Family Name:
Matteson
Given Names:
Michael Christopher
Gender:
Male
Birth-date:
January 1947
Death-date:
Unknown
Marital Status:
Unknown, probably single
Age/ Age Range:
20 years old
Location:
NSW, Newtown
Occupation:
Social Work Student
Primary Motivation:
Draft Resister-Anarchism
Reason for Court Appearance:
[1] Refusal to register for national service
[2] Refusal to attend the medical examination
[3] Continued acts of non-compliance including hiding from the police
[4] Resisting arrest Sydney University
Court Name and Location:
[1] Unknown, Unknown
[2] Magistrates Court, Sydney
[3] Unknown, Sydney
[4] Unknown, Sydney
Court Hearing Date:
[1] 9 December 1968
[2] 13 October 1970
[3] 9 November 1972
[4] 17 November 1972
Court Outcome:
[1] Convicted and fined$40 plus costs $17- or 29-days jail in lieu of non-payment, non-payment served 29 days imprisonment
[2] Convicted and fined $50 plus $22 costs, jailed for 7 days, for refusal to enter into a recognizance to attend a future medical examination
[3] Sentenced to 18 months hard labour jail
[4] Sentenced to 18 months to be served with previous sentence
Military Event:
National Service and Vietnam war 1964-1972
Further Information:
Michael Christopher Matteson was a teacher from Newtown, a suburb of Sydney. He was born during January 1947 in Georgia, United States of America. He came to Australia at the age of 6 years old. He retained his American citizenship. He refused to register for the American draft at eighteen years old, 1965. He again refused to register for Australian military service in January 1967. He was an American citizen and was liable to its draft. During December 1967 he informed Minister Bury he would not comply with the National Service Act 1964 (NSA). He told the Minister that, were I to register and then plead as a conscientious objector, I would be pleading only my own case saying…that the National Service Act is just, and soldiers go in this door, conscientious objectors the other. Yet I don’t think the National Service Act is just, but because of my special beliefs wrong for me. I think that it is wrong for everybody – that the government has the right to conscript no one. If I objected only for myself, I would be tacitly affirming that the law was ‘just’ (right) for others.
On 9 December 1968 he was convicted and fined for remaining unregistered. On 5 May 1969 Michael was arrested at his home and taken to the State Penitentiary to serve twenty-nine days for non-payment of the fine for failing to register. Michael stated that, Today I will be taken to Long Bay gaol to serve 29 days in lieu of my fine for refusing to register for National Service in January 1969…As I believe that conscription is wrong, I felt I should not register for it; to do so would be to participate in a law I think is wrong. I believe I should not conform to laws I think are wrong…I feel conscription is wrong because I am an Anarchist- that is I believe that a man must always do what he feels is right regardless of whether this is approved by the State. Michael then sought to counter a common charge that an anarchist society could never work. He claimed that, I think an Anarchist society is practical in that it will work. If people want it to; stateless societies have persisted for centuries…an anarchist society will last as long as people want it to. Michael then made an argument which was rarely made by those opposed to conscription. He conceded that conscription was neither undemocratic not illegal. However, he stated that, even if ninety per cent of the Australian community wanted conscription he would still oppose it. His reason was, If conscription is both legal and democratic, it is still nothing more than legal or democratic slavery…I am free to the extent that I can follow my own conscience –when I do so, I am acting as a free man-to be 22 and in gaol is what it means to be free in Australia today. Michael refused to undertake a medical examination. He was convicted on 13 October 1970 and fined. He was jailed for seven days for refusing to enter into a recognizance to attend a future medical examination. He refused to enter a plea and informed the court in a statement to it that he was an anarchist, and he therefore regarded all laws as undesirable, the NSA in particular.
Michael went into hiding but escaped capture by the authorities after being freed by some Sydney University students on 24 April 1971 after Michael had appeared on the Australian Broadcasting Commission’s programme called ‘This Day Tonight’. During September 1971 Michael with members of the Melbourne Draft Resisters Union set up a pirate station at Melbourne University. After an unsuccessful attempt the police failed to arrest any. Michael Matteson and Michael Hamel-Green were present when the police raided again. They hid in a cavity behind a wall and were not captured. Michael returned to Sydney and managed dramatically to avoid being captured, especially with the help of Sydney University students.
Matteson returned to his family home. His mother phoned the police stating that he wished to surrender. Police arrested him on 9 November. He was sentenced to 18 months hard labour. On 17 November 1972 he was sentenced to another 18 months in prison for resisting arrest at Sydney University to be served concurrently with the previous sentence. He was released from Long Bay Jail on 6 December 1972 with six others by the newly elected Labour government of Gough Whitlam which was elected 2 December 1972. The NSA was suspended and during 1973 repealed.
Confirmatory Sources:
NAA: A6119, 3455 Matteson, Michael Christophe, Volume 1. 1969-1972. https://recordsearch.naa.gov.au/SearchNRetrieve/Interface/ViewImage.aspx?B=8194663 accessed 12 July 2019.
Bobbie Oliver, Hell! No We Won’t Go; Resistance to Conscription in Postwar Australia, Interventions, Melbourne, 2022, esp. pp.162-170.
Peacemaker, January/ February 1969, p.6; May/ June 1969, p.6; March/ April 1970, p.6; August/ September 1970, p.7; October/ November 1970, p.3; January/ February 1971, p.10; March/ April 1971, p.10; September/ December 1971, pp. 3, 4 and 6.
Vivienne Abraham Notes, Michael Matteson File; Tribune, 29 September 1971.
Courtesy: The Peacemaker, January/ February 1969, p.6.
THE AUSTRALIAN PEACE HONOUR ROLL 