures on campus.
The tactic of ‘no platforming’ has been used at British universities and colleges since the National Union of Students adopted the policy in the mid-1970s. The author traces the origins of the tactic from the militant anti-fascism of the 1930s–1940s and looks at how it has developed since the 1970s, being applied to various targets over the last 40 years, including sexists, homophobes, right-wing politicians and Islamic fundamentalists. This book provides a historical intervention in the current debates over the alleged free speech ‘crisis’ perceived to be plaguing universities in Britain, as well as North America and Australasia.
No Platform: A History of Anti-Fascism, Universities and the Limits of Free Speech is for academics and students, as well as the general reader, interested in modern British history, politics and higher education. Readers interested in contemporary debates over freedom of speech and academic freedom will also have much to discover in this book.
British Communism and the Politics of Race explores the role that the Communist Party of Great Br... more British Communism and the Politics of Race explores the role that the Communist Party of Great Britain played within the anti-racism movement in Britain from the 1940s to the 1980s. As one of the first organisations to undertake serious anti-colonial and anti-racist activism within the British labour movement, the CPGB was a pioneering force that campaigned against racial discrimination, popular imperialism and fascist violence in British society. The book examines the balancing act that the Communist Party negotiated in its anti-racist work, between making appeals to the labour movement to get involved in the fight against racism and working with Britain's ethnic minority communities, who often felt let down by the trade unions and the Labour Party. Transitioning from a class-based outlook to an embrace of the new social movements of the 1960s–70s, the CPGB played an important role in the anti-racist struggle, but by the 1980s, it was eclipsed by more radical and diverse activist organisations. This book will be of interest to readers of British left-wing history and politics, as well as those interested in the history of British race relations, including academics, postgraduate students and activists.
The far left in Australia had significant effects on post-war politics, culture and society. The ... more 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.
"Against the Grain" is the first general history of the British far left to be published in the t... more "Against the Grain" is the first general history of the British far left to be published in the twenty-first century. Its contents cover a range of organisations beyond the Labour Party, bringing together leading experts on British left-wing politics to examine issues of class, race and gender from 1956 to the present day. The essays collected here are designed to highlight the impact made by the far left on British politics and society. Though the predicted revolution did not come, organisations such as the International Socialists, the International Marxist Group and Militant became household names in the 1970s and 1980s. Taken as a whole, the collection demonstrates the extent to which the far left has weaved its influence into the political fabric of Britain.
"Race, Gender and the Body in British Immigration Control" provides the most detailed account of ... more "Race, Gender and the Body in British Immigration Control" provides the most detailed account of the virginity testing controversy in the late 1970s, and demonstrates that this abusive practice, which was endured by South Asian women for more than a decade, was part of a wider culture of mistreatment and discrimination that occurred within the immigration system authorized by the state. Using recently opened government documents, Smith and Marmo offer a unique insight into this matter and uncover the extent to which these women were scrutinized, interrogated and subject to physical examination at the border. Combining cutting-edge criminological theory and historical research, this book proposes that the contemporary British immigration control system should be viewed as an attempt to replicate colonial hierarchies upon migrants in the post-imperial era. For this reason, the abuses of human rights at the border became a secondary issue to the need of the post-imperial British nation-state to enforce strict immigration controls.
This collection presents essays by emerging and established historians from Australia, New Zealan... more This collection presents essays by emerging and established historians from Australia, New Zealand and Europe, arising from the XVIIth Biennial Conference of the Australasian Association of European Historians, organised by Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, in July 2009.
The collection centres around the theme of Europe’s expansions and contractions that have occurred over the last five centuries and the profound way in which the idea of ‘Europe’ has shaped the globe. The collection spans a wide range of topics within this overall theme, with essays focusing on militarism in inter-war Germany, the Jewish diaspora, Australia’s migrant communities, Eastern European national identities, the shifting and lingering concept of European ‘civilisation’ and history, anthropology, post-colonialism and Marxism, and comparative empires.
The collection demonstrates that detailed case studies, often categorised by periodisation, regionalism and theme, can be weaved together to present a challenging and thought-provoking idea of what European history can look like in the twenty-first century.
INTRODUCTION ONLINE FOR DOWNLOAD
LIST OF CHAPTERS:
1. Introduction - Evan Smith
2. The Reichwehr's Anti-Pacifist Campaign in the Final Years of the Weimar Republic - Steven Welch
3. Hindenburg, Hitler and Heusinger: A Fresh Look at German Military Policy, 1919-1955 - Juergen Foerster
4. The Fischer Controversy Revisited - John A. Moses
5. 'Privileged' Jews, Holocaust Representation and the 'Limits' of Judgment: The Case of Raul Hilberg - Adam Brown
6. In Search of Fritz Philippsborn: The Double Diaspora of a Jewish German - John Milfull
7. Blurred Borders: German Language Newspapers and Deutschtum in Australia- Rebecca Vonhoff
8. Italians Abroad: Critical Factors in the Development of Italian National Identity - Karen Agutter
9. Migration Generated Expansion of European Influence and the Role of Croatian Diaspora - Walter F. Lalich
10. Cigars as Symbols of Hungarian Patriotism: The Economic Origins of Cultural Nationalism - Alexander Maxwell
11. 'Our Faithfully Kept, Age-Old Inheritors': Transylvanian Saxon Folk Customs, Particularism and German Nationalism Between the Wars - Sacha E. Davis
12. 'The Dirtiest... Most Insignificant and Unpleasant Branch of Military Operations': Warfare and Civilisation in the Political Thought of Adam Ferguson - Bruce Buchan
13. The New Woman at Home and Abroad: Fiction, Female Identity and the British Empre - Sharon Crozier-de Rosa
14. The Anthropologist as Cold Warrior: The Interesting Times of Frederick Rose - Peter Monteath
15. 'Back to the USSR': Frederick Rose, the 'Stalin Criticism' and Anthropological Criticism During the Cold War - Valerie Munt
16. Bridging the Gap: The British Communist Party and the Limits of the State in Tackling Racism - Evan Smith
17. A New Perspective on European History in Australian Senior History Curricula from the Last 30 Years - Reinhard Kuehnel
18. Eurasian Contiguity and Russia's 'Stunted Nationhood' - Tania Rafass
Academic Freedom in Higher Education, 2024
In recent years, there has been much attention paid by the media and by politicians to the allege... more In recent years, there has been much attention paid by the media and by politicians to the alleged free speech ‘crisis’ at universities in Britain, with ‘woke’ students and left-wing academics blamed for the shutting down of freedom of speech and academic freedom on campus. This increased media spotlight on student activism and controversies around platforms afforded to certain speakers has led to calls for stronger intervention to ‘protect’ free speech, resulting in the Conservative Government introducing new legislation that passed in May 2023. This chapter historicises this contemporary ‘moral panic’ about freedom of speech at British universities, demonstrating that for over 50 years, the issue of who should be allowed a platform on the university campus has been a contested issue. Many of the tropes that we see used today have an older lineage, going back to the 1960s.
Irish Studies Review, 2024
Irish Democrat was the paper of the Connolly Association, a diaspora organisation established to ... more Irish Democrat was the paper of the Connolly Association,
a diaspora organisation established to build support for Irish republicanism
within the British labour movement. The Connolly
Association and the Irish Democrat had strong links to the
Communist Party of Great Britain, which advocated for a peaceful
mass movement to challenge the British presence in Northern
Ireland and to remove discrimination faced by Catholics in the Six
Counties. Encouraged by the wave of decolonisation across the
British Empire in the 1950s-60s, both the CA and the CPGB saw
the struggle against Unionist rule in Northern Ireland as analogous
to events in Asia, Africa and the Middle East. This paper explores the
narration of anti-colonial and national liberation movements elsewhere
in the British Empire in the pages of the Irish Democrat and
the overdetermination of Irish national questions by post-war discourses
of radical decolonisation. It also traces the formation across
difference of specific solidarities between the Connolly Association
and other migrant communities within the multicultural political
geography of post-war Britain, including out of campaigns against
racial discrimination, the “colour bar” and post-war immigration
controls.
Journal of Contemporary History, 2022
As the conflict in Northern Ireland heightened in the early 1970s, the Australian authorities bec... more As the conflict in Northern Ireland heightened in the early 1970s, the Australian authorities became worried that political violence might spread amongst the Irish communities in Australia. Coming at a time when there was a concern about political extremism and violence linked to overseas conflicts, such as the Palestinian struggle in the Middle East and the anti-communist opposition to Yugoslavia, the Australian government and security services were also anxious about militant Irish Republicanism transgressing borders, particularly representatives of the Irish Republican Army entering the country. Unlike nearly all migrants and visitors from Europe and the Middle East, people coming from Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland could enter Australia without visa, and few criminal or security checks were conducted upon them. This article examines the ways in which the Australian authorities attempted to prevent militant Irish Republicans coming during the 1970s and how the favoured status of British (including Northern Irish) and Irish citizens was seen as an impediment to Australia's national security in the era of international terrorism.
International Journal for Crime, Justice and Social Democracy, 2023
The overall aim of the paper is to present evidence on the factors underpinning historical deport... more The overall aim of the paper is to present evidence on the factors underpinning historical deportation cases, by exploring the reasons, explanations and patterns related to deportation in Australia. The purpose is to consider whether these historical factors are antecedent to current forms of deportation occurring in Australia, and to bring to the fore potential recurring patterns. Deportation is currently conceptualised by border criminologists as a punitive tool of discipline and control, within the realm of penal powers. Some of this work on the ‘deportation regime’ asserts that certain migrants, or groups of migrants, are undesirable: their identity, (not)belonging and punishment have become inherently intertwined, and their mobility has become politicised and criminalised. This article theorises that deportation has been used in Australia, now and in the past, to expel individuals who are viewed as detrimental to the ‘health’ of the host society. The ‘deportation categories’ demonstrate that migrants’ desirability has historically been a temporary condition, shifting over time in line with the state’s requirements. They also demonstrate the historical regime of criminalisation of undesirable others enacted through Australia’s border control regime.
Contemporary British History, 2023
In recent years, one of the most controversial stories on the British left is the trajectory of t... more In recent years, one of the most controversial stories on the British left is the trajectory of the far left Trotskyist group, the Revolutionary Communist Party (RCP) to the libertarian/contrarian online publication Spiked!, via the magazine Living Marxism. The evolution of the RCP into Spiked! has been explored somewhat by journalists, but it has yet to be explored in depth by historians. This paper argues that in the history of the RCP, The Red Front is an often overlooked turning point for the party towards rejection of conventional left thinking in the 1990s and eventual rejection of Marxist politics.
Immigrants & Minorities , 2022
Labour History Review, 2017
The International History Review, 2021
Global White Nationalism: From Apartheid to Trump, 2020
Social Sciences, 2020
In the early 1960s, the American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell was invited by neo-Naz... more In the early 1960s, the American Nazi Party leader George Lincoln Rockwell was invited by neo-Nazi groups in Australia and Britain to come to their respective countries. On both occasions, the minister for immigration in Australia and the home secretary in Britain sought to deny Rockwell entry to the country on the grounds that he was not conducive to the public good and threatened disorder. This was done using the border control and visa system that existed in both countries, which allowed the government to exclude from entry certain individuals that were proponents of extreme or "dangerous" political ideologies. In the postwar period, explicit neo-Nazism was seen as a dangerous ideology and was grounds for exclusion of foreigners, even though domestic political parties espousing the same ideology were allowed to exist. Rockwell never came to Australia, but illicitly entered Britain via Ireland in 1962 before being deported, which highlighted potential problems for the British controlling passage across the Irish Sea. Rockwell's exclusion and deportation also became a touchpoint for future debates in British politics about the denial of entry and deportation of political figures. This article reveals that the Australian and British governments, while allowing far-right organisations to lawfully exist in their countries, also sought to ban the entry of foreign actors who espoused similar politics. This was due to concerns about potential public disorder and violence, but also allowed both governments to portray white supremacism and racial violence as foreign to their own countries.
The Far Left in Australia since 1945, 2018
Australian Journal of Politics and History, 2020
Twentieth Century Communism, 2020
Philip Payton & Andrekos Varnava (eds) Australia, Migration and Empire: Immigrants in a Globalised World (Palgrave), 2019
Australian Feminist Studies, 2018
By the end of World War Two, the Australian far left was in a buoyant mood. The Soviet Union was ... more By the end of World War Two, the Australian far left was in a buoyant mood. The Soviet Union was held in high esteem, European colonies around the world were declaring independence, and with some 23,000 members in 1944 and an ability to exert control over at least 40% of Australia’s unions, the previously marginal CPA had become a force to be reckoned with. At the height of this momentary euphoria, the Party’s Assistant Secretary Richard ‘Dick’ Dixon wrote a short pamphlet entitled Immigration and the White Australia Policy, which captured the Party’s partial awakening to the issues of race and migration—openly attacking the White Australia policy for the first time. Yet, Dixon’s pamphlet straddled a difficult course – challenging the labour movement’s long history of opposing coloured immigration, while arguing to retain the wages and conditions that ‘white Australia’ maintained.
The Far Left in Australia Since 1945, 2019
The far left in Australia, as has been revealed by scholarship on its equivalents in the UK, USA ... more The far left in Australia, as has been revealed by scholarship on its equivalents in the UK, USA and elsewhere,1 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 over time, responding to one political crisis or another, but they remained steadfastly devoted to a better world.