We have had a small meeting on networking around water issues in the middle of the night of Saturday. We exchanged ideas and chatted for around two hours.
Apart from a general exchange of what we have been up to, we coordinated various initiatives, workshops and so forth for the near and not so near future.
General outlook
Sustained campaigns
The feeling of the people present on the weekend was that the sustained campaigns are an unclear and difficult tool for us in Europe to take up and that their merits, and indeed shape and form, are unclear. Further discussion, i.e. at the next conference, seems necessary and the fact that nothing has been “decided” should not hinder initiatives, such as the one on water, to evolve freely and dynamically between and within the groups connected to PGA.
Therefore we thought in favour of not getting bogged down by problems with the sustained campaigns. We hope that it is fair to say that the general feeling/consensus was that we do not need to define the increased efforts of a few to make something happen as long as they stay within the framework agreed for PGA in general. No PGA-label will be attached and PGA is understood as an enabling environment from which to start working.
Where we are and what next
Well, the Greenpepper on water has been released and can be looked at on www.squat.net/cia/gp or ordered (i.e. for your local info shop!) in hardcopy from the Greenpepper collective (their contact details are on the webpage). The hope is that this Greenpepper serves as an initial overview on water outside the state or the market and inspires more people to look into water as an issue of struggle and means of liberation. So far, there is a clear lack of focus on direct action when we speak about water in Europe and we have been more busy getting a body of analysis together that can support actions in the future.
One major point for mobilisation hopefully will be the G8 summit in Evian because the event is an excellent opportunity to connect power, militarism and natural resources (more on that in the text on G8 and water that we will send around soon). And there also, very clearly, is the need to bring our efforts into the local experiences of groups and individuals involved. However, it has proven to be a bit difficult to connect to other groups around the world and we hope that this can be facilitated in the future.
Our aims and means
We hope to create momentum for direct action and local initiatives by spreading information, creating a body of information and analysis and by proposing actions! The networking on a global level will also be fundamental in order to support struggles around the world and learn from their experiences. So far, we communicate by an open list (water
lists.riseup.net, to subscribe send an email to water-subscribelists.riseup.net) that is based on the hallmarks but is not PGA specific. We aim at strengthening the links and communication channels by sending around calls and information on other regional and global lists as well.
So far, it is decided that we will hold a few workshops on water in Milan and Belgrade (see below) and hope to receive more invitations!
Planned workshops
Belgrade, proposed PGA meeting
On the occasion of the proposed PGA meeting in Belgrade, we have talked about holding workshop(s). Initial ideas for content are: water resources as one dimension of Eastern expansion of the EU, water and conflicts, and water culture in our own lives. The details will be arranged with the new “convenors” in Belgrade.
Milan, Inter-American Development Bank
One of us will attend a day of workshops on the BID in March that will take place in Leon Cavallo and hold a workshop on water in Latin America. Another will also attend the Peoples World Water Forum on the 22nd of March in Florence, which is a conference within the processes of the Social Forums and in fact is a very closed and top-down exercise with little interest for groups involved in PGA. Similar to the tactic of the Hub in Florence, we intend on “having a look” and voicing concerns and dissent to their political form and content. But no workshop will be held there because no free space exists in that Forum!
Initiatives
Support work for caravans in Central and South America we are wondering if European groups and individuals can support two projects in Latin America. These consist of caravans in South and Central America that tour rural and indigenous communities. One will travel to Central America (It is a closed team. Support is needed from Europe in the process of resulting information, raising awareness, fundraising and so on). The Central American caravan consists of five women and will travel through rural communities chosen by the social movements in Central America. It is not only targeting hydraulic mega-projects, but in the entire PPP, militarization and FTAA. Also the idea is to work in the frame work of local resistance, accompanying the process and working with the social organizations in bringing information, videos and so on to the communities.
The team for South America hasn't written their project yet. They are from Ecuador (Minga Social) and their team is not complete yet. They will need a lot of support in writing the proposal for the fundraising,
These are projects perceived and coordinated by activists and social movements in the South and we in Europe will need to define the role for us in these projects.
One of the outputs will be video material that we will try to process and disseminate. But before that we are being asked to do fundraising, organisational support and awareness raising. Groups that are interested, please let us know!
Evian, G8
Clearly, the fact that the G8 meets at one of the major natural springs in Western Europe, one that is privately owned and exploited by Nestle, should send us into making connections between the control over natural resources, nation-state power and economic relations. In addition, the km-wide red zone around the pristine spring with all the forces of repression gathered inside is a great example of how this forced control inevitably leads to militarism. The common good “spring” stands in harsh contrast to the reality of force and oppression.
We agreed that there is scope for mobilising on this regard and we will aim at compiling a reader on water for Evian and send around calls and propositions. We hope to use the G8 as a moment to instigate direct action against Evian on various levels and, fundamentally, use the mobilisation for a broader discussion of our water culture, in other words our everyday relation to water. There may be space in the camps, i.e. A SEED's eco-village?, where such ideas could be brought forward. (A text on these ideas will follow shortly)
Skill Sharing
Since last summer, various people have been thinking about the need for skill sharing as a means to build “collective counter-power”. Lots of areas for such sharing have been identified, such as holding meetings, decision-taking, fundraising etc. For water, the knowledge of how to collect and use rainwater on the roofs of squats or the use of dry toilets instead of water-guzzling flush toilets seem very practice-oriented examples of how skill-sharing can increase our ability to command our own lives. This idea on skill-sharing on water has other elements of theoretical and political nature, which hopefully will enable groups to critically analyse their local water economies and thereby enable themselves to locally mobilise against capitalist forms of water management and privatisation.
This skill sharing on water is part of a broader initiative on skill sharing that will be put forward during a meeting on communication at Escanda, Spain, in April.
Information exchange
Mayan traditional rituals and conmemorations on water we have got the information that there is going to be a festival on water, especially in Chiapas and Guatemala.