Editing Sydney Push

{{Short description|Australian intellectual sub-culture}}
{{About|the intellectual sub-culture|the criminal gang|Rocks Push}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=December 2014}}
[[File:R George134.jpg|upright=1.3|thumb|The [[Royal George Hotel, Sydney|Royal George Hotel]] in April 2004. It has been renamed the Slip Inn. The Sydney Push met in the "back room", a little above ground floor, at left.]]

The '''Sydney Push''' was an intellectual [[subculture]] in [[Sydney]] from the late 1940s to the early 1970s. Its politics were predominantly [[Left-libertarianism|left-wing libertarianism]]. The Push operated in a pub culture and included university students, academics, manual workers, musicians, lawyers, criminals, journalists and [[public servant]]s. Rejection of conventional morality and [[authoritarianism]] was a common bond. Students and staff from [[Sydney University]], mainly the Faculty of Arts, were prominent members. In the 1960s, students and staff from the [[University of New South Wales]] also became involved.

Well known associates of the Push include [[Richard Appleton]], [[A. J. Baker|Jim Baker]], [[Lex Banning]], [[Eva Cox]], [[Robyn Davidson]],<ref>[https://australianmuseum.net.au/robyn-davidson "Robyn Davidson, the 'Camel Lady'"], [[Australian Museum]]</ref> [[Margaret Fink]], [[John Flaus]], [[Germaine Greer]], [[Lynne Segal]], [[George Molnar (philosopher)|George Molnar]], [[Robert Hughes (critic)|Robert Hughes]], [[Harry Hooton]], [[Clive James]], Barry Humphries,<ref>{{Cite web |date=2009-04-03 |title=When the Push came to shove |url=https://www.smh.com.au/national/when-the-push-came-to-shove-20141112-9qi9.html |access-date=2025-01-01 |website=The Sydney Morning Herald |language=en}}</ref> Sasha Soldatow,<ref>A 1970s associate, subject of [[David Marr (journalist)|David Marr]]'s obituary "[http://www.smh.com.au/news/obituaries/a-spirit-gone-to-another-place/2006/09/08/1157222325334.html?page=fullpage#contentSwap1 A spirit gone to another place]" ''[[Sydney Morning Herald]]'', 9 September 2006</ref> [[David Makinson]], [[Jill Adelaide Neville|Jill "Blue" Neville]],<ref name="indie">{{cite web|url=https://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/obituary-jill-neville-5563498.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220526/https://www.independent.co.uk/incoming/obituary-jill-neville-5563498.html |archive-date=26 May 2022 |url-access=subscription |url-status=live|title=Obituary: Jill Neville|author=David Leitch|work=[[The Independent]]|date=June 12, 1997}}</ref> [[Padraic McGuinness|Paddy McGuinness]], [[Frank Moorhouse]], [[David Perry (Australian filmmaker)|David Perry]], [[Lillian Roxon]] and Darcy Waters. From 1961 to 1962, poet [[Les Murray (poet)|Les Murray]] resided in Brian Jenkins's Push household<ref>Alexander Peter F. ''Les Murray: a Life in Progress'', [[Oxford University Press]], 2000</ref> at Glen Street, [[Milsons Point]], which became a mecca for associates visiting Sydney from [[Melbourne]] and other cities.

==Academic contributors==
[[File:Dick Gooding (on right of door) from Lincoln Coffee Lounge and Cafe, Rowe Street, Sydney - photographed by Brian Bird c. 1948-1951 (5394988486).jpg|thumb|right|The Lincoln Coffee Lounge, located on [[Rowe Street, Sydney|Rowe Street]], is said to be the birthplace of the "Sydney Push" movement in its early days, just after the war. A popular meeting place for artists & writers, it comprised a mixture of university students, lecturers, bohemians and libertarians.]]

Amongst the key intellectual figures in Push debates were philosophers David J. Ivison, [[George Molnar (philosopher)|George Molnar]], Roelof Smilde, Darcy Waters<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Moorhouse |first=Frank |authorlink=Frank Moorhouse |date=14 Aug 1971 |title=The prince of Bohemia |url=https://nla.gov.au/nla.obj-1541194548/view?sectionId=nla.obj-1723504544 |magazine=The Bulletin |location=Sydney |volume=93 |issue=4768 |pages=41–43 |access-date=30 June 2022}}</ref> and [[A. J. Baker|Jim Baker]], as recorded in Baker's memoir ''Sydney Libertarians and the Push'', published in the libertarian ''Broadsheet'' in 1975.<ref>See [[A. J. Baker|Baker, A. J.]], [http://www.takver.com/history/aia/aia00026.htm "Sydney Libertarianism and the Push"] or at [http://www.nealemorison.com/wlmorison/sydlib.html "Sydney Libertarians and the Push"] on Prof. W L Morison memorial site</ref> Other active people included psychologists Terry McMullen, [[John Maze]] and Geoff Whiteman, educationist David Ferraro, June Wilson, [[Les Hiatt]], Ian Bedford, Ken Maddock and Alan Olding, among many others listed in the article. An understanding of Sydney libertarian values and social theory can be obtained from their publications, a few of which are available online.<ref>{{Cite web|url=http://www.takver.com/history/sydney/indexsl.htm#waters|title=Sydney Libertarians and Anarchism Index|website=www.takver.com}}</ref><ref>[http://marxists.architexturez.net/history/australia/libertarians/index.htm Sydney Libertarianism] at the Marxists Internet Archive</ref> There are also interesting critical articles in the Arts Society's annual journal ''[[Arna (publication)|Arna]]'' by Baker<ref>[[A. J. Baker|Baker, A. J.]], ''The Politics of 1984'' pp. 34–43, ''[[Arna (publication)|Arna]]'' (S.U. Arts Society, 1958)</ref> and Molnar<ref>Molnar, George "Zamyatin's ''We'' – a libertarian viewpoint", pp. 11–20, ''Arna'' (S.U. Arts Society, 1961)</ref> whose essay on [[Yevgeny Zamyatin|Zamyatin]]'s ''[[We (novel)|We]]'' concluded:
<blockquote>... [[George Orwell|Orwell]] spins out to its last conclusion the illusion that the fate of freedom depends mainly on the colour of the ruling party. ''We'', precisely because it presents its rebels as apolitical, as individualists if you wish, cuts through this falsehood. Zamyatin's superior social insight, although presented and presumably gained artistically and not by way of scientific analysis, consists first in his firm rejection of the rationality or finality of history and, second, in his recognition that anarchic protest against those in power, not the capture of power, is at the core of freedom.</blockquote>

Hiatt and Nestor Grivas's ''Helenic Herald'' published a collection of Sydney libertarian essays as ''The Sydney Line'' in 1963.<ref>{{Cite journal |last1=Hamilton |first1=Annette |title=In Memorium: L. R. Hiatt (1931–2008) |journal=Oceania |volume=78 |issue=2 |page=130 |date=2008 |issn=0029-8077 |jstor=40495574 }}</ref>

==Social and cultural life==
{{Libertarian socialism sidebar}}
The intellectual life of the Libertarians was mainly pursued in and around the university, including neighbouring pubs like May's, the Forest Lodge and the British Lion. On evenings and weekends, it overflowed into the much larger 'downtown' social milieu known as the Push, which flourished at a succession of pubs and other places of refreshment including the Tudor, Lincoln, Lorenzini's Wine Bar and Repin's Coffee Shop; however, of greatest notoriety, was the [[Royal George Hotel, Sydney|Royal George Hotel]] in [[Sussex Street, Sydney|Sussex Street]], which Clive James described in his ''[[Unreliable Memoirs]]'':<ref>[[Clive James|James, C.]] ''Unreliable Memoirs'', Picador Books, 1981, p. 140.</ref>

<blockquote>The Royal George was the headquarters of the Downtown Push, usually known as just the Push.... As well as the Libertarians and the aesthetes there were the small-time gamblers, [[traditional jazz]] fans and the homosexual radio repair men who had science fiction as a religion. The back room had tables and chairs. If you stuck your head through the door of the back room you came face to face with the Push. The noise, the smoke and the [[heterogeneity]] of [[physiognomy]] were too much to take in. It looked like a cartoon on which [[William Hogarth|Hogarth]], [[Honoré Daumier|Daumier]] and [[George Grosz]] had all worked simultaneously, fighting for supremacy.</blockquote>

Since the mid-1950s, before extended pub hours replaced [[Six o'clock swill|6 o'clock closing]], Push night-life commonly consisted of a meal at an inexpensive restaurant such as the Athenian or Hellenic Club ("the Greeks") or La Veneziana ("the Italians") followed by parties held most nights of the week at private residences. These were very lively occasions with singing of folksongs and bawdy ditties such as "Professor John Glaister" and many others, often accompanied by transvestite piano player Herbert Dye.<ref>{{Cite book| author = S Hogbotel & S Fuckes | title=Snatches & Lays – Songs Miss Lilly White should never have taught us | publisher = Sun Books, Melbourne | year = 1973 | isbn = 0-7251-0164-4}}</ref> Accompaniments were also provided by accomplished guitarists and lutenists (Ian McDougall, John Earls, Terry Driscoll, Don Ayrton, Brian Mooney, John Roberts, Don Lee, Beth Schurr, [[Bill Berry (folk singer)|Bill Berry]], [[Marian Henderson]] and others).<ref>Turnbull, Malcolm J. "[http://www.warrenfahey.com.au/early-sydney-part1/ Key players on the Sydney coffee lounge scene]", at warrenfahey.com.au</ref> [[Don Henderson (folk singer)|Don Henderson]],<ref>[http://donhenderson.com.au/hendo_interview.html Making of a song-writer—interview]</ref> [[Declan Affley]] and [[Martyn Wyndham-Read]]<ref>[http://www.martynwyndhamread.com/ Martyn Wyndham-Read official site]</ref> are three well-known artists who were influenced by their time in the Push.

==Protest and activism==
{{See also|Anarchism in Australia}}
[[File:Ian Parker and Bob Gould.jpg|upright=1.3|thumb|Sydney Push associates Ian Parker (left) and Bob Gould in a 1960s pavement demonstration outside the [[Queen Victoria Building]] in Sydney. Parker died in the late 1970s; Gould, a notable bookseller,<ref>[http://gouldsbooks.com/ Gould's Book Arcade]</ref> died in 2011.]]
Sydney Libertarianism adopted an attitude of permanent protest recognisable in the sociological theories of [[Max Nomad]], [[Vilfredo Pareto]] and [[Robert Michels]], which predicted the inevitability of elites and the futility of revolutions. They used phrases such as "anarchism without ends", "non-utopian anarchism", and "permanent protest" to describe their activities and theories. Others labelled them as the 'futilitarians'. An early [[Karl Marx|Marx]] quotation, used by [[Wilhelm Reich]] as the motto for his ''[[Die Sexualität im Kulturkampf|The Sexual Revolution]]'', was adopted as a motto, viz:

<blockquote>Since it is not for us to create a plan for the future that will hold for all time, all the more surely what we contemporaries have to do is the uncompromising critical evaluation of all that exists, uncompromising in the sense that our criticism fears neither its own results nor the conflict with the powers that be.</blockquote>

Nevertheless, Push associates regularly assisted in organising and turning out for street demonstrations, e.g., against South African apartheid and in support of victims of the 1960 [[Sharpeville massacre]]; against the initial refusal of immigration minister [[Alexander Downer, Sr.]] to grant political asylum to three Portuguese merchant seamen who jumped ship in Darwin; and against Australia's participation in the [[Vietnam War]].

In line with the Libertarians' rejection of conventional political models, electoral activism was foreign to the Push, save to urge non-voting and informal voting. At the election after prime minister [[Harold Holt]] failed to return from a swim, artist and film-maker [[David Perry (Australian filmmaker)|David Perry]] produced a highly acclaimed poster featuring "a continuum of pigs (inspired by Orwell's ''Animal Farm'')" with the slogan "Whoever you vote for, a politician always gets in."<ref>Perry, David. "Memoirs of a Dedicated Amateur". Valentine Press, 2014, p. 50</ref>

==Events in the news==
The most dramatic public event to impinge on the Push was the mysterious [[Bogle-Chandler case]] of 1963 and its sequel, a heavily publicised inquest in which several Push personalities gave evidence.<ref>{{usurped|1=[https://web.archive.org/web/20011203225310/http://www.boglechandler.com/ Bogle and Chandler]}}–a factual website with bibliography</ref> Another memorable incident involved the discovery of what news media recognised as a dismembered murder victim in an unlocked trunk at the foot of a city train-station escalator.  This was later revealed to be a collection of body parts, the property of a doctor, found and used in a macabre practical joke by a notorious confidence trickster, the late Julian Ashleigh Sellors (known in the Push as 'Flash Ash').<ref>Nowell, Laurie "Roguery loses a "Flash" character". Perth ''[[Daily News (Perth, Western Australia)|Weekend News]]'' p. 5, 5 October 1985</ref>

==Dispersal after 1964==
The year 1964 saw the gradual demise of the Royal George Hotel as the prime focal venue of the Sydney Push which dispersed its bustling social life to other traditional venues like the Newcastle, Orient and Port Jackson hotels in [[The Rocks, New South Wales|The Rocks]] near [[Circular Quay]] and the Rose, Crown and Thistle at [[Paddington, New South Wales]], but also to alternative central-city pubs including the United States and Edinburgh Castle. By the early 1970s, the Criterion Hotel on the corner of Liverpool and Sussex Streets had become the watering hole of the last of the Push diehards. Meanwhile, Push hangers-on and 'tourists', now numbering hundreds, patronised pubs like the Four-in-Hand (Paddington) and the [[Forth & Clyde Hotel|Forth and Clyde]] at Balmain, but these were venues of social entertainment, lacking the intellectual camaraderie, the informal folksong and the bohemian flavour of the 'George'.

The retired education professor Alan Barcan has published a personal account of his view of activism at Sydney University during the 1960s. Though he was not an eyewitness of Push life, he provides some relevant insights into how student life became infected by Push doctrines of freedom and rebellion, to a point at which the social movement was superseded and its leading personalities were dispersed or replaced with a new breed of social critics.<ref name=Barcan>Barcan, A [http://www.thefreelibrary.com/Student+activists+at+Sydney+University+1960-1967:+a+problem+of...-a0164112253 Student activists at Sydney University 1960–1967], Australian and New Zealand History of Education Society (ANZHES), January 2007</ref> As described by Barcan, this period saw the emergence of mainstream talents like poets [[Les Murray (poet)|Les Murray]] and [[Geoffrey Lehmann]], journalists David Solomon, [[Mungo Wentworth MacCallum|Mungo MacCallum]] (Jnr) and [[Laurie Oakes]], [[Oz (magazine)|Oz magazine]] satirists [[Richard Neville (writer)|Richard Neville]], [[Richard Walsh (Australian publisher)|Richard Walsh]] and [[Martin Sharp]], and maverick writer [[Bob Ellis]]. These were people who did not actively embrace the Push life but were strongly influenced by it.
[[File:Push reunion 2012.jpg|upright=1.3|thumb|A group of Push associates at a reunion in 2012]]
Push personalities who emigrated to the United Kingdom included [[Clive James]],<ref>who sailed on the ''Bretagne'', New Year's Eve, 1961, as recorded in his ''Unreliable Memoirs'' (1980) p. 166</ref> [[Padraic McGuinness|Paddy McGuinness]], Chester (Philip Graham) and Ian Parker (pictured above) who returned to Sydney in the late 1970s and was knocked down and killed while drunk, in Dixon Street.<ref name=appo>{{Cite book| author = Richard Appleton| author-link = Richard Appleton| title = Recollections of a member of the Sydney Push |location=Sydney, NSW|publisher=Darlington Press| year = 2009| isbn = 978-1-921364-09-9}} Appleton stated that he had been with Parker at a [[Balmain, New South Wales|Balmain]] pub on the morning preceding Parker's death.</ref>{{rp|p. 236}} For some reason, a false account was promulgated that he died in a London street.<ref>e.g., [[Bob Gould (activist)|Bob Gould]] [http://ozleft.wordpress.com/2008/02/04/my-enemy-is-dead-and-i-mourn-him/ ''My enemy is dead and I mourn him''] Statement at the funeral of [[Padraic McGuinness|P P McGuinness]], February 2008. (Gould seems to have been misled into thinking Ian Parker was killed in London.)</ref> Paddy McGuinness returned to Australia in 1971, working as a film critic, Labor ministerial staffer, right-wing newspaper columnist and journal editor until his death in 2007. Folksinger John Earls went to Bolivia and former ''Tribune'' ([[Communist Party of Australia]] newspaper) cartoonist Harry Reade went to join Fidel Castro's revolution in Cuba (and returned in 1971 at the same time as Paddy McGuinness). The disabled poet [[Lex Banning]] travelled to England and Greece from 1962 until 1964 but returned and died in Sydney in 1965. The folksinger Don Ayrton departed to settle at [[Kuranda, Queensland|Kuranda]] in Queensland where he committed suicide in 1982. A tragedy occurred as Paddy McGuinness was departing for Italy by ship in May 1963. The farewelling crowd included a young Push lady, Janne (or Jan) Millar, who fell to the concrete dock floor from a height and suffered fatal head injuries.<ref name=appo />{{rp|p. 117}}<ref name=Coombs>{{Cite book| author = Anne Coombs| title = Sex and Anarchy: The Life and Death of the Sydney Push |location=Ringwood, Vic.|publisher=Viking| year = 1996| isbn = 0-670-87069-2}}</ref>{{rp|p. 161}} A number of other tragic deaths occurred in this decade, including some from [[substance abuse]] which was becoming a regular part of Sydney culture at the time.

Many young Push associates simply moved on to careers in the professions and academia. A reunion organised by André Frankovits at the Royal George/Slip Inn in 2000 attracted around 280. Another, at the Harold Park Hotel in February 2012,<ref>Personal communication from Andre Frankovits, 29 March 2014</ref> drew nearly 200, including some who had travelled from Hong Kong, [[North Queensland]] and [[Perth]] to attend. Later annual re-unions have attracted around 50.

On the demise of the Push, Anne Coombs has stated: "[... things began to change] in 1964, the year the [[Beatles]] came and brought into the open that new phenomenon: '[[youth culture]]'."<ref name=Coombs />{{rp|p. 178}} Citing this, Alan Barcan added "In advocating free love and opposition to authority, the Push and the Libertarians anticipated the new post-1968 morality. But the adoption of many of their ideas by society undermined their ''[[Wikt:raison d'être|raison d'être]]''".<ref name=Barcan />

==See also==
* [[Socialism in Australia]]
* [[Anarchism in Australia]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{Cite book| author = A. J. Baker| author-link = A. J. Baker| title = Anderson's Social Philosophy: The Social Thought and Political Life of Professor John Anderson | location=Sydney, N.S.W.|publisher=Angus & Robertson| year = 1979 | isbn = 0-207-14216-5|ref=none}}
* {{Cite book| author = A. J. Baker | title = Social Pluralism: A Realistic Analysis |location=Glebe, N.S.W.|publisher=Wild and Woolley | year = 1997 | isbn = 0-646-32616-3|ref=none}}
* {{Cite book| author = Alan Barcan | title = Radical Students: The Old Left at Sydney University |location=Carlton South, Vic.|publisher=Melbourne University Press | year = 2002 | isbn = 0-522-85017-0|ref=none}}
* {{Cite book| author = Richard Appleton| author-link = Richard Appleton| title = Recollections of a member of the Sydney Push |location=Sydney, NSW|publisher=Darlington Press| year = 2009| isbn = 978-1-921364-09-9|ref=none}}
* {{Cite book| author = Anne Coombs| title = Sex and Anarchy: The Life and Death of the Sydney Push |location=Ringwood, Vic.|publisher=Viking| year = 1996| isbn = 0-670-87069-2|ref=none}}
* {{Cite book| author = James Franklin|author-link=James Franklin (philosopher)| title = Corrupting the Youth: A History of Philosophy in Australia |chapter=8: The Push and Critical Drinkers | chapter-url=https://web.maths.unsw.edu.au/~jim/corruptingtheyouthch8.pdf |location=Sydney|publisher=Macleay Press| year = 2003| isbn = 1876492082|ref=none}}
* {{Cite book| author = Lyn Gain| title = Witch Girl and the Push: Social history as you've never read it|publisher=Valentine Press|location=Bellingen, NSW| year = 2013| isbn = 978-0-9875063-0-6|ref=none}}
* {{Cite book| author = Brian Kennedy | title = A Passion to Oppose: John Anderson, Philosopher|location=Carlton South, Vic.|publisher=Melbourne University Press | year = 1995 | isbn = 0-522-84683-1|ref=none}}
* {{Cite book| title = Libertarian Nos 1–3 (Anthology)| publisher = Libertarian Society at Sydney University| date = 1957–1960|ref=none}}
* McIntosh, Carlotta, ed. (2019). ''George Molnar; politics and passions of a Sydney philosopher''. Tascott, NSW: Beaujon Press. {{isbn|978-0-9803653-2-0}}
* {{Cite book| author = Tony Moore|title=Dancing with Empty Pockets|publisher=[[Murdoch Books]]|year=2012|isbn=9781743363584|ref=none}}
* {{Cite book| author = Judy Ogilvie | title = The Push: An Impressionist Memoir |location=Leichhardt, N.S.W.|publisher=Primavera Press | year = 1995 | isbn = 0-9589494-8-4|ref=none}} [http://nla.gov.au/nla.news-article130573027 Review] in ''[[The Canberra Times]]'', 26 November 1995, via [[Trove]].
* {{Cite book|title=The Sydney Line (Anthology)|editor=L. R. Hiatt|publisher=Hellenic Herald|year=1963|ref=none}}

==External links==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20100205141732/http://www.cultureandrecreation.gov.au/articles/push/ ''The Push'' (Australia's Culture Portal)]
* [http://www.takver.com/history/sydney/indexsl.htm#waters Essays on Sydney Libertarians and Anarchism]
* [http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-30938339_ITM ''Student activists at Sydney University 1960–1967: a problem of interpretation''] by Alan Barcan
* [http://johntranter.com/reviewer/sex-anarchy.shtml John Tranter: Review (1996) of Anne Coombs's book]
* [http://theroyalgeorge.blogspot.com/ Tales of The Royal George]
* [http://books.publishing.monash.edu/apps/bookworm/view/A+Companion+to+Philosophy+in+Australia+and+New+Zealand/56/xhtml/chapter18.html#chapter18sec12 A. Coombs, "Sydney Push"] in ''A Companion to Philosophy in Australia and New Zealand''
* [http://valentinepress.com.au/?page_id=20 ''Witch Girl and the Push''] by Lyn Gain
* {{cite web | url = http://dictionaryofsydney.org/entry/the_newcastle_hotel | title = The Newcastle Hotel | accessdate = 13 October 2015 | author = Frank Moorhouse | author-link = Frank Moorhouse | date = 2014 | work = [[Dictionary of Sydney]] | publisher = Dictionary of Sydney Trust|ref=none}}

[[Category:Culture of Sydney]]
[[Category:Left-libertarianism]]
[[Category:Libertarianism in Australia]]
[[Category:Australian fringe and underground culture]]
[[Category:20th century in Sydney]]
[[Category:1940s in Sydney]]
[[Category:1950s in Sydney]]
[[Category:1960s in Sydney]]
[[Category:1970s in Sydney]]
[[Category:Anarchism in Australia]]