The first full program of courses in political economy at an Australian university began in 1975. It was in the product of a long struggle by a dissident student-staff movement at the University of Sydney, campaigning for a PE course that students could take as an alternative to mainstream economics.
The struggle took place at a time when social activism in Australia was developing on many fronts – feminist, environmentalist, anti-apartheid and anti-imperialist, for peace and Indigenous peoples’ rights. It was a context in which the local activists’ success in getting a PE course up and running contributed to the view that ‘another world is possible’ because it showed that formally powerless groups can make a difference in driving change.
The early PE activists hoped that similar course programs would be established at other universities, and many struggled to try to make it happen. The Australian Political Economy Movement (APEM) was formed in 1976 to provide nationwide support and set up the Journal of Australian Political Economy (JAPE). as its flagship publication. In practice, however, the development of PE courses beyond Sydney Uni turned out to be more sporadic, usually depending on the personal interests and comings and goings of academic staff at those other universities. Moreover, the changing social, political and economic context has become less conducive to initiatives of this kind than it was in the 1970s.
