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.
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Kissing arse

David Horowitz, a former left-wing activist now right-wing attack dog (and editor of Frontpage mag), is fond of the Republican party under George W. Bush. How fond? Here’s David describing his recent attendance at the White House Hanukkah party:

“I hadn’t been at an event with the President (who is looking slim and trim) in four years and didn’t know if he would recognize me. But the minute he saw me in the line he called out ‘Horowitz’ with a big smile on his face, then embraced me in a bear hug. In the moment I had his ear I said, ‘Thank you for taking all those arrows for the rest of us.’ Graciously, he said, ‘You take more than I do,’ which I don’t and said so. Then as I was walking away he called out, ‘Don’t let them get to you.’ I called back, ‘Don’t you either,’ and he replied in a strong voice. ‘I won’t.’

A force for freedom in the world salutes his king.

17 comments ↪
  • Jozef Imrich, Esq.

    The headline says it all …

  • orang

    I'm amazed at the gag reflex. You know that can actually teach yourself to not throw up projectile vomit when you read this stuff.

  • Wombat

    I'm surprised Pretzeldent dind't plant a nice sloppy kiss on his a la Joseph Lieberman.Hororowitz really could use a padded cell.

  • Wombat

    Speaking fo padded cells, anyone knwo what's happened to Ibraham? Hope he's ok.

  • James Waterton

    Sorry, what was that? All this talk made me imagine how high an interlude between Robert Fisk and Loewenstein would rate on the fawn-o-meter.

  • Wombat

    What's the matter James, you don't see any disrinction between a shill who sits in the comfort of his office and makes up crap while his wallet get's padded by lobby groups and think tanks, and one who actually gets his hands dirty doing some old fashioned invetigation?

  • James Waterton

    Nope – just saying kissing arse is universal, is all.

  • James Waterton

    Actually, bugger Fisk. Howabout Loewenstein and Chavez? A force for freedom in the world salutes his king.

  • Wombat

    Out fo curiosity, what's your beef with Chavez James?

  • James Waterton

    His socialist lies, mainly. I also think he's a dangerous ideologue. I believe the man's capable of human rights atrocities if it keeps him in power. I think the worst is yet to come in regards to Chavez.

  • orang

    In the meantime make the most of someone who tells The Idiot , you are an idiot, I know you hate me, but the whole world is watching so if anything happens to me , they'll know you dunnit you f*kin moron with a big gun….Ahh democracy.

  • Wombat

    James,So Chavez spouts socialist lies, and he's capable of human rights atrocities to keep him in power. Hmmm right.So the status quo is more preferable? US lies and human rights atrocities that the US has perpetrated for decades. We have a Chimp in the White House who is moving every day closer to unlimited government control and authority, and we should be worried about Chavez?The greatest acts of wholesale slaughter have all been US perpetrated or backed and we should be afraid of what Chavez might do one day?That’s some lofty moral standards there James.People love or hate Chavez, no question. There is no dispute that he is drawing focus to the foreign policies of the US and the barbaric practices of the IMF. I mean for how bizzaro is this James, we have multi-nationals doing going around buying up the rights to fresh water (including rain water) and then selling it to the locals at some outrageous cost? What's next, rights to fresh air?Latin America has been repeatedly raped and subjugated by the US and multi-nationals for more than half a century. The worst charge that Chavez's critics can say about him is what might happen under his influence. Latin America just paid back a 10 billion dollar loan to the IMF. That's a good thing no? Latin American countries like Venezuela and Ecuador are taking back control of their resources and deciding who gets to profit, how much and where the profits go. That's a good thing too right? Or are those Latinos just to dumb to take c are of themselves?Given that most of Latin America is heading towards socialist rule, I'd say let's see what happens. If the experiment fails, then fine, it will never be revisited. Seems to me however, that Chavez’s critics re more afraid that the experiment will succeed.I don’t mean to patronize you James, but if you have a chance to read the book by John Perkins “confessions of an Economic Hitman” I would strongly recommend it. Here is a recent article by the guy. And he is no conspiracy nut either. The guy was involved at the coal face in corrupting governments in developing countries by buying off their leaders and enslaving the countries with unplayable debts.http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article11557.htm

  • CB

    I can only presume you are posting your drivel from this socialist shithole paradise, no? "I don’t mean to patronize you James," ,so you go ahead and do so anyway. Hypocrite. I'm not sure you could even lay straight in bed.

  • orang

    Mmmm, a little ungracious of you I think cb.You are only a click away from right wing nirvana if you don't like what you see here.

  • Wombat

    CB,James and I have an undertsanding that stems back fom earlier debates. Best you stay out of issues beyond your factualyl challenged, right-wing keyhole. Jon Perkins is not a pundit, but someone who was involved at thte very coal face of what I was talking about. One day you'll figure out that right does not mean right wing.

  • CB

    ADD. Stick it, you sanctimonious prick.

  • Wombat

    One day I said. Obviosuly not today.

January 13th, 2006 in General