[act-ma] 1/22 Initial meeting for campaign against water privatization (Thurs.)

[Rob Kerth]

*Community activist meeting and campaign planning session*
7 PM, Thursday, January 22
10 Milk St., Suite 610 (Take the T to State or Downtown Crossing.)

Universal access to safe drinking water is one of the cornerstones of a 
healthy world.  Currently, over 1 billion people worldwide lack 
sufficient water to meet their daily needs.  Exploiting this scarcity, 
corporations are attempting to privatize water resources to profit from 
people's vulnerability.

In America, corporations such as Coke, Pepsi, and Nestle are using 
millions of dollars worth of misleading advertising to convince people 
that bottled water is the only safe source of drinking water.  At the 
same time, they're using their political clout to take control of water 
resources away from local communities.  Through these efforts, they are 
threatening the future of universally available safe drinking water in 
this country and paving the way for corporate control of water on a 
large scale.

To resist these efforts and protect our public water infrastructure, 
we're organizing individuals, institutions, and local governments to 
take the "Think Outside the Bottle" pledge and support tap water over 
bottled water.

Since the water systems we depend on are maintained by our local elected 
officials, the front lines of the battle over privatization are in our 
state and local governments.  So far, Think Outside the Bottle has 
persuaded the mayors of Boston, Cambridge, Somerville, and Newton to 
take the Think Outside the Bottle pledge and move towards eliminating 
bottled water usage in city government.  This spring, we'll be working 
to persuade Deval Patrick to do the same and to advocate for protecting 
universal access to drinking water in Massachusetts and nationwide.

To begin these efforts, we'll be holding a community meeting to discuss 
this issue and lay plans for campaign actions this spring on Thursday, 
Jan. 22 at the Corporate Accountability International offices in 
downtown Boston.  All are welcome.

-- 
Rob Kerth
Think Outside the Bottle Campaign Field Organizer
Corporate Accountability International
http://www.stopcorporateabuse.org
http://www.thinkoutsidethebottle.org

rkerth at greencorps.org
617-747-4390