G8 news

Privatising the poorest countries

A BRITISH water company, Biwater, is to sue the impoverished African government of Tanzania after it terminated the firm's contract to supply water and sanitation to the country's biggest city, Dar-es-Salaam.

Tanzania is one of the world's poorest countries, its debts of $6.8 billion are way above its annual budget of $1.38 billion. Tanzania was forced to privatise its water industry to qualify for international debt relief.

For all their talk of being friendly to Africa, Blair and Brown's governments have spent millions of pounds paying advisers such as the Adam Smith Institute to produce videos to "persuade" governments that they should follow crippling privatisation schemes.

The Gleneagles demonstration this July needs to make it crystal clear. We support the people of the 'third world' against the Biwaters, the Cargills, the millionaires and the Gordon Browns and Tony Blairs of the world. We have no trust in capitalist politicians or their policies of privatisation and deregulation.