SF 4/23 STOP BECHTEL'S WATER GRAB

>WATER IS FOR ALL!
>STOP BECHTEL'S GLOBAL WATER GRAB
>& THE EXTORTION OF THE BOLIVIAN PEOPLE
>Tuesday April 23, 2002
>
>3 pm Meet at San Francisco City Hall
>3:30 Living River march/procession down Market Street to Bechtel
>5 pm Bechtel Corporate Headquarters: 50 Beale Street between Market &
>Mission, SF
>
>Join Oscar Olivera, winner of the Goldman Environmental Prize and
>representative of the Cochabamba struggle against water privatization at the
>international headquarters of Bechtel in San Francisco. Tell Riley Bechtel,
>Chairman & CEO, to stop the extortion of the Bolivian people!
>
>Please bring a small container of public or natural water if you would like
>to participate in a water ceremony at Bechtel.
>
>Letter from Oscar Olivera, then demo details follow:
>******************************************************************************************************************************************************************
>
>April 11, 2002
>
>Dear Fellow Activists:
>
> I am writing to ask your help in Bolivia's continuing struggle
> against the Bechtel Corporation of San Francisco. As many of you know,
> two years ago a Bechtel subsidiary took over control of our public water
> system here in Cochabamba. They raised rates for poor families so high
> that people could not afford such a basic necessity as water. The people
> of Cochabamba - union workers, farmers, students, poor families, took to
> the streets in April 2000 and shut down the city with a general strike
> demanding that Bechtel leave. We suffered enormous injury. More than 100
> were wounded, and seventeen-year-old Victor Hugo Daza was killed, all at
> the hands of government troops sent into the streets of our city to
> protect the Bechtel contract.
>
> But we were victorious. Bechtel was forced to leave and we
> retook control of our water. But now Bechtel is attacking us once
> more. In November they filed a legal action with the World Bank,
> demanding that Bolivians now pay the company $25 million for forcing them
> to leave. They didn't invest anything here. They took the money from the
> water company's accounts when they left. They didn't even pay their
> electric bill. Now they want to take $25 million more from poor families.
>
> Our friends in San Francisco, Bechtel's city, are organizing a
> protest action against Bechtel on April 23rd when I will be visiting San
> Francisco and taking our Bolivian protest right to Bechtel's main
> office. I hope you will join us in solidarity and participate in this
> action with us. I hope especially that our labor brothers and sisters
> will join us. Here in Cochabamba I am the Secretary Executive of our
> departmental factory workers union, Los Fabriles. Workers are an
> important part of the movement here against privatization and for
> economic justice. I know it is the same there.
>
> I hope you will join us on April 23rd. I look forward to meeting
> you.
>
> In solidarity,
>
> Oscar
> Olivera F.
> Spokesperson, Coalition
> in Defense of Water and Life
> Secretary Executive
> Federation Factory Workers of Cochabamba
>
>******************************************************************************
>
>
>WATER IS FOR ALL!
>STOP BECHTEL'S GRAB TO PRIVATIZE WATER
>Tuesday April 23, 2002
>
>3 pm Meet at San Francisco City Hall
>1 Dr. Carlton B. Goodlett Place, Polk btwn McAllister & Grove
>
>3:30 March/procession down Market Street as a 'living river' to Bechtel
>
>5 pm Bechtel Corporate Headquarters
>Rally and Press Conference
>50 Beale Street between Market & Mission, SF
>
>**********************************************************************
>In 1999, the Bechtel Corporation hiked water rates in Cochabamba, Bolivia,
>by up to 300 percent. Cochabamba rose up in protest, kicked out Bechtel, and
>returned water to the people. Now Bechtel is demanding US $25 million from
>Bolivia, an amount that could hire 3 thousand rural doctors, provide 12
>thousand public school teachers, or give 125 thousand Bolivian families
>access to public water. Bechtel is one of the largest corporations in the
>world with revenues that almost double the income of all Bolivians.
>
>Water is a human right, not a profit opportunity. Come bring the spirit of
>Cochabamba to the streets of San Francisco, straight to the gates of
>Bechtel!
>
>For more information, contact: Public Citizen, Diego Valencia (510) 663-0888
>x 104,
><<mailto:dvalencia [at] citizen.org>mailto:dvalencia [at] citizen.org>dvalencia [at] citizen.org
>
>
>For online announcement, event flyers, and background information:
><<http://www.citizen.org/california/water/articles.cfm?ID=7387>http://www.citizen.org/california/water/articles.cfm?ID=7387>http://www.citizen.org/california/water/articles.cfm?ID=7387
>
>
>
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=========================================
"The future will have no pity for those who, possessing the exceptional
privilege to speak words of truth to the oppressor, instead take refuge in
cynical indifference and cold complicity." -- Frantz Fanon

Pessimism is a luxury that must be saved for better times.

Antonia Juhasz
Project Director
International Forum on Globalization
1009 General Kennedy Avenue #2
San Francisco, CA 94129
phone: 415-561-3490
fax: 415-561-7651
http://www.ifg.org