The big British civil engineering
firm Biwater plc thought the LabourNet Web site would be as easy
to cow as the Independent, one of England's leading newspapers.
Wrong. Biwater's bullying blew back in its face. LabourNet and
union organizations around the world mounted a quick hit back
at this latest attempt to curb workers' exercise of free speech
and international solidarity. In the process, they spotlighted
Biwater's record as a major beneficiary of the Thatcher government's
"aid for trade" program in the Third World.
LabourNet, launched when the Liverpool dockers took their struggle
global in 1995, soon became invaluable to their international
campaign. "We were starved for media attention, and LabourNet
gave us a prominence which no international media could or would
do," Merseyside Shop Steward Terry Teague told The Dispatcher
During the International Days of Action LabourNet provided
immediate, affordable communication, and stretched the reach of
the dockers' organizing. The Internet brought in solidarity messages
from as far away as India and Africa, Teague said.
"You can see [LabourNet] at work now with the struggle in
Australia, the struggle of the Danish dockworkers a month or so
ago," Teague said.
LabourNet has grown to reflect fights against privatization and
casualization all over - among them the South African Municipal
Workers Union's (SAMWU) resistance to privatization of that country'smunicipal services.
SAMWU contends that workers pay the freight for privatization
in lost jobs, worse services and higher prices. Plans to contract
out the management of municipal water systems in the town of Nelspruit
sparked one of the first battles in the campaign. The town council
voted for contracting out last fall, with Biwater one of the leading
contenders to get the bid.
In a press release following the decision, SAMWU called attention
to an April 1997 story in South Africa's Weekly Mail &
Guardian, which pointed out Biwater's connection to the "aid
for trade" program. As reported by the M&G, the
program set up infrastructure improvement projects (carried out
by British firms) in countries considering major purchases of
British arms.
LabourNet posted the release. Biwater; now negotiating for the
Nelspruit contract, served notice April 17 that it would sue LabourNet's
service provider; GreenNet, if the release were not removed. A
week later; it sent the same threat to SangoNet, the Internet
service which hosts the Mail & Guardian's Web page.
Biwater had taken advantage of Britain's pro-corporate libel law
twice before, exacting fines and public apologies from the Independent
and Private Eye magazine. LabourNet took the opposite tack.
"The attempt to remove all traces of the Mail & Guardian
article from the Internet through intimidating people is totally
unacceptable," said LabourNet web-master Chris Bailey. LabourNet
posted more information about Biwater and enlisted the support
of the other member networks in APC, the Association for Progressive
Communications. Internet services in Denmark and the Netherlands
immediately "mirrored" the threatened material by putting
it up on their sites with links to LabourNet.
Meanwhile Public Services International, a global union federation
representing some 20 million workers, put the Privatisation Research
Unit, which serves British unions and PSI, to work on Biwatet
Within a month, PSI broadcast the Research Unit's detailed report
on Biwater to union and progressive web sites around the world.
Ten sites posted the report, among them the International Confederation
of Free Trade Unions and the Confederation of South African Trade
Unions. The PRU documented:
· Biwater's
generous contributions to the Conservative Party, 85,250ドル
(nearly 140,000ドル) between 1977 and 1992.
· Biwater's
reliance on government contracts. Biwater ranked among the top
five beneficiaries of the Aid for Trade program. It won the largest
ATP contract ever awarded-one for constructing a rural water supply
systems in Malaysia-with no competitive bidding.
· Biwater's
stake in privatization. From a close reading of company reports,
PRU researchers concluded that the company's established was declining,
and its survival strategy hinged on winning contracts to run privatized
water systems.
In a press statement accompanying the report, PSI General Secretary
Hans Englebert denounced Biwater 's attempt to stifle debate.
"It is especially shocking that the owner and chairman of
Biwater, Adrian White, is a governor of the BBC [British Broadcasting
Corp.]," Englebert said.
.
At press time, Biwater had issued no further threats.
- Marcy Rein