BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 X-WR-CALNAME:www.indybay.org PRODID:-//indybay/ical// v1.0//EN BEGIN:VEVENT UID:Indybay-6663 SEQUENCE:6663 CREATED:20040203T182400Z DESCRIPTION: LIVING RIVER down Market to Protest Water Privatization!!!!\n \n Join Oscar Olivera, the hero of the people's successful revolt against \nBechtel's privatization of the water utility in Cochabamba, Bolivia!!!! Now \nBechtel has filed a $25 million lawsuit against Bolivia for lost future \nprofits. ***We will be forming a LIVING RIVER with yards of blue cloth that \nwill flow down Market Street and engulf Bechtel's corporate headquarters, \nletting them know that water is a basic human right, not a commodity!!!!**** \nAssemble 3 PM, City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B Goodlett Place (on Polk, between \nMcAllister & Grove), San Francisco; 3:30 PM Procession down Market; 5 PM, \nRally and Press Conference, Bechtel HQ, 50 Beale St. (between Market & \nMission), San Francisco. Feel free to be creative: WEAR BLUE! Come as a \nMERMAID, WATER NYMPH, TURTLE, or FISH ! BRING A VIAL of water for a WATER \nRITUAL! Contact 415-731-7924 chalicenew@earthlink.net to volunteer or for \nmore info!\n\n\nSan Francisco Bay Guardian\nApril 17, 2002\n\nOpinion\nBy, Antonia Juhasz\n\nBechtel v. Bolivia\n\nBechtel Corp. celebrated one of the most profitable years in its \n100-plus-year history by suing one of the poorest countries in the \nworld: Bolivia. After raking in $14 billion - nearly double Bolivia's \nentire gross domestic product - San Francisco's own multinational \ngiant is suing the government of Bolivia for $25 million. For its \npart, Bolivia celebrated the new year with $3 billion in external \ndebt and with two thirds of its population living in poverty.\n The reason why Bechtel is suing Bolivia is probably familiar \nto most readers. How they are doing it is probably not. As a \nreminder: In 1999, at the behest of the World Bank and the \nInternational Monetary Fund, Bolivia's third-largest city, \nCochabamba, privatized its water system. There was just one bidder: \na consortium called Aguas del Tunari, whose controlling partner was \nInternational Water, a British firm that was then wholly owned by \nBechtel (an Italian company later bought a half interest). Taking \ncontrol of Cochabamba's water was part of Bechtel's plan to position \nitself as an international leader in water privatization, which also \nincludes forming partnerships with other global water giants and \ninvesting billions of dollars to acquire interests in water \nprivatization companies around the world. Bechtel is already a \npartner on many U.S. municipal water projects, including managing the \nreconstruction of San Francisco's infrastructure.\n After privatizing Cochabamba's water, Aguas del Tunari raised \nfees. In a country where the minimum wage was less than $60 a month, \nmany users received water bills of $20 a month and more. Families \nthat had built and used their water wells or irrigation systems for \ndecades suddenly had to pay Aguas del Tunari for this water. The \npeople of Cochabamba united to cancel the contract.\n One of their leaders, Oscar Olivera, will be in San Francisco \nnext week to receive a belated Goldman Environmental Prize and join a \nprotest at Bechtel's headquarters Tuesday, April 23. After attempts \nat discourse with the government and the water company were ignored, \nthe citizens non-violently shut down the city. The government \ndeclared a state of siege, sending more than 1,000 soldiers into the \nstreets armed with live ammunition, which resulted in the death of a \n17-year-old boy, Victor Hugo Daza. Eventually the people prevailed, \nand the government agreed to end its contract with Aguas del Tunari \nand Bechtel. Most important, the workers, citizens, and local \nofficials of Cochabamba are now running the water system themselves, \nwhile not perfectly, far more equitably and universally than before.\n This could be our happy ending, but Bechtel wants its due. \nSo it is using a Bilateral Investment Treaty (BIT) to achieve its \ngoal. The BIT is the predecessor to the investment chapter, Chapter \n11, of the North American Free Trade Agreement. It is under Chapter \n11 that the state of California is being sued for trying to protect \nour water from a cancer-causing chemical, MTBE, produced by the \nCanadian Methanex Corp.\n Because the Free Trade Area of the Americas is not yet law \n(and hopefully we'll keep it this way), Bechtel has no equivalent \nmeans to get at Bolivia. Fortunately for the company, it happens to \nhave a holding company in the Netherlands, and the Netherlands just \nhappens to have a BIT with Bolivia. Also conveniently, the BIT is \nargued at the World Bank's own International Court for the Settlement \nof Investment Disputes. Remember that it was the World Bank that \nopened the door for Bechtel's entry in to Bolivia in the first place. \nNegotiations to include similar investment provisions at the World \nTrade Organization are currently underway. Bechtel's suit gives us \njust one more reason to fight those agreements. Given the small \namount of money involved in this suit - at least for Bechtel - we can \nonly assume that it is meant as a warning to the people of the world, \nincluding San Francisco, not to follow the lead of Cochabamba's \n"water warriors." Are we going to listen?\n\nAntonia Juhasz is project director at the San Francisco-based \nInternational Forum on Globalization. To learn more go to \nhttp://www.ifg.org or e-mail her at ajuhasz@ifg.org.\n\n\n=========================================\n"The future will have no pity for those who, possessing the \nexceptional privilege to speak words of truth to the oppressor, \ninstead take refuge in cynical indifference and cold complicity." -- \nFrantz Fanon\n\nPessimism is a luxury that must be saved for better times.\n\nAntonia Juhasz\nProject Director\nInternational Forum on Globalization\n1009 General Kennedy Avenue #2\nSan Francisco, CA 94129\nphone: 415-561-3490\nfax: 415-561-7651\nhttp://www.ifg.org\n\nWHEN SPIDERS UNITE, THEY CAN TIE DOWN A LION -- Ethiopian Proverb\n\n \n\n\n\n\n\n https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2004/02/03/6663.php SUMMARY:Living river on Market St celebrate Bolivian revolt against Bechtel water grab LOCATION:Assemble 3 PM, City Hall, 1 Dr. Carlton B Goodlett Place (on Polk, between \nMcAllister & Grove), San Francisco; 3:30 PM Procession down Market; 5 PM, \nRally and Press Conference, Bechtel HQ, 50 Beale St. (between Market & \nMission), San Francisco. \n URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2004/02/03/6663.php DTSTART:20020423T220000Z DTEND:20020424T010000Z END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR