Peace activists drawn to indie expose of military might

Ahead of next Wednesday’s independent AUKUS inquiry in Wollongong, a visiting American filmmaker has warned against “passive acquiescence” in a deal she describes as a “boondoggle”.

“Australia is a great place,” said Abby Martin, co-director and star of Earth's Greatest Enemy, about the global environmental impact of the US military. 

“It does feel like people could be lulled to sleep, not really realising that they are an active site, perhaps housing one of the most central intelligence hubs for the US military.”

Almost 200 people, including past and present Greens councillors, gathered at the Fraternity Club last Tuesday to watch Abby’s documentary, screened as part of a tour sponsored by the Independent and Peaceful Australia Network (IPAN).

Nationally, criticism of 2021's AUKUS security pact by Australia, the UK and US has centred on the cost and timing of the promised nuclear-powered submarines. Locally, activists are concerned about the possibility of Port Kembla becoming an east coast subs base.

“Wollongong Against War And Nukes is a peace group based here in Wollongong,” event MC Alexander Brown told the film night audience. “We're fighting AUKUS submarines. We're fighting all war, and we stand in solidarity with with other groups such as Wollongong Friends of Palestine, the refugee movement.”

Echoing WAWAN’s concerns, Abby said AUKUS would put a “target on the back of Australia”.

Climate concern inspired film 

Earth's Greatest Enemy's co-director is Abby’s husband, Mike Prysner, an Iraq veteran turned anti-war organiser who she met when he appeared on her news show. In 2020, the birth of the couple's first child became the catalyst for their investigation into global warming and how US military pollution harmed the planet. 

Speaking ahead of the film's Wollongong screening, Abby told the Illawarra Flame: “It's just the cumulative experience of not only being a mother and kind of having the urgency of climate change as a new parent, but combining just my anti-war coverage as a foreign policy reporter with that kind of environmental anxiety, and having my husband be an Iraq war veteran – he's always been really invested in trying to organise soldiers against this insane system. So that all of that combined led me to to want to make the film, and especially in light of just the absence of discussion of militarism in the environmental spaces.

“Every base is a story of toxic contamination and unaccountability from my government. Every base there's PFAS contamination that's poisoning not only the people that live there, but the surrounding communities.”

A Q&A after the screening heard from Ryan Chapman, who has been preselected as the NSW Socialists candidate for Wollongong ahead of 2027’s state election.

“I was in the Navy for six and a half years," he said. "What I thought was incredible about this film was not only that it pointed out the carbon emissions and everything that went along with it, but the whole totality of the environmental impact that the military has as well. You know, we've got Jervis Bay just down the road where PFAS is contaminating Wreck Bay, where people are having brain cancers out of it. So PFAS is a huge contaminant here.” 

Role of citizen journalism 

Abby Martin set up a citizen journalism site after being disillusioned by coverage of the 2003 Iraq War and now runs the "anti-imperialist" Empire Files as a not-for-profit with her husband. She believes democracy needs independent media and called out a lack of diversity in Australia’s mainstream media. 

“This is the same story you see all across the the planet: is the consolidation of media and corporate media storytelling… So citizen media has been able to carve out a space using the tools from social media, and iPhones and things like that, to be able to tell our own stories.”

Earth's Greatest Enemy runs for two hours and, while it’s not on Netflix, can be found on self-publishing platforms such as YouTube.

Abby said Australian viewers have been “horrified and motivated” by her film. “It's the scariest horror story you'll ever see because it's all true.” 

The baby who prompted her documentary is now six years old, and has a sibling aged three. Her children remain a source of inspiration, and one day Abby would like to return to Australia to show them unique marsupials like the red kangaroo. “I want my children to see this animal. It's this beautiful creature that almost looks mythological. How could I look in the eyes of my children later and explain to them I didn't do everything I could [to protect the planet].

“The motivation and hope that keeps me going is just how many people that I meet that are committed to this beautiful struggle.”

AUKUS in the news

The day after the Wollongong screening, the government announced that Unanderra’s Bisalloy Steel would be making plates for US Navy Virginia-class submarines as part of AUKUS. The Minister for Defence Industry, Pat Conroy, said it was “a proud moment for Australian industry”.

On Wednesday, 12 August, the independent inquiry into AUKUS will come to Wollongong. Run by the Australian Peace and Security Forum, the inquiry asks: “Will AUKUS keep us safe – at what cost?” It is led by five commissioners, including Peter Garrett and Admiral Chris Barrie, former head of the Australian Defence Force. Members of the public are welcome to attend presentations from 9am to 3pm at Wollongong Art Gallery’s BlueScope Gallery.

Remembrance ceremony in city

On Thursday, 6 August, the local Hiroshima Day Committee and WAWAN supporters will commemorate the 81st anniversary of the US nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with a minute’s silence at 7:30am at the International Year of Peace memorial plaque in Wollongong City Mall.