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How Not to Join the Army

These publications from SDA (Society for Democratic Action) created a big stir on the UQ campus when they circulated in 1969. Both booklets were immediately banned.


SDA in Brisbane re-printed the material. The material for the original booklet came from Resistance (a bookshop and activist group in Sydney) while the material for #2 came from Lot’s Wife (the student newspaper from Monash University in Melbourne).
The Labor Club Anti-Conscription Committee in Brisbane helped to distribute this publication. As well as Labor Club and SDA members, the Anti-Conscription Committee membership included several from the Liberal Club, some from Christian groups and some University staff members.
The distribution of the booklets met with considerable controversy, not the least of which because the publications were deemed "illegal". Their content was also quite provocative, and designed to bring media attention to the issue of Conscription as much as provide useful information to potential Conscripts.
In fact the main work of the Labor Club Anti-Conscription Committee (and similar groups) was far more discrete, and was designed to provide carefully-prepared legal, medical and political advice directly to young men to help them avoid Conscription.
As to the original source of the two booklets in Australia, the Percy brothers (from Sydney’s Resistance) claim that an anarchist seaman gave them a copy of How Not to Join the Army that had been produced in the US. The sailor also gave the brothers $20 and asked them to make copies. The rest is history....

How Not To Join the Army

How not to Join the Army 1

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Article Index

  • 1967 Civil Liberties March
  • The Phenomenon of UQ Forum
  • Vietnam Protest Week, March 1966
  • Anti-Conscription March and City Rally, 1966
  • Indigenous Resistances
  • Differences
  • Primitif Café (1957-1974)
  • FOCO Radical Cultural Venue Brisbane 1968-69
  • The growth of the Radical Movement
  • Remembering the '60s Radical Politics in Brisbane
  • Women's House
  • A Decade Reviewed 1964-1974
  • Jim Beatson Interview
  • Joe McGinness (1914 - 2003)
  • Sam Watson
  • The Battle For Bowen Hills
  • Cloudland 1940-1982
  • Bellevue Hotel, Brisbane (1886 – 1979)
  • Transcript of 4ZZ-FM's opening statement
  • John Woods 1946-2001
  • Community-Owned Media by Jim Beatson
  • Merle Thornton
  • Gandhi (video)
  • A voice from the present...
  • The C.M.F. Occupation and Quang Incident
  • The 1971 Strike at the University of Queensland
  • Springboks and Qld State of Emergency
  • Quiet Day at Lone Pine, 1971
  • Grahame Garner
  • Drama at the Astor Theatre
  • Michael Callaghan (1952 - 2012)
  • Eureka Youth League
  • Mick Hadley (1942 - 2012)
  • Brisbane's Music Scene
  • HARPO
  • Mackenzie Theory
  • The Waterside Workers Federation Film Unit
  • Alternative Media Brisbane 1965-1985
  • The Queensland radical press in 1968.
  • Women's Movement Brisbane 1970s
  • Self-Management Group
  • Bjelke Bitter Beer Ad
  • Historical Summary
  • Nimbin Aquarius Festival
  • How Not to Join the Army
  • Impact
  • Student Guerilla Publication Brisbane 1968
  • The Brisbane Line
  • Wank
  • Gandhi's ideas in Brisbane action
  • Emma Miller (1839-1917)
  • "Boonaroo" a song by Don Henderson
  • Avalon Theatre Post War Drama and Radical Revues
  • Jim Sharp - principles & particulars
  • Black Power
  • Springbok Tour Protest Brisbane
  • Indigenous Language Map Map
  • Protest and Hope
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Brisbane's radical movements in the 1960s & 1970s