| | A global agreement currently being negotiated will allow corporations to take over the world's public services - whether people want it or not. If implemented, it will spell the end of the public sector. If you were Bolivian, you'd know why the world should be worried about GATS (General Agreements on Trade in Services). Take a trip back in time to spring 2000, to the city of Cochabamba in the South American nation. Under pressure from the World Bank, the Bolivian government had just sold off the city's public water system to a US water corporation. This was all part of the World Bank's programme to 'streamline' the Bolivian economy - in other words, to open it up to Western-based corporations. It was, the Bolivians were assured, all in the name of economic efficiency. |
