The left and Australian nationalism since the 1960s: A history of rejection and ambivalence

Abstract

Before the late 1960s, it was a standard left-wing claim that Australian national culture and character were “naturally” democratic, even socialist. Through sustained intellectual work by what is known as the New Left of the late 1960s and 1970s, there is now a new standard left-wing position: that Australian nationalism is irredeemably racist, sexist, homophobic and bigoted. This shift has proved perhaps the New Left’s most enduring influence on progressive culture in Australia. After introducing the Old Left’s “radical nationalism”, this article recounts the New Left’s demolition of it. But the article then challenges the linear narrative that has emerged about the left–– that the left was nationalist before the late 1960s and anti-nationalist since—by investigating the place of nationalism in the identities of New Left thinkers. This article concludes that the “standard” New Left position on Australian nationalism since the late 1960s was always much more ambivalent than it has appeared.