Social justice, environmental, and labour organizations in Europe are applauding the city of Bern for taking a bold new step to protect water as a commons.
Despite immense pressure by corporations that have sought to undermine it, Costa Rica's public energy and telecommunications company stands out as a model in terms of its coverage, efficiency, social inclusion and environmental sustainability.
After decades of failed water privatisation, cities like Paris are starting to bring water back into public hands. Download this free 'must-read' book for policy makers and activists looking to democratise water services.
Experience worldwide shows that EC-imposed privatisation on crisis countries will not work. The alternative is not reinforcing the status quo, but using citizen power and labour to reinvigorate public services and democratically transform the state.
An international seminar in Montevideo, co-organised by TNI and the Uruguayan government, shared the latest learning and innovation by state-owned enterprises across Latin America and affirmed their importance as instruments for economic and social development.
In the 1990s, the combined pressures of globalization, liberalization and marketization of national economies led to an expansion of the private sector and the concurrent downsizing of the public sector. Privatization or corporatization of public enterprises was a key component of structural reform packages promoted by international financial organizations and governments across the South.
The Transnational Institute (TNI), in cooperation with the Municipal Services Project (MSP) and the Latin American Programme for Distance Education in Social Sciences (PLED) is offering a free web-based course on Alternatives to Privatisation: Non-Commercial Public Services Options in the Global South. The course will begin on 8 October 2012 and will comprise a series of eight weekly sessions.
How does transnational capital function? Where does it operate? What globalised logic does it follow? What is the magnitude of its abuses and its social, economic and environmental irresponsibility? And what challenge do we see emerge for us, the people?
By Irfan Zamzami, Amrta Institute for Water Literacy
With protests, rallies and petitions, the message from the public has been clear: the water service in Jakarta should be re-municipalised, to save the water system from financial ruin and the water service from a profit-oriented private sector.
A book for practitioners, unionists, social movements and analysts who are seeking reliable knowledge on what kinds of public models work and their main strengths and weaknesses.
