Dreams of a united Left? The SDA’s role in the rise (and fall) of a radical New Left in Queensland

Despite its reputation as a conservative heartland in the twentieth century, the Australian state of Queensland was also home to some of the most radical left-wing activists the country ever produced. Student activists such as Brian Laver and Mitch Thompson were central to the establishment of the Society for Democratic Action (SDA), a radical organisation that helped usher in the New Left in Queensland. This article examines the SDA’s importance in forging a consensus-driven coalition between the Old and New Left in 1967, as well as the central role played by the SDA’s charismatic leader Laver in the dissolution of that coalition as he led radical leftists in Queensland to increasingly adopt militant tactics in their fight against a repressive conservative government.