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Dan O’Neill captures a moment in 1969 when all the divergences that were eventually followed out still lived together fairly closely within SDA (as it turns out, just prior to its dissolution):
"SDA now has four distinct areas of concern ... There is not an all-encompassing ideology, though all would probably agree to being anti-authoritarian, in favour of increased democracy in the political and social field, supported on the basis of decentralisation of power. Many would argue that the completion of the trends of SDA thinking is the adoption of a form of workers' control in all institutions. Some would see the underlying philosophy of the movement as a form of socialist humanism. Some would see SDA as a transitional grouping in advanced capitalist conditions, tending towards an eclectically Marxist form of revolutionary socialism. Others tend, at this level of generality, to organise their perceptions and actions in terms of less political creeds, emphasising the socio-cultural and moral content of the revolution fought for. Some see forms of non-violent revolution as the soul of all revolutionary movements, the inner principle of all attempts at really radical social change. Some profess to be theoretical anarchists who consider any State power ultimately illegitimate". 16
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"We are not marching with a permit", Protest March 1969 |
Jim Beatson in headlock during Youth Campaign Against Conscription demonstration in Brisbane |
An SDA conference in August/September 1969 proposed to overcome 'problems' and 'grievances' and the role of 'minority groups' by evolution into an 'alliance'. Instead SDA dissolved and new groups formed. More than just the forms were changing, however. That is reflected in the formation of the Revolutionary Socialist Students Alliance.
The name expresses the shift in ideas as some of the tendencies O'Neill described hardened into fixed positions.
Some suggest the counter-culture became more 'anti-political' by the time of the second Peoples' Park in late 1970. |
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The Revolution takes the Stage
Hippies and Airwaves
