SOUTH AFRICA: STOP ARRESTING ANTI-PRIVATIZATION DEMONSTRATORS AND STOP PRIVATIZING WATER
DEMONSTRATE AND PETITION AT THE SOUTH AFRICAN CONSULATE New York City 333 East 38th Street (between 1st and 2nd Aves.) Manhattan THURSDAY AUGUST 15 - 12:00 noon to 1:00 pm On August 15th members of the Anti Privatization Forum will go on trial for a demonstration held outside the home of the Mayor of Johannesburg. Many of the people involved are poor South Africans who had their water or electricity turned off. When their nation's public utilities were turned over to private companies, water and electricity prices rose and many could not pay. In northern Kwazulu-Natal province, two thirds of the people on one water system had their water shut off. Many improvised by taking water from the river. The result was a cholera epidemic with thousands of reported cases and hundreds of deaths. We will ask the South African government to: ----Drop the charges against the demonstrators who protested water and electricity cut-offs. -----Stop handing public utilities over to private companies. We recognize that powerful foreign governments, international corporations, and institutions like the International Monetary Funds pressure nations to privatize their valuable resources. Their arguments and threats may have been difficult to resist back when the ANC first came to power. But by now, privatization and deregulation have been discredited all around the world. Even in the United States, Enron led energy deregulation nearly wrecked California's economy. When forty billion dollars was added to the profits of private energy trading companies, the citizens had to pick up the bill. In the U.S. this doesn't produce the same kind of desperate misery as in South Africa. But it has left the rich and mighty state of California too poor to extend health care or to keep up its once famous schools and universities. In poor and rich countries alike, private companies, freed from regulation, have taken the money and run. They do not reinvest to expand or improve essential public services they take over. They also degrade the environment as they deliver the energy and water the cheapest way for the greatest profit. That after all, is a corporate director's legal mandate. For these reasons privatization of essential services is being opposed and discontinued all over the world. In accord with this global awakening, we will ask the South African government to stop arresting the anti privatization protesters and start follow their economic advice instead. Further information contact Barbara Garson [EMAIL PROTECTED] Sponsors: DAN (Direct Action Network), New York News and Letters Committee, West Side Local of Green Party of NY (list in formation)
