People's History of Australia People's History of Australia

In mid-2016, the University of Sydney abruptly announced that it would be closing down its Sydney College of the Arts campus. Within the space of a few months, the internationally-renowned arts school, which had produced scores of famous graduates and offered an almost unique education in visual and fine arts, would be gone, and its students shunted off to another university.

Fortunately, students at SCA had other ideas, and waged an epic mass campaign to keep the college open that saw huge meetings, strikes and a student takeover of SCA's administration building.

In this episode we interview Kelton Muir, an activist at SCA who's written an honours thesis about the campaign.

You can read Kelton's thesis at the link here - https://ses.library.usyd.edu.au/handle/2123/25845

We're also hosting a launch party for this podcast! It's at 6.30pm on Wednesday 8 May at Sydney Trades Hall. Details here - https://www.facebook.com/events/785857270186369/

In November 1975, the elected Labor Party government of Australia was sacked without notice by Sir John Kerr, the governor-general. Having single-handedly gotten rid of the elected government, Sir John then personally appointed a new government of his own choosing led by Malcolm Fraser and the Liberal Party.

The dismissal – or the Kerr Coup as many referred to it – was one of the most dramatic events in Australian history, and ushered in a period of intense social conflict. For the next eight years, Malcolm Fraser’s prime ministership was marked by general strikes, high levels of industrial disputes and working-class militancy, riots in the streets, powerful environmental campaigns, and vibrant social movements against the oppression of women, LGBTQ people, Aboriginal people and migrants.

To tell the story of this incredible era, we're joined by Diane Fieldes, a socialist activist and historian.

People's History of Australia is currently running a small fundraiser! You can donate to keep us on the air here: https://gofund.me/a00c27db

When the British Empire invaded and colonised Australia in 1788, the new ruling class had a problem - there was no pre-existing working class in Australia waiting around to work for them. Their solution was to bring tens of thousands of convict prisoners here against their will as a labour force.

Despite often horrendous working conditions and a brutal regime of punishment, convicts fought back, frequently going on strike, rioting, rebelling, escaping to become bushrangers, and engaging in hundreds of thousands of acts of collective and individual resistance. In this episode, we interview Michael Quinlan, UNSW academic and author of new book 'Unfree Workers', about this inspiring history.

In 1977, the premier of Queensland, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, banned protests. "Don't bother applying for a march permit," he declared. "You won't get one. That's government policy now."

In this episode, we speak with Judy McVey, who helped organise the massive protest movement that arose in response to Bjelke-Petersen's announcement. Tens of thousands of people rallied in the streets and directly defied the law, over 2,000 people were arrested, and the anti-protest laws were abolished.

With governments in Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria, Tasmania and South Australia passing repressive laws that threaten protesters with massive fines and jail time, we look at what this campaign means today and what we can learn from it.

In 1996, newly elected politician Pauline Hanson swept to national prominence after making an extraordinarily racist and inflammatory maiden speech in federal parliament. Capitalising on her notoriety, Hanson announced plans to form a new political party, One Nation, with local branches and a mass membership, and polls indicated she would win widespread support.

Anti-racists, however, had other ideas. Huge anti-Hanson rallies were organised in towns and cities across the country, and every attempt to run a public meeting featuring Hanson or build a local party branch was met with large and militant protests that disrupted and often shut her meetings down. Support for One Nation dwindled and by late 1998 the party had collapsed.

In this episode we chat with Vashti Fox about the extraordinary movement to defeat Pauline Hanson and prevent the formation of a mass, racist party in Australia.

In the 1940s, with an influx of thousands of new members, the Communist Party of Australia established the Marx Schools - one of the most remarkable experiments in Australian educational history.

The schools ran from 10am until 10pm every day of the week, and offered extensive courses in socialist theory, the practicalities of union organising, how to chair meetings and give public speeches, in anti-fascism and women’s rights, and in art, economics, philosophy and literature.

With a pedagogy that was far more advanced that most universities, they taught deeply complex ideas to thousands of workers, most of whom hadn't completed school beyond age 13 or 14.

To discuss this amazing undertaking, we speak to Bob Boughton, who's researched extensively on the Marx Schools.