Tim Anderson (political economist)

Tim Anderson
Born30 April 1953
Occupation(s)Academic and activist

Tim Anderson (born 30 April 1953)[1] is an Australian academic and activist. He was a senior lecturer at the University of Sydney until early 2019,[2] and the author of several books on independent development and anti-imperialism. In 1979, he was convicted and imprisoned for an alleged Ananda Marga conspiracy to murder a National Front leader Robert Cameron,[3] but was pardoned in 1985 after an inquiry and awarded compensation.[4] In a linked case, in 1990 he was convicted of ordering the 1978 Sydney Hilton Hotel bombing and sentenced to fourteen years' imprisonment, but was acquitted on appeal in 1991.[5] He subsequently became active in prisoners' rights and civil liberties groups, and has been involved with international solidarity and civil rights campaigns. He has worked as an academic since the early 1990s.[6]

Anderson was suspended from his post at the University of Sydney in early December 2018 for "serious misconduct" and subsequently terminated. In 2019, the National Tertiary Education Union joined Anderson in a federal court action against Anderson's dismissal.[6] The initial decision of that court was that an academic freedom clause did not protect Anderson from dismissal for breaches of the university's code of conduct. In August 2021, this ruling was reversed on appeal to the full court. It was not determined at the appeal whether Anderson's actions were a legitimate exercise of his intellectual freedom; the matter is to be readjudicated in the lower court.[7][8] In October 2022, the Federal Court ruled that Anderson had been unlawfully sacked by the University of Sydney.

  1. ^ "Tim Anderson v. Australia, Communication No. 1367/2005". University of Minnesota, from United Nations Human Rights Committee. 15 November 2006. Archived from the original on 27 February 2017. Retrieved 26 February 2017.
  2. ^ Baker, Jordan (13 February 2019). "Sydney University sacks controversial lecturer over swastika image". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 13 February 2019. Retrieved 13 February 2019.
  3. ^ Dunn, Irina. "The Ananda Marga Trial" (PDF). Legal Service Bulletin. Archived (PDF) from the original on 6 December 2018. Retrieved 6 December 2018.
  4. ^ Free Alister Dunn and Anderson: The Ananda Marga Conspiracy Case, Wild & Woolley, 1985.
  5. ^ Julia Rabar, Australian terrorism born in the Sydney Hilton bombing Archived 21 May 2022 at the Wayback Machine, Herald Sun, December 20, 2012
  6. ^ a b Bonyhady, Nick (31 August 2021). "Court backs academics' free speech in swastika dismissal case". The Sydney Morning Herald. Archived from the original on 17 May 2022. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
  7. ^ Morris, Narrelle; Levine, Pnina (3 September 2021). "Court gives legal weight to academics' right to intellectual freedom, but it's not the final word". The Conversation. Archived from the original on 17 May 2022. Retrieved 17 May 2022.
  8. ^ "Australia: Court upholds University of Sydney's collective agreement protecting academic freedom". Education International. 8 September 2021. Archived from the original on 11 September 2021. Retrieved 17 May 2022.