Geopolitical Economy of Violence

Abstract

Neoliberalism preaches the freedom to be greedy and the benefits of a better life for all by unleashing market forces on society. This more recent form of laissez-faire capitalism gained ascendancy in the war of ideas in Australian politics in the 1970s with the dismissal of the Whitlam government in 1975, assisted by the US and Australian intelligence services. The removal of Gough Whitlam from power marked the end of the possibility for social democracy and of an independent foreign policy for Australia. The neoliberal state that emerged in the following years, with the election of a Labor government in 1983, embarked on a Thatcherite programme of economic growth based on the deregulation of the economy, the privatisation of the common wealth and the commodification of everything. The process has continued with the expansion of consumer capitalism and the present mining boom, largely controlled by foreign investors, to feed Asia’s industrial and urban transformation.