State Crime on the Margins of Empire: Rio Tinto, the War on Bougainville and Resistance to Mining - State Crime

Marc Notes: Includes bibliography (pages 219-249) and index. Review Quotes: "This is quite simply the best case study so far that explicitly addresses state violence in the Global South through a state crime 'lens.'" - Tony Ward, Reader in Law, Hull University"In this compelling book, Kristian Lasslett details the horrific crimes unleashed on the people of Bougainville by a litany of local and foreign actors, including the Australian and Papua New Guinean governments and mining multinationals. Through careful analysis, he shows us that imperialism remains alive and well in the 20th and 21st centuries and the inspiring individuals who dare to resist it. I salute his unique voice in a time of intellectual cowardice." - Antony Loewenstein, independent journalist and best-selling author of My Israel Question and Profits of Doom"Marxist theory and capitalist practice seamlessly blend in this fascinating depiction of extensive state criminality in Bougainville (Papua New Guinea). Lasslett offers readers a deeply researched narrative, at once illuminating and horrifying, that is a microcosm of the daily harms wrought worldwide by neoliberal globalization. Highly recommended." - Richard Falk, Professor Emeritus of International Law at Princeton University and former United Nations Special Rapporteur on Palestinian human rights"This book shows, with brilliant clarity and irrefutable evidence, how Western governments and corporations are capable of colluding in and profiting from conflict and human tragedy. This is a must read for anyone who wants to understand how and why our world is being destroyed for profit." - David Whyte, Reader in Sociology, University of Liverpool and author of books including How Corrupt is Britain?"Kristian Lasslett exposes the central crime-ridden workings of Empire in this detailed study from the periphery. His wealth of empirical evidence about state-corporate crime in Bougainville in the 1980s and 90s, from troves of documents to interview admissions from astonishingly frank protagonists, goes beyond the remarkable case study to make an important intervention in theorising state crime: here shown as a violent defence of the untrammelled entitlements of capital in response to popular resistance." - Scott Poynting, Professor in Criminology, University of AucklandTable of Contents: Series IntroductionAbbreviations1. State Crime and the Empire of Capital2. The Specificities of Papua New Guinea s Development3. From Landowner Crisis to Industrial Sabotage4. Eight Days that Shook BCL, the First Mine Shutdown and its Aftermath5. A Tale of Two Solutions - Counterinsurgency Warfare and the Bougainville Package6. The Making of Civil War on Bougainville7. State Crime and Really Existing Capitalism: The Lessons of BougainvilleAfterword: Impunity, Civil Society and the Struggle Ahead in MelanesiaNotesBibliographyIndex"Biographical Note: Kristian Lasslett is a Lecturer in Criminology at the University of Ulster and sits on the International "State Crime" Initiative s executive board. He is editor of the "State Crime" Testimony Project and joint editor-in-chief of "State Crime.""Publisher Marketing: This book offers a pioneering window into the elusive workings of state-corporate crime within the mining industry. It follows a campaign of resistance organised by indigenous activists on the island of Bougainville, who struggled to close a Rio Tinto owned copper mine, and investigates the subsequent state-corporate response, which led to the shocking loss of some 10,000 lives. Drawing on internal records and interviews with senior officials, Kristian Lasslett examines how an articulation of capitalist growth mediated through patrimonial politics, imperial state-power, large-scale mining, and clan-based, rural society, prompted an ostensibly responsible corporate citizen, and liberal state actors, to organise a counterinsurgency campaign punctuated with gross human rights abuses. "State Crime on the Margins of Empire" represents a unique intervention rooted in a classical Marxist tradition that challenges positivist streams of criminological scholarship, in order to illuminate with greater detail the historical forces faced by communities in the global south caught in the increasingly violent dynamics of the extractive industries."