Privatization

Fifteen Years Of Community-Controlled Water In Bolivia

June 8, 2015 Marina Sitrin, www.roarmag.org Create! Bolivia, Community, Privatization, Water

By Marina Sitrin in Roar Mag - This year marks the fifteenth anniversary of the victory of the communities of Bolivia over private water corporations. Not only did popular power reverse the plan to privatize the water, but the many hundreds of communities surrounding Cochabamba managed to keep their water as a common good, controlled and managed by the community directly and democratically. Other places around the world have also been successful in at least holding back privatizations and mining, such as in Thessaloniki, with the struggle to keep water public and in the Halkidiki region of Greece. In these examples, as in so many others, the struggles are grounded in a particular form of popular power. As with the experience in Cochabamba, it was regular people and communities organized in the streets (not parties, unions or other sectors) using direct action and directly democratic assemblies to make decisions.

Study: NYC Charters Leave 1000s Of Seats Unfilled Despite Demand

June 8, 2015 Emma Brown, www.washingtonpost.com Educate! Charter Schools, Education, New York City (NYC), Privatization

By Emma Brown in The Washington Post - New York City’s charter schools are leaving thousands of seats unfilled each year despite ballooning demand and long waiting lists, according to an analysis of public data to be released Friday. The decision not to fill seats that are left vacant by departing students deprives other deserving students of places in the schools, the report argues. It also means that charter schools can appear to be improving, according to proficiency rates on standardized tests, even as the absolute number of children scoring proficient declines each year, it says. The report, entitled “No Seat Left Behind” and issued by the Harlem-based parent advocacy group Democracy Builders, calls on charter schools to begin voluntarily “backfilling” their empty seats — or admitting new students to replace those who leave.

How Education Became A Business And Forgot The Students

June 1, 2015 Devon Douglas-Bowers, www.occupy.com Educate! Business, Capitalism, Education, Privatization

Devon Douglas-Bowers in Occupy - Students attend college to pursue their interests, broaden their intellectual horizons and make headway toward a career. While this is made difficult due to the amount of debt that many must saddle in order to earn a degree, there is also another, much stealthier problem as well: the college bureaucracy. University bureaucracies absorb large amounts of funding and undermine the alleged goal of college, which is to provide an education. But they also signal something more sinister: the neo-liberalization of education, now viewed as a business. The rise in college bureaucracy is nothing new, and has been noted for quite some time.

TISA: Another Secret Treaty Is Leaked

May 30, 2015 Jeremy Malcolm, www.eff.org Educate! Free Trade, Freedom of Expression, Internet, Law, Privatization

A February 2015 draft of the secret Trade In Services Agreement (TISA) was leaked again last week, revealing a more extensive and more recent text than that of portions from an April 2014 leak that we covered last year. Together with the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) and the Trans-Atlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), TISA completes a trifecta of trade agreements that the administration could sign under Fast Track without full congressional oversight. Although it is the least well-known of those agreements, it is the broadest in terms of membership. As far as we know, it presently includes twenty countries plus Europe (but notably excluding the major emerging world economies of the BRICS bloc), who, with disdainful levity, have adopted the mantle “the Really Good Friends of Services”.

How Federal Dollars Are Financing The Water Crisis In The West

May 30, 2015 Abrahm Lustgarten and Naveena Sadasivam, www.projects.propublica.org Educate! Capitalism, Government, Privatization, Water

Getting plants to grow in the Sonoran Desert is made possible by importing billions of gallons of water each year. Cotton is one of the thirstiest crops in existence, and each acre cultivated here demands six times as much water as lettuce, 60 percent more than wheat. That precious liquid is pulled from a nearby federal reservoir, siphoned from beleaguered underground aquifers and pumped in from the Colorado River hundreds of miles away. Greg Wuertz has been farming cotton on these fields since 1981, and before him, his father and grandfather did the same. His family is part of Arizona’s agricultural royalty. His father was a board member of the Central Arizona Water Conservation District for nearly two decades. Wuertz has served as president of several of the most important cotton organizations in the state.

Nestle Refuses To Stop Bottling Water In CA: Make Them

May 17, 2015 Rupert Neate, www.theguardian.com Organize! Climate Change, Drought, Privatization, Water

The boss of Nestlé Waters has said the company wants to increase the amount of water it bottles in California despite a devastating drought across the state that has triggered demonstrations at the corporation’s bottling plant. Tim Brown, chief executive of Nestlé Waters North America, said the company would “absolutely not” stop bottling in California and would actually like to “increase” the amount of ground source water it uses. Asked in a local radio interview if Nestlé would consider following Starbucks’ lead and stop bottling water in California during the drought, Brown said: “Absolutely not. In fact, if I could increase it, I would. “The fact is, if I stop bottling water tomorrow, people would buy another brand of bottled water,” Brown said in a discussion with a Nasa hydrologist on 89.3 KPCC radio. “People need to hydrate. As the second largest bottler in the state, we’re filling a role many others are filling.

Activists Disrupt For-Profit Prison Corporation Meeting

April 30, 2015 Nadia Prupis, www.commondreams.org Resist! Mass Incarceration, Privatization, Slavery

As the for-profit prison corporation GEO Group held its annual shareholder meeting in Boca Raton, Florida on Wednesday, human rights organizations calling for an end to incarceration converged on the company's headquarters to demand accountability and divestment from the prison industry. The prison-industrial complex "not only profits off the imprisonment of of America's most vulnerable, but also corrupts our system through draconian legislation and our education system," said one activist, Joshua McConnel, who joined the march organized by Dream Defenders, Prison Legal News, Grassroots Leadership, SEIU Florida, and other groups. Taking up the call for other institutions to divest from the prison industry, McConnel continued, "My own university, the University of Central Florida... takes my tuition dollars and so many others and invests in companies just like GEO Group and CCA [Corrections Corporation of America]."

The World Has Reached Peak Plutocracy

April 27, 2015 Soren Ambrose, www.ipsnews.net Resist! Democracy, Globalization, Plutocracy, Privatization

Parents in despair because they can’t pay the fees at the privatised neighbourhood school… Families left without healthcare because the mining company that pollutes their river also dodges the taxes that could pay for their treatment… Women getting four hours of sleep a night as they try to balance caring for their families and homes with earning income… Workers paid so little by employers that they’re suffering malnutrition.Whole communities thrown off their land to make way for a foreign company… These are just a few of the reports I’ve heard from my colleagues in recent months. We see people frustrated by the surge in the power of the plutocrats. Plutocracy is a society or a system ruled and dominated by a small minority of the wealthiest. The rich have always been powerful; some element of plutocracy has been present in all societies.

Rigged Corporate Trade Turns Public Services Into Corporate Profits

April 18, 2015 Nick Dearden, www.globaljustice.org.uk Resist! Privatization, Public Services, TPP, Trade

Another week, another victory for big business over a government in a secret pseudo-court. This time it’s the turn of private water giant Suez, who successfully sued Argentina for reversing the privatisation of Buenos Aires's water supply. No matter that the country was in a state of economic crisis when the nationalisation took place, and the government didn’t want water prices to rise by 60%. No matter that the company time and again failed to meet its performance targets. In the world of corporate courts, nothing matters except an investor’s ‘right’ to profit. Yet it is exactly this system of so-called Investor State Dispute Settlement (ISDS) that we will be signing up to if the US-EU trade deal known as TTIP goes ahead. Again and again government ministers tell us there’s nothing to fear. Nothing in TTIP will prevent us running public services in the way we choose.

Grassroots Movement Blocks Water Privatization In Mexico

March 30, 2015 Alfredo Acedo, www.cipamericas.org Resist! Mexico, Privatization, Water

The ruling party (PRI) and its allies, the National Action Party (PAN), the Partido Verde and New Alliance, were forced to back down in the Chamber of Deputies. The privatization offensive launched this time against water, will have to wait for another day—preferably for its promoters, not around elections. The procedure to rule on the proposed General Water Act, scheduled for Tuesday, March 10, was deferred indefinitely. A news report recorded the aggressive response of PRI deputy Manlio Fabio Beltrones, who bared his disappointment in no uncertain terms. The fact is that faced with this imminent heist of public goods, the citizenry reacted immediately. The Union of Concerned Scientists in Mexico demanded a public discussion of the initiative and issued a statement that in a few hours garnered over ten thousand signatures.

Uniting To Save Our Post Office

March 24, 2015 Staff, www.apwu.org Resist! Commons, Corporatism, Post Office, Privatization

In the face of aggressive attacks, a wide range of national organizations have come together to create A Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service. These organizations are united in the demand that the public good must not be sacrificed for the sake of private investment and profit. A strong public Postal Service is our democratic right. The Alliance is fighting to protect and enhance vibrant public postal services now – and for many generations to come. The launch of A Grand Alliance to Save Our Public Postal Service featured the debut of a 2-minute video, “Our Postal Service,” featuring actor-activist Danny Glover. For Glover, it’s personal. In the video, he recounts what the Postal Service has meant to his family and many others.

Over 80,000 Turn Out For Right2Water Protest In Ireland

March 22, 2015 Right2Water, www.facebook.com Resist! Ireland, Privatization, Water

Following today’s massive National Demonstration which saw well over 80,000 people from all over Ireland converge on Dublin to assert their Right2Water, the Right2Water campaign has again called on the Government to abolish domestic water charges. The trade unions affiliated to the campaign are also calling for a referendum to be held following abolition of the charges to enshrine public ownership of our water in the Constitution. Speaking at today’s event, CWU General Secretary Steve Fitzpatrick announced the wording of a proposed constitutional amendment to enshrine water in public ownership in the Constitution following abolition of domestic water charges. A new Article 28 section 4:2:1 would be inserted to read: "The Government shall be collectively responsible for the protection, management and maintenance of the public water system. The Government shall ensure in the public interest that this resource remains in public ownership and management."

LSE Students Stage Occupation In Protest At ‘Profit-Driven Education’

March 19, 2015 Nadia Khomami, www.theguardian.com Resist! Education, England, Privatization

Students at the London School of Economics have occupied a central administration room at the university in protest at what they call the marketisation of higher education. The group of about 40 students used bicycle locks to barricade themselves in the Vera Anstey Suite of LSE on Tuesday night and have remained there since. Organisers say the occupation they call the “Free University of London” aims to create an “open, creative and liberated space, where all are free to participate in the imagining of a new directly democratic, non-heirarchical and universally accessible education”.

Texas Prison Riot: 2,800 Inmates Moved From ‘Uninhabitable’ Facility

February 23, 2015 RT, www.rt.com Resist! Immigration, Law, Mass Incarceration, Prison, Privatization, Texas

After 2,000 inmates, mostly immigrants, took over a Texas prison in a riot over poor medical services, federal authorities have decided to relocate all the detainees from the now “uninhabitable” correctional facility. The riot at the Willacy County Correctional Center erupted on Friday afternoon, when prisoners refused to eat breakfast or report for work to protest medical services at the facility. The prison was practically run over by the inmates, who continue to hold down the fort. It still remains unclear what medical service issues had upset the inmates. Only around 800 to 900 inmates have refused to riot in a facility that holds some 2,900 people, most of whom are immigrants with criminal record.

A “Grand Alliance” To Save Our Public Postal Service

February 17, 2015 Dave Johnson, www.ourfuture.org Organize! Labor, Postal Service, Privatization

Republicans created the problems with the Postal Service. In 2006 Republicans in Congress required it to come up with $5.5 billion per year to pre-fund 75 years of retiree costs. This means the Postal Service has to set aside money now for employees who are not even born yet. No other government agency – and certainly no company – has to do this. They also require the Postal Service to make a profit – or at least break even. But democratic government is supposed to provide services to We the People. It is notsupposed to be about making a profit off of us. Yet Republicans say government should be “run like a business.” Then they hamstring it, preventing it from competing with businesses because they say it has too many advantages and any competition would be unfair.

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