Robert Manne's Wilfred Burchett: The Uses and Abuses of Biography

In: The Australian journal of politics and history: AJPH, Band 56, Heft 2, S. 208-224

Abstract

Robert Manne numbers amongst Australia's most influential public intellectuals. Though his politics have moved leftwards, Manne remains critical of the left's so‐called neo‐Stalinist interpretation of Cold War history. Of particular concern is the left's defence of the radical Australian journalist, Wilfred Burchett, who was widely regarded as a communist propagandist and traitor. Manne's 1985 Quadrant essay, "The Fortunes of Wilfred Burchett: A New Assessment", lent considerable academic weight to this view. Though Manne has since acknowledged some errors, he still maintains that Burchett was a communist "hack" and traitor. But Manne's argument remains selectively based and erroneous. It uncritically accepts security‐based intelligence, while sidestepping the abuse of Burchett's civil liberties by Liberal governments. Manne uses and abuses Burchett's life to push his ideological agenda about Stalinism's evils.