Re: [Fwd: New British Empire of the Dammed]

[Chris Burford <cburford@xxxxxxxxxx>]

A damning and highly instructive report.

Note what we are really seeing here are the extreme features of finance
capital. The British company is a front for the US company. The finance has
already been earmarked for the unbuilt dam and that is why the price of the
water has to be so high for the poor working people of Bolivia.

Note the strong monopoly features of this finance capital. It uses
influence on governments to get monopolies.

Bechtel aims to control the world's water supplies!


Chris Burford

London




> Bolivia's water supply is the latest acquisition of thirsty British firms in
> the service of Uncle Sam
>
> New British empire of the dammed
>        by Gregory Palast






>  demonstrators opposing the 35% hike in water prices imposed
> on the city of Cochabamba by the new owners of the water system,
> International Waters Ltd, of London.
>
>     IWL, like many of Britain's multinational operators, is controlled by a
> larger US corporation, in this case, construction giant Bechtel.  San
> Francisco-based BECHTEL, known here as  builder of the Jubilee Line, recently
> set off on a quest to own and operate water systems worldwide.  United
> Utilities (Cheshire), originally co-owner of IWL, now merely "strategic
> partner" in the venture, plays Sancho Panza to Bechtel's financial Quijote.




>     It is a basic tenet of accounting that investors, not customers, fund
> capital projects.  The risk-takers then recover their outlay, with profit,
> when the project produces a product for sale.  This is the heart, soul and
> justification for the system called "capitalism."
>
>     That's the theory.  But when a monopoly operator gets its fist around a
> city's water spigots, it can pump the funds for capital projects (even ones
> that cost 600% over the market) from captive customers rather than its
> shareholders.



>     Britain is re-establishing imperial reach, albeit in the shadow of
> Americans, through rapid low-capital takeovers of former state assets,
> concentrated in infrastructure where monopoly control virtually guarantees
> outsized profit.  From BG's takeover of the Sao Paolo, Brazil, gas company to
> United Utilities' buy-out of the Manila water company, it all seemed a
> riskless romp â?? until a few thirsty, angry peasants in the Andes decided
> they
> could stop the New Imperium in the streets.
> gregory.palast@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx