173: UTOPIAN VISIONS
ISBN 0 9759554 9 9
SUMMER 2003

In Overland 173: Utopia? Australian idealism CARMEN LAWRENCE considers Labor’s loss of values and idealism that has turned ALP voters toward the Greens. “The Greens are attracting new voters and, perhaps more importantly, activists. The ALP is not. This is most evident among the young, the better educated and the more politically aware.” GRAHAM MADDOX presents a strong case for the maintenance and revival of the ALP socialist pledge. ROBYN WALTON challenges the ‘end of utopia’ claim, writing: “Every time some idealistic scheme failed, scholars felt obliged to re-announce utopia’s demise. By 1989 utopia had retired more times than Melba.” KEN GELDER analyses the links between terrorism and the “literary form of fundamentalism”: modern epic-fantasy fiction. SEAN SCALMER and SARAH MADDISON give voice to the activists and campaigners for social justice, so often characterised and derided but so rarely heard in mainstream media. The history of student activism is discussed in this issue by JEANNIE REA, MICK ARMSTRONG and BEN ROSENZWEIG. In his review essay, DENNIS GLOVER is not convinced by the sometimes ostentatiously ‘new’ directions advanced in two prominent books on Australian public policy.And JAY BULWORTH gives some surprising fuel for activists: the internationally-recognised law of ‘odious debt’. Issue 173 contains Overland's regular serve of fiction, poetry and reviews.