Women, Conscription, War:
the stories of Melbourne women who protested during the Vietnam War.
All Episodes
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Women had a wide variety of motives for being involved in the protest movement against the Vietnam War and National Service.
Save Our Sons was a prominent group who started by protesting against the National Service Act, and would eventually also protest against the Vietnam War.
High school students were involved in protesting conscription and the Vietnam War, both individually and in groups.
Students from the University of Melbourne were heavily involved in protesting both the National Service Act and the Vietnam War.
Students at La Trobe University got very involved in protesting against the National Service Act and the Vietnam War.
Students at Monash University, and particularly in the Monash Labor Club, were heavily involved in protesting against the Vietnam War and the National Service Act.
Monash University students were some of the key people involved in raising money to send to the National Liberation Front - one of the groups Australian soldiers were fighting against in Vietnam.
Many women worked to help the men who were ‘draft resisters’ - evading arrest for not complying with the National Service Act.
The May 1970 Moratorium march in Melbourne was the largest street protest yet seen in Australia.
When the American president, Lyndon B Johnson, visited Melbourne, he was met by many people who were not keen on going “All the way with LBJ.”
Some people involved in protesting against the Vietnam War, and the National Service Act, did so at least in part for religious reasons.
Musicians and actors were heavily involved in protesting the Vietnam War and National Service, in a variety of ways.
There were many, many ways that women expressed their opposition to the National Service Act and the Vietnam War.
Women have different perspectives on how important women were in the overall protest movement.
An introduction to the issues covered in this podcast series: who I am, what the project is about, when the Vietnam War was and what conscription in Australia involved.