Yeah Nah Pasaran! #223 w James Hogg on Greek & Yugoslavian Anti-Fascism in Melbourne’s “Long 1960s” : September 26, 2024

This week on Yeah Nah Pasaran! we talk to James Hogg. James is a PhD candidate and an organiser at Melbourne’s New International Bookshop. His research ‘focuses on Australian anti-fascism in the twentieth century, with an emphasis on the role of migrants and the Communist Party of Australia’. James recently authored ‘“Fascism Can Only Grow in Secrecy”: Greek and Yugoslavian Anti-Fascism in Melbourne’s “Long 1960s”’ (Labour History, No.126, May 2024) which elaborates on the role of anti-fascist groups Restoration of Democracy in Greece (CRDG), the Yugoslav Settlers’ Organisation (YSA), and its successor, The Committee for Democracy in Australia (CDA) during the ‘long 1960s’:

Studies of post-war anti-fascism in Australia have recently generated new insights into the continuities and transformations of post-war fascist and anti-fascist organisations. However, despite this upsurge in scholarship, the 1960s remain neglected. This article revises this absence through a case study of the Committee for the Restoration of Democracy in Greece (CRDG), the Yugoslav Settlers’ Organisation (YSA), and its successor, The Committee for Democracy in Australia (CDA). It draws on press reports, left-wing publications, and security files to suggest the anti-fascisms of Melbourne in the 1960s were influenced by a parallel politics of anti-imperialism. It shows how both organisations were influenced by the historical experience of resisting fascism, particularly the concept of a “united front” that facilitated a pan-left struggle against fascism and wider systems of oppression and domination. In doing so, this article contributes to the growing historiography on varieties of anti-fascism and their overlap with related emancipation movements.

NB. The New International Bookshop is currently undertaking a fundraiser in order to assist its relocation.

See also : Unwanted Australians, Kristina Kukolja, Lindsay Arkley, John Zubrzycki, Nathan Kopp, SBS & The Dictatorship, George Zangalis, Neos Kosmos, April 29, 2013 /// Greek Resistance Bulletin on 3CR : ‘Bringing you news from the social movements of Greece in English and Greek, the anti-fascist and anti-racist front and news of actions and political initiatives from below.’ /// Yeah Nah Pasaran! #171 w Max Kaiser on Jewish Antifascism and the False Promise of Settler Colonialism : July 27, 2023 / Yeah Nah Pasaran! #155 w Jayne Persian on Ustaše in Australia : March 23, 2023 /// A whole new world: Global revolution and Australian social movements in the long Sixties PhD Thesis, School of History, Philosophy, Religion and Classics, The University of Queensland, Jon Piccini (2013) /// The 1973 Ford Broadmeadows riot, People’s History of Australia, No.8, August 2021 /// The Long 1960’s and the ‘Wind from the West’, Kristin Ross, Crisis & Critique, Vol.5, No.2 [Ill Will Editions, May 2019].

4.30pm, Thursday, September 26, 2024 /// 3CR /// 855AM / streaming live on the 3CR website

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