David Re

David Re

Sydney University protest

Anthony Albanese says he remembers Frank Stilwell's support for protesters in the early 1980s.

"[Frank] was very supportive of political activism," Albanese says. "There was an attempt by the conservative ideologues to shut down debate about progressive economic thought. That was the context. It was a very interesting struggle because it was overtly political about education and people's rights to learn a diversity of views."

The story of the long struggle is now documented in Political Economy Now!, penned by three of main combatants in the fight – Frank Stilwell, Gavan Butler and Evan Jones. These renegade academics were not deterred by the David and Goliath situation that emerged, as they came up against the likes of Vice-Chancellor Bruce Williams and other orthodox economics stalwarts such as Professors Warren Hogan and Colin Simkin.

About 1983, Hogan proposed ending political economy’s status as a separate stream within the undergraduate economics degree.

The change would have downgraded its status and reduced the influence of two prominent left-wing academics, Frank Stilwell and Ted Wheelwright, who had developed a following on campus.

Albanese and other students protested. They occupied the clock tower in the university’s quadrangle. Several protesters scaled the tower and bent the clock’s hands. A caravan was towed on to campus to function as a protest headquarters and a place to sleep.

After three weeks, a new unit of the NSW police, the tactical response unit, removed the students from campus offices. Albanese and eight others were charged with discipline breaches by the university. Albanese was briefly banned from campus and fined about $100.

Police arrested David Re, Adam Rorris, Tony Westmore, Daniel Luscombe, Chris Gration and Anthony Albanese.

University authorities issued disciplinary proceedings against three more student activists Paul Porteous, Marijke Conrade and Maria Barac.