There was an anti-war protest at the US consulate on Saturday which marched after on the South African Airways offices nearby to protest the arrests of the Phiri water warriors. (photos by Darcy Gladwin)
SOLIDARITY DEMONSTRATION IN SUPPORT OF JAILED
SOUTH AFRICAN ANTI-PRIVATISATION WATER ACTIVISTS!
To be held in conjunction with the international day of action against the corporate privatisation agenda, being pushed through 'trade talks' at the WTO Ministerial Conference in Cancun, Mexico and through military force in Iraq!
Demonstration outside
The US Consulate
Citibank Centre
23 Customs St East
Saturday 13th
11.00am
(later planned to move to South African Airways at 18 Shortland St)
____________________________
"Destroy the meters and enjoy the water!"
has been the rallying cry of members of our WPG 'sister' organisation in South Africa - the Anti-Privatisation Forum (APF) and its affilate in Soweto, the Soweto Electricity Crisis Committee (SECC).
The water meters being destroyed by community activists, are the 'pre-paid' type.
No money = no water.
But drinkable-quality water is life!
User-charges and water cutoffs were responsible for the death of hundreds and infection of thousands from a cholera epidemic in 2001, as poor families from KwaZulu-Natal, who could not afford to pay for water, and were forced to get water from contaminated sources.
This struggle against pre-paid water meters has reached crisis point in the community of Phiri, Soweto.
In a desperate attempt to crush community resistance,
"... Johannesberg Water (alongside the ANC-run Johannesberg City Council) have successfully applied for an interdict against all those resisting the installation of their pre-paid water meters," stated Dale McKinley, Spokseperson for the Anti-Privatisation Forum.
"A total of 13 community members and APF/SECC activists have now been arrested."
( 7 have been denied bail, and 'are now languishing in the notorious 'Sun City' gaol.)
"If Johannesberg Water (alongside Suex Lyonnaise Des Eaux which effectively runs and controls the operation) and the ANC politicians succeed in their pre-paid water programme in Phiri (the 'pilot project') and in Soweto, then they will soon extend the programme throughout South Africa and, no doubt, push for the same in the South African region in short time.
It will be a huge blow against the struggle against the privatisation of essential services in particular and capitalist neo-liberalism in general.
Most of all though, it will be devasting for the lives of the poor of South Africa and the entire region."
The installation of these prepaid water meters is being forced on to poor black South African households by multinational water company Suez Lyonnaise Des Eaux, in a consortium with Johannesberg Water, whose corporate ",right" to make private profit is being defended by ANC politicians while the basic human right to water is being attacked.
"Support by ANC politicians for water multinational Suez's pre-paid water meters, and their attempts to criminalise community activists who are are acting to defend this basic human right to water is an international outrage!
These community activists must be released immediately and all charges dropped.
It is the use of pre-paid water meters that should be criminalised - not those defending international and South African human rights law," said Water Pressure Group Media Spokesperson and former anti-apartheid activist Penny Bright.
"Our brothers and sisters in the APF/SECC, are fighting on the street to uphold the right ot water that is enshrined in international human rights law, and in the South African Constitution: Bill of Rights, as follows:
"Health care, food, water and social security
27. (1) Everyone has the right to have access to
b.sufficient food and water;
(2) The state must take reasonable legislative and other measures, within its available resources, to achieve the progressive realisation of each of these rights."
Whose rights are the ANC upholding?
Human rights or corporate rights?
Their peoples' rights or those of multinational water companies?
The neo-liberal, pro-privatisation agenda adopted by the ANC Government has brought about an new form of apartheid - economic apartheid.
This same pro-corporate, pro-privatisation agenda was set in place in New Zealand with the 1984-87 Labour Government.
The results have been the same - ordinary people in both countries are now worse off as a result of policies introduced by Governments supposedly on the side of ordinary people!
This pro-corporate 'war on the poor' is continuing right now in Cancun, Mexico where the extension of 'corporate rights' for water services are being pushed on behalf of European water multinationals by the European Commission.
In Cancun, Mexico, who operates and manages the water?
None other than the same Suez Lyonnaise Des Eaux!
"Cancun's water system is run by AguaCan, a company 50% controlled by Suez that provides drinking water, drainage and sewer services.
But, don't drink the water, warns community activist Arturo Moss. It's not good quality water, nobody drinks the water here, he explains. If you want to drink fresh water, you have to buy containers of purified water.
Moss points out, that not only is the water that AguaCan provides far from usable, many people do not even have the basic services the company claims to provide.
In Cancun, in the hotel zone they have water 24 hours a day, but here in the urban areas the service is very limited: only for 2 or 3 hours a day.
The presence of French-based Suez, the worlds second largest water company, is felt inside and outside the WTO meeting. The water giant has concessions in more than 100 countries around the globe, from the Philippines to Poland and even here in Cancun. Yet, as local residents can attest, privatizing water has actually made it much less accessible."
(Special Series by Deepa Fernandes, Special to CorpWatch September 9, 2003)
"We must likewise make our presence felt!
It is resistance against privatisation and corporate control that must and is being globalised. Tomorrow's demonstration will part of the show of international solidarity to support and defend peoples' basic needs, not corporate greed!" Penny Bright concluded.
Penny Bright
Media Spokesperson
Water Pressure Group (Auckland)
Ph (09) 846 9825
Auckland protest photos
http://www.indymedia.org.nz/front.php3?article_id=10613
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