This is a book about the deepening integration of the Australian economy into the world market and the social and political changes which have accompanied that process in the last two decades of the twentieth century. I was initially a critic of these developments and politically active in the opposition to globalising Australia. Like many intellectuals of the anti-Vietnam War generation I joined the Left. During the Hawke- Keating Labor governments, however, I tried to be realistic and served on numerous ALP decision-making bodies, including delegate to State and national conferences, worked for three ministers in Immigration, Community Services, Defence and Industry, and spent three years as a federal MP.

During this period I came to the conclusion that the kind of structural changes described in this book were inevitable. In the university system, where I now again work, this viewpoint is generally accepted even less critically in economics departments. Elsewhere in the Arts and Social Sciences globalisation is generally opposed. I am now trying to enjoy it. I would like to thank Deborah Feagan, Natalie Mahoney, Chris Hill and Tom Conley for helping prepare this manuscript and John Playford for insisting I get it published. The book is for Pat.