Best-selling journalist Antony Loewenstein trav­els across Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea, the United States, Britain, Greece, and Australia to witness the reality of disaster capitalism. He discovers how companies such as G4S, Serco, and Halliburton cash in on or­ganized misery in a hidden world of privatized detention centers, militarized private security, aid profiteering, and destructive mining.

Disaster has become big business. Talking to immigrants stuck in limbo in Britain or visiting immigration centers in America, Loewenstein maps the secret networks formed to help cor­porations bleed what profits they can from economic crisis. He debates with Western contractors in Afghanistan, meets the locals in post-earthquake Haiti, and in Greece finds a country at the mercy of vulture profiteers. In Papua New Guinea, he sees a local commu­nity forced to rebel against predatory resource companies and NGOs.

What emerges through Loewenstein’s re­porting is a dark history of multinational corpo­rations that, with the aid of media and political elites, have grown more powerful than national governments. In the twenty-first century, the vulnerable have become the world’s most valu­able commodity. Disaster Capitalism is published by Verso in 2015 and in paperback in January 2017.

Profits_of_doom_cover_350Vulture capitalism has seen the corporation become more powerful than the state, and yet its work is often done by stealth, supported by political and media elites. The result is privatised wars and outsourced detention centres, mining companies pillaging precious land in developing countries and struggling nations invaded by NGOs and the corporate dollar. Best-selling journalist Antony Loewenstein travels to Afghanistan, Pakistan, Haiti, Papua New Guinea and across Australia to witness the reality of this largely hidden world of privatised detention centres, outsourced aid, destructive resource wars and militarized private security. Who is involved and why? Can it be stopped? What are the alternatives in a globalised world? Profits of Doom, published in 2013 and released in an updated edition in 2014, challenges the fundamentals of our unsustainable way of life and the money-making imperatives driving it. It is released in an updated edition in 2014.
forgodssakecover Four Australian thinkers come together to ask and answer the big questions, such as: What is the nature of the universe? Doesn't religion cause most of the conflict in the world? And Where do we find hope?   We are introduced to different belief systems – Judaism, Christianity, Islam – and to the argument that atheism, like organised religion, has its own compelling logic. And we gain insight into the life events that led each author to their current position.   Jane Caro flirted briefly with spiritual belief, inspired by 19th century literary heroines such as Elizabeth Gaskell and the Bronte sisters. Antony Loewenstein is proudly culturally, yet unconventionally, Jewish. Simon Smart is firmly and resolutely a Christian, but one who has had some of his most profound spiritual moments while surfing. Rachel Woodlock grew up in the alternative embrace of Baha'i belief but became entranced by its older parent religion, Islam.   Provocative, informative and passionately argued, For God's Sake, published in 2013, encourages us to accept religious differences, but to also challenge more vigorously the beliefs that create discord.  
After Zionism, published in 2012 and 2013 with co-editor Ahmed Moor, brings together some of the world s leading thinkers on the Middle East question to dissect the century-long conflict between Zionism and the Palestinians, and to explore possible forms of a one-state solution. Time has run out for the two-state solution because of the unending and permanent Jewish colonization of Palestinian land. Although deep mistrust exists on both sides of the conflict, growing numbers of Palestinians and Israelis, Jews and Arabs are working together to forge a different, unified future. Progressive and realist ideas are at last gaining a foothold in the discourse, while those influenced by the colonial era have been discredited or abandoned. Whatever the political solution may be, Palestinian and Israeli lives are intertwined, enmeshed, irrevocably. This daring and timely collection includes essays by Omar Barghouti, Jonathan Cook, Joseph Dana, Jeremiah Haber, Jeff Halper, Ghada Karmi, Antony Loewenstein, Saree Makdisi, John Mearsheimer, Ahmed Moor, Ilan Pappe, Sara Roy and Phil Weiss.
The 2008 financial crisis opened the door for a bold, progressive social movement. But despite widespread revulsion at economic inequity and political opportunism, after the crash very little has changed. Has the Left failed? What agenda should progressives pursue? And what alternatives do they dare to imagine? Left Turn, published by Melbourne University Press in 2012 and co-edited with Jeff Sparrow, is aimed at the many Australians disillusioned with the political process. It includes passionate and challenging contributions by a diverse range of writers, thinkers and politicians, from Larissa Berendht and Christos Tsiolkas to Guy Rundle and Lee Rhiannon. These essays offer perspectives largely excluded from the mainstream. They offer possibilities for resistance and for a renewed struggle for change.
The Blogging Revolution, released by Melbourne University Press in 2008, is a colourful and revelatory account of bloggers around the globe why live and write under repressive regimes - many of them risking their lives in doing so. Antony Loewenstein's travels take him to private parties in Iran and Egypt, internet cafes in Saudi Arabia and Damascus, to the homes of Cuban dissidents and into newspaper offices in Beijing, where he discovers the ways in which the internet is threatening the ruld of governments. Through first-hand investigations, he reveals the complicity of Western multinationals in assisting the restriction of information in these countries and how bloggers are leading the charge for change. The blogging revolution is a superb examination about the nature of repression in the twenty-first century and the power of brave individuals to overcome it. It was released in an updated edition in 2011, post the Arab revolutions, and an updated Indian print version in 2011.
The best-selling book on the Israel/Palestine conflict, My Israel Question - on Jewish identity, the Zionist lobby, reporting from Palestine and future Middle East directions - was released by Melbourne University Press in 2006. A new, updated edition was released in 2007 (and reprinted again in 2008). The book was short-listed for the 2007 NSW Premier's Literary Award. Another fully updated, third edition was published in 2009. It was released in all e-book formats in 2011. An updated and translated edition was published in Arabic in 2012.
Subscribe
Donate
Search

Defending the right to protest Pine Gap

I signed the following public statement to support peaceful protest of the secretive US spy base at Pine Gap in Australia. It’s directed at Attorney General George Brandis:

We seek your urgent intervention to protect the right to freedom of speech, expression, political communication and of religion for six Australian citizens who face up to seven years in jail for a peaceful protest in which they were praying and playing musical instruments.

In September 2016, several hundred Australians of diverse ages, professions and creeds gathered in Alice Springs to mark the 50th anniversary of the signing of the Pine Gap Agreement.

As part of the peaceful protests near the facility, five Christians prayed and played a musical lament, regarding the role of Pine Gap in war-fighting in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, and Syria. They were arrested.

The peaceful and symbolic ceremonies conducted by Margaret Pestorius, Tim Webb, Franz Dowling, Andrew Paine, Jim Dowling, as well as Paul Christie (arrested in a separate incident), were intended to bear witness to the death and suffering of civilians as a result of United States military operations, including drone assassinations, facilitated by surveillance conducted at Pine Gap.

Since their peaceful protests, more evidence has emerged detailing the role of Pine Gap in the activities that concerned the Peace Pilgrims. It implicates Australia in extrajudicial drone assassinations in countries with which we are not at war, in nuclear weapons targeting and in illegal mass surveillance.

Three months after the protest, you authorised the prosecution of these concerned citizens for ‘unlawful entry’ under the Defence Special Undertakings Act 1952 (Cth).

That legislation was drafted at the height of the Cold War to secure areas for British nuclear testing, and it permits prosecutions to be held in secret, and for records of hearings to be destroyed, imposing penalties of up to $42,000 and 7 years in jail.

This prosecution occurs as Australia prepares to serve on the UN Human Rights Council and when UN Rapporteurs have criticised policies, laws and actions of your government that undermine freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and the right to protest. These are fundamental civil rights, and they are profoundly important when governments are engaged in the sort of conduct which Pine Gap facilitates.

Five of the defendants are devout Christians. Their faith impelled them to give voice to the teachings of peace and love for humanity and creation found in the Bible.

In this case, where Australian citizens were doing no more than praying and peacefully expressing dissent, prosecuting them is not only grossly inappropriate but a shocking waste of court resources.

We, the undersigned, urge you to exercise your discretion to direct this punitive, disproportionate and expensive prosecution be discontinued before the matter comes to court in Alice Springs on 13 November 2017.

  • Jennifer Robinson, human rights lawyer, Doughty Chambers
  • Ben Oquist, Executive Director, The Australia Institute
  • Antony Loewenstein, independent journalist and author
  • Alex Kelly, documentary filmmaker
  • Melinda Taylor, international criminal lawyer
  • Rebecca Peters AO
  • Julian Burnside AO QC
  • Scott Ludlam​, writer, graphic designer, activist​
  • Asher Wolf, journalist, Cryptoparty founder
  • Dr Giordano Nanni, ​founder ​Juice Media
  • Kellie Tranter, lawyer and human rights activist
  • Benedict Coyne, President, Australian Lawyers for Human Rights
  • Anthony Kelly, Executive Officer, Flemington & Kensington Community Legal Centre Inc.
  • Dr Helen Caldicott, President, Beyond Nuclear
  • Professor Brian Martin, University of Wollongong
  • John Pilger, journalist and filmmaker ​
  • Mark Zirnsak, Director, Justice & International Mission, Uniting Church​
  • Elizabeth O’Shea, lawyer
  • Professor Tilman Ruff AM
  • Father Peter Maher OAM
  • Archie Law, Chair, Sydney Peace Foundation
  • Tim Lo Surdo, founding director, Democracy in Colour
  • Richard Tanter, Honorary Professorial Fellow, University of Melbourne
  • Emeritus Professor Joseph A. Camilleri OAM
  • Paddy Manning, journalist
  • Dr Sue Wareham OAM
  • Professor Emeritus Stuart Rees AM, University of Sydney
  • Annette Brownlie, Chairperson IPAN
  • Romina Beistseen, Secretary CICD
  • Helen Razer, writer and broadcaster
  • Professor Robert Moody, Melbourne University
  • Shirley Winton, Spirit of Eureka (Victoria)
  • Jeff Sparrow, writer, editor and broadcaster
  • Dr Margaret Beavis, ​Immediate Past President, ​Medical Association for Prevention of War
  • Andrew Farran, international lawyer
  • Dr. Alison Broinowski, writer and former Australian diplomat
  • Father John Pettit OCSO
  • Chas Licciardello, writer, comedian, broadcaster
  • John Menadue AO, businessperson and former Australian diplomat
  • Cam Walker, National Liaison Officer, Friends of the Earth
  • Rob Stary, criminal defence lawyer, Adjunct Professor of Law Victoria University
  • Bernard Keane, Politics Editor, Crikey
  • Brett Dean, Composer, Viola player
  • Professor Peter Norden AO, Fellow, Australian & New Zealand Society of Criminology
  • Dr Tim Sherratt, University of Canberra
  • Chris Drummond, Theatre Director
  • Paul Barratt, Former Secretary, Dep’t of Defence, President, Australians for War Powers Reform
  • Donna Mulhearn, writer and activist
  • Harold Wilkinson, Quaker Peace and Legislation Committee
  • Anne Sgro OAM, President of Union of Australian Women Victoria
  • Professor Mary Heath, Flinders University
  • Dr. Peter Burdon, Associate Professor, Adelaide Law School, University of Adelaide
  • Dr Sal Humphreys, Media Studies, University of Adelaide
  • Tim Singleton Norton, Chair, Digital Rights Watch
  • Greg Barns , Barrister, Former National President Australian Lawyers Alliance
  • Richard Broinowski, President, AIIA NSW
  • Associate Professor Debra King, Sociology, Flinders University
  • Denis Doherty, national co-ordinator, Australian Anti-Bases Campaign Coalition
  • Dr Hannah Middleton, peace and justice activist
  • Mary Kostakidis, journalist
  • Frank Moorehouse AM, writer
  • Roger Clarke, UNSW, ANU, Australian Privacy Foundation
  • Amanda Tattersall, Host, ChangeMakers
  • Tim Hollo, Executive Director, the Green Institute
  • Senator Richard Di Natale, Leader of the Australian Greens and Senator for Victoria
  • Adam Bandt MP, Acting Co-Deputy Leader, Australian Greens and Federal Member for Melbourne
  • Senator Janet Rice, Senator for Victoria
  • Senator Lee Rhiannon, Senator for NSW
  • Senator Rachel Siewert, Acting Co-deputy Leader Australian Greens, Senator for Western Australia
  • Senator Peter Whish-Wilson, Senator for Tasmania
  • Senator Sarah Hanson-Young, Senator for South Australia
  • David Pledger, artist, curator
  • Jo Vallentine, People for Nuclear Disarmament, W.A.
  • Rob Pyne MP, Independent Member for Cairns
no comments – be the first ↪
November 6th, 2017 in General