*Ø* Blogmanac | Obituary: Deputy Prime Minister and hip leader
Antiwar and social change activist, policeman, academic, parliamentarian, counter cultural theorist
By Takver, Thursday October 16, 2003 at 12:46 AM
"On Sunday 12 October Jim Cairns, former policeman, academic, Labor politician, anti-war activist, Deputy Prime Minister, and countercultural activist and theorist, died at home at the age of 89. Jim Cairns will be remembered for his idealism and his commitment to social change using different strategies over his life.
"Dr Cairns was a senior lecturer in economic history at the University of Melbourne before standing for Parliament. He was a Member of the House of Representatives from 1955 to 1977 and served as Deputy Prime Minister and Federal Treasurer from 1974 to 1975.
On the 8th May 1970 Jim Cairns led 100,000 people through the streets of Melbourne in a peaceful protest against the Vietnam war. Tens of thousands of people marched in other cities around Australia. The Vietnam Moratorium movement was the culmination of several years of anti-war agitation. The Moratorium movement acted to legitimate street protests - the right of people to peacefully occupy and reclaim the streets as an act of protest.
"In 1976 Jim Cairns was the primary initiator for the first Down to Earth Confest held at the Cotter River in Canberra. Bob James describes the organising of the event:
"'Somewhere in there I ran into Karen Rush, an aide to Jim Cairns who was looking for a local Canberra group to provide logistical support for an idea he had. After he and I had talked, "Alternative Canberra" became the co-ordinating group in the run-up to the first Down to Earth Confest. I've often laughed about going to meetings in No 2 Caucus Room, in the old Parliament House, straight from "the farm", and deciding we'd go just as we were. The security guards knew exactly who we were and said nothing as we walked up the steps, sometimes in just our "Halleluja hats", underpants, t-shirts and big rubber boots.' http://www.takver.com/history/journey.htm
"Dr Graham St John, from his thesis: "Alternative Cultural Heterotopia: ConFest as Australia's Marginal Centre" elaborates further:
"'In 1976, preceding his retirement from federal politics the following year, Cairns produced a manifesto: "The Theory of the Alternative". The document encapsulated his ideas about, and intentions for, cultural revolution, and as far as later developments were concerned, it was embryonic. In it, Cairns revealed his principal aim: "to transform society and bring an end to alienation, oppression, exploitation and inequality" (1976:16). "Survival now [Cairns stated] requires a radical break with the past; it demands a future which has to be created. Survival demands a revolution in the way of life of everyone' (ibid:3). The necessary radical elision would be achieved in four stages. 1) 'Cultural preparation or consciousness raising'. 2) 'Building up radical groups or alternative enclaves of all kinds based on real needs of the people'. 3) 'The development of a community for change, of a peoples' liberation movement, with the capacity to challenge the structure of authority'. 4) 'The radical groups or alternative enclaves [would] take over as self-governing and regulating communities and replace the bureaucracy and machinery of the centralised, nation-State'"
http://www.confest.org/thesis/threephaseone.html
Read more about this remarkable Australian hero
James (Jim) Ford Cairns, PhD (1914 - 2003)
Antiwar and social change activist, policeman, academic, parliamentarian, counter cultural theorist
By Takver, Thursday October 16, 2003 at 12:46 AM
"On Sunday 12 October Jim Cairns, former policeman, academic, Labor politician, anti-war activist, Deputy Prime Minister, and countercultural activist and theorist, died at home at the age of 89. Jim Cairns will be remembered for his idealism and his commitment to social change using different strategies over his life.
"Dr Cairns was a senior lecturer in economic history at the University of Melbourne before standing for Parliament. He was a Member of the House of Representatives from 1955 to 1977 and served as Deputy Prime Minister and Federal Treasurer from 1974 to 1975.
On the 8th May 1970 Jim Cairns led 100,000 people through the streets of Melbourne in a peaceful protest against the Vietnam war. Tens of thousands of people marched in other cities around Australia. The Vietnam Moratorium movement was the culmination of several years of anti-war agitation. The Moratorium movement acted to legitimate street protests - the right of people to peacefully occupy and reclaim the streets as an act of protest.
"In 1976 Jim Cairns was the primary initiator for the first Down to Earth Confest held at the Cotter River in Canberra. Bob James describes the organising of the event:
"'Somewhere in there I ran into Karen Rush, an aide to Jim Cairns who was looking for a local Canberra group to provide logistical support for an idea he had. After he and I had talked, "Alternative Canberra" became the co-ordinating group in the run-up to the first Down to Earth Confest. I've often laughed about going to meetings in No 2 Caucus Room, in the old Parliament House, straight from "the farm", and deciding we'd go just as we were. The security guards knew exactly who we were and said nothing as we walked up the steps, sometimes in just our "Halleluja hats", underpants, t-shirts and big rubber boots.' http://www.takver.com/history/journey.htm
"Dr Graham St John, from his thesis: "Alternative Cultural Heterotopia: ConFest as Australia's Marginal Centre" elaborates further:
"'In 1976, preceding his retirement from federal politics the following year, Cairns produced a manifesto: "The Theory of the Alternative". The document encapsulated his ideas about, and intentions for, cultural revolution, and as far as later developments were concerned, it was embryonic. In it, Cairns revealed his principal aim: "to transform society and bring an end to alienation, oppression, exploitation and inequality" (1976:16). "Survival now [Cairns stated] requires a radical break with the past; it demands a future which has to be created. Survival demands a revolution in the way of life of everyone' (ibid:3). The necessary radical elision would be achieved in four stages. 1) 'Cultural preparation or consciousness raising'. 2) 'Building up radical groups or alternative enclaves of all kinds based on real needs of the people'. 3) 'The development of a community for change, of a peoples' liberation movement, with the capacity to challenge the structure of authority'. 4) 'The radical groups or alternative enclaves [would] take over as self-governing and regulating communities and replace the bureaucracy and machinery of the centralised, nation-State'"
http://www.confest.org/thesis/threephaseone.html
Read more about this remarkable Australian hero
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