McLaren, John (1992) Literature as politics. Chapter 2: Conspiring for freedom - the Australian Association for cultural freedom. UNSPECIFIED. (Unpublished)

Abstract

This chapter discusses the political history and the influence of political events on literature in postwar Australia. One of these events was the closing of The Argus in January 1957, following its left leaning approach from 1949, which left Australia as empty of dissenting daily or weekly journalism as its parliament was of ideas. This ideological vacuum provided fertile ground for intellectual hatreds and delusive fantasy. Also considered is the path followed by the journal Australian Association for Cultural Freedom. This Association, the Australian affiliate of the Paris-based Congress for Cultural Freedom, embodied one of the more delusive fantasies of the time, the belief that Australia was no more than five minutes from the midnight of totalitarian Communist government. As a consequence, the fight against communism had to take precedence over all else. This attitude was expressed most clearly in an address by the secretary of the Association, Richard Krygier, an Australian anti-Communist publisher and journalist, to Congress supporters in Brisbane in 1953.

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