My op-ed - was scorned when published but it's still and increasingly "timely"!
vid link
Water Crisis Sucks Us into Revolution:
April, 2000 MN Daily
The Great Lakes will be at record lows because of lack of snow that
feeds 40 percent of their annual water supply. This disturbing situation
has been
attributed to global warming, and according to the United Nations, the
influence of major transnational corporations extends over about 50
percent of
all greenhouse gas emissions. What's received less attention is that
large corporations are also attempting to raid the Great Lakes. One
government
agency already gave permission for 600 million liters of Great Lakes
water to be filled into tankers and sent to Asia over the next five
years. A
temporary moratorium was achieved, but the move to conserve water will
be brought to the World Trade Organization as a violation of the
supposed
rights of corporate rule.
Through Reaganite corporate-state subsidies, California ironically has
become the new dairy state at the expense of rural Wisconsin family
livelihood
-- including their future ability to drink water. California recently
attempted to pipe water from Wisconsin. According to the Worldwatch
Institute,
agriculture accounts for two-thirds of all irrigated fresh water use
while industrial production in general accounts for 50 to 80 percent of
fresh
water demand. But it's not just corporate-state water use in California;
it's also the corporate pollution of water. Silicon "computer" Valley
has
more Superfund sites -- most of them affecting groundwater -- than any
other area its size in the country. And 60 percent of the United States'
liquid hazardous wastes -- 34 billion liters of solvents, heavy metals
and radioactive materials -- is directly injected into the ground, the
main
source for fresh water.
In 1996, the journal Science reported that the global supply of fresh
water will be used up in 30 years at current usage rates. According to
the
Stanford researchers who authored the study, there is no "hidden water,"
and current foreseeable technologies, like desalinization, were
factored
into their findings. But greed-driven corporations are tapping into that
grim projection to maximize profits for their own pea-brained drive to
extinction. In just a few short years, through more than 130
acquisitions, American Toxic Control has been transformed into U.S.
Filter Inc., with $5
billion in annual revenues, making it 10 times the size of its nearest
competitor.
As controller at U.S. Filter, Richard Heckmann states, "How could it be
that there is no Intel, I.B.M., General Motors or Toys 'R' Us in the
water
business?" he asked. "You can live without all those things. Five days
without water, you're dead." Apparently Dan Quayle agrees since he sits
on
the U.S. Filter Inc. board, joined by the Bass brother finance
speculators who threw in a cool, refreshing $250 million. The time is
right to create a
giant corporation that transforms the public right to water into a
scarce luxury item for those privy to the secret magic of money. Based
on a 1998
water study by Johns Hopkins University School of Public Health, "To
avoid catastrophe ... it is important to act now."
Our clear answer to the water crisis, according to the scientific researchers, can be summed up in one word: conservation.
Secret global corporate rule, though, blocks environmental issues,
labeling them barriers to corporate WTO trade. U.S. corporate-state rule
has been
consistent in its priorities ever since the founding aristocrats, like
John Jay, planned to keep the rich in power against the threat of
democracy.
George Kennan, as head of the State Department, authored a top-secret
document that reflects these elite goals on a global scale: "We have
about 50
percent of the world's wealth, but only 6.3 percent of its population
... Our real task in the coming period is to devise a pattern of
relationships
which will permit us to maintain this position of disparity ... We
should cease to talk about vague and -- for the Far East -- unreal
objectives such
as human rights, the raising of the living standards and democratization
... The less we are then hampered by idealistic slogans, the better."
Similarly, now declassified U.S. National Security Council documents
clearly outline policies to support destructive regimes in order to
maintain
wealth for the corporate-state elite. In fact, after World War II, the
U.S. corporate-state elite attacked democracy movements worldwide and
reinstated fascist regimes, brutally promoting power to a few.
There's an interesting hidden history to undemocratic, destructive
corporate rule. Did colonists plead for a more "socially responsible"
king? The
colonists demanded their inalienable, natural right to sovereignty. The
king, though, was the only sovereign of the land and the king was also
the
only source of corporate charters. Most of the 13 colonies were actually
crown charters (i.e. the Massachusetts Bay Trading Company). The list
of
grievances attached to the Declaration of Independence stemmed from the
corporate rule of the king.
After democracy was achieved, corporate charters were deliberately put
into the hands of the state legislatures, were issued for only special
purposes
and had extremely limited powers. Corporate charters were routinely
revoked and the corporate assets reinvested by the public. President
Lincoln
warned, though, shortly after the Civil War, that the growing threat of
corporate rule was worse than the war and would, unless stopped, destroy
the
republic. Just as he predicted in 1886, a bought-out robber-baron judge
declared that corporations are protected by the Bill of Rights and have
legal
"personhood" -- thus subverting our democracy. That same year 230 state
laws controlling corporations were overturned in district courts.
Between
1890 and 1910, 307 cases went to the Supreme Court based on the
anti-slavery 14th Amendment. But only 19 cases were from
African-Americans, while 288
were corporations seeking their new constitutional personhood "right to
due process."
The Bill of Rights ironically continues to be the main vehicle for
destructive undemocratic corporate rule. Most state constitutions still
require the
attorney general to revoke the charter of any corporation that
continuously violates the public good. With the knowledge of this hidden
history
exposed, in the last few years the public has rescinded two corporate
charters. The global sovereignty movement grows increasingly thirsty for
democratic revolution. The future of water depends on declaring
independence from corporate rule.
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