Orthodox Marxism
Stilwell arrived at Sydney University in 1970, to an economics department that was deeply divided on the teaching of the qualitative and quantitative methods in economics. The roots of the dispute were framed by the rise of the new social movements of the late 1960s and the early 1970s, especially: the Anti-conscription campaigns surrounding the Vietnam war, the women’s movement, the (later) the anti-Springbok demonstration and the black rights protests. In politics, the election of Gough Whitlam forged the capacity for an alternative future for Australian economic governance. The crisis of stagflation and free education also had significantly impacted the political culture of the period. Dissident academic traditions were being forged in Paris and Berkeley challenging academic hierarchies; The New Left emerged to challenge the dominance of Orthodox Marxism, meanwhile the Green Bans showed the capacity for community and unionists coalitions.