Fighting for Water book launch: Recording and Responses to questions.

In my new book Fighting for Water: Resisting Privatization in Europe (Zed Books), I am investigating the underlying dynamics of the successful struggles against water privatization around the Italian referendum in 2011, the European Citizens’ Initiative ‘Water and Sanitation are a Human Right’ in 2012/2013, the ongoing struggles against water privatization in Greece as well as the struggles against water charges in Ireland between 2014 and 2016. The online book launch hosted by the Fives Leaves Bookshop in Nottingham, UK on 7 July generated several interesting questions. In this blog post, there is first a link to the recording of the book launch, before I will address these questions.

Transforming capitalism? The role of the commons and direct democracy in struggles against water privatisation in Europe.

In my new book Fighting for Water: Resisting Privatization in Europe (Zed Books/Bloomsbury, 2021), I analyse a number of struggles against water privatization in Europe since the early 1990s. In this post, I will explore to what extent these struggles point towards a potential future beyond capitalism through a focus on the commons and an emphasis on direct, participatory forms of democracy.