May, 2006

Editorial: Nationalize water!

Water is a human right

Michigan teachers are outraged that children are coming to school in the morning thirsty for water and without being bathed. In the once thriving industrial Rust Belt--and in cities and towns throughout America--more and more families are unable to pay water's skyrocketing price. In a Massachusetts town, water is going up 91 percent. In Detroit, 45,000 homes had their water shut off for lack of payment. Water is the most plentiful natural resource on earth and a human right. Why can't everyone have it?

This immoral situation exists because of capitalism -- an economic system based on private property. Today, water is said to be the "oil of the 21st Century." Water used to be owned by public utilities, but now it is being privatized by the big corporations who will make billions of dollars in profit from its production and sale.

The water shut-offs are so wide scale in Detroit and other Rust Belt states because America's industrial heartland has been hit hard by globalization and the new labor replacing technology, resulting in massive joblessness and poverty. The government won't help people because it is one with the corporations.

What we are witnessing in America is the driving down of the standard of living toward the level of the poorest countries. The economic devastation that capitalism has forced on the poor of the world is coming home. Consider that today, over two million human beings in the world die from a lack of water. Over one billion people have no access to clean water. Several global corporations own most of the earth's water. And, here at home? Recently, a huge global corporation bought up the water rights for small towns in 17 U.S. cities. Privatization in some cities has meant debris-filled water, broken fire hydrants, and indefensibly high prices.

Today, the billionaires, their corporations and government, stand on one side. The masses of people stand on the other side.

We need a powerful movement that forces the government to take over the water and other utilities and run them in the public's interests. We must join with all organizations that are fighting to nationalize the utilities. Make the government responsible to provide the natural resources that people need. And, join with others on the globe in the same life or death struggle.

We either accept the idea that a few billionaires have a right to own our natural resources--or we fight for nationalization as a step toward creating a new, cooperative society where everyone can enjoy a satisfying life.