Defending Water for Life in New York State and New England

The Alliance's Defending Water for Life campaign is now beginning to organize in New York State. As a first step, Ruth Caplan, National Campaign Coordinator, will be speaking in upstate New York June 8-11 on the theme "Water for Life or Water for Corporate Profit?" The Capital District Alliance chapter has organized two events at the Albany Public Library, with many local co-sponsors, and the Rochester chapter has arranged a program at the First Unitarian Church there, co-sponsored by the Sierra Club. Ruth will also be featured at an all-day workshop on "Community Water Rights Protection," sponsored by the Finger Lakes Progressive Coalition, and the Finger Lakes Group of the Sierra Club. Her message: "People in upstate New York need to organize now to keep the corporate water barons from stealing their water to bottle and sell at exorbitant prices, and to keep their water systems public."

And the Alliance for Democracy is an event project partner of "Our Communities, Our Water", a conference for activists, students, and water workers in New England, New York, and eastern Canada. Organized by Massachusetts Global Action, the conference will take place from September 22 to 24, at the University of Massachusetts/Amherst. See http://www.massglobalaction.org/home/conf-2006-3q/index.htm