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When the Australian ruling class embraced fascism

Originally published in Marxist Left Review 13, Summer 2017

When the Australian ruling class embraced fascism

Louise O’Shea

It is commonplace today to treat the far right and far left as mirror images of each other: both extreme, ideologically rigid, intolerant and similarly isolated from the sensible mainstream.

But history demonstrates that there is little truth to this characterisation. Behind a considerable veil of secrecy though it may be, the history of the Australian far right is one closely intertwined with that of the ruling apparatus: the political establishment, business circles, the military and police force. Continue reading →

Why did Australia go to the great war?

We gratefully acknowledge permission from the Australian Centre for the Study of Armed Conflict and Society at UNSW to publish this excellent collection of seminar papers on Australia’s involvement in World War 1.

Click here to access the papers.

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ACSACS Occasional Paper Series No. 8

Why did Australia go to the great war?

Proceedings of a Symposium held at the University of New South Wales, Canberra 8 May 2018

Edited by Peter Stanley

Contents

Peter Stanley: Introduction

Greg Lockhart: Effacing the nation: the imperial romance and its persistence in Australian Great War history

John Mordike: Outlining national-imperial tensions in the development of the Australian Military Forces, 1901-14

Douglas Newton: Choosing war, and choosing war aims: British and Australian decision-making, 1914-1918

Gerhard Fischer: The Little Welshman’s dream: the war aims of William Morris Hughes

John Moses: Between truth and polemic: comprehending imperial Germany’s war-aims 1914-18

Robert Stevenson: ‘Why Australia Went to the Great War’ – Commentary

Published by the Australian Centre for the Study of Armed Conflict and Society, March 2019