Fighting for Water

Andreas Bieler is Professor of Political Economy in the School of Politics and International Relations and Co-Director of the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ) at the University of Nottingham.

• Chapter 1 – Resisting water privatisation: An introduction. Chapter 2 – Capitalism’s relentless thirst for accumulationChapter 3 – Mobilising from below: the victory in the Italian water referendum Chapter 4 – Water is a Human Right: The first European Citizens’ Initiative over public waterChapter 5 – Contesting the Troika: resistance in Greece against imposed water privatisationChapter 6 – ‘We will strike, we will fight, water is a human right’: The Irish people rise upChapter 7 – Transforming capitalism towards the commons?

This book is an inspiring read. It is based on extensive research and interviews with trade union- and water movement- activists . It shows that the water struggles and resistance to privatisation in several countries and for the human right to water and sanitation at EU level are part of a broader fight to move beyond capitalism. Critical but always sympathetic and engaged the book finds what joint campaigns of social movements can achieve. These will be valuable lessons in the years to come when we face the aftermath of the pandemic’s economic crisis of 2020 and we will demand the redistribution of wealth.