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Origins of a movement
Sweetwater
Alliance is a grassroots citizen movement dedicated to the defense and
liberation of essential resources and services from corporate control.
Organized in March 2002, we believe that the commons are not commodities
and must be protected for the benefit of all.
Our origins are both local and global. Historically, we formed as a
grassroots response to an unprecedented plan by the Ice Mountain
bottling company (a subsidiary of Nestlé) to appropriate and sell
millions of gallons of water belonging to the Great Lakes Basin.
Our perspective, however, is rooted in the larger global justice
movement. Woven from our experiences as anarchists, anti-globalization
activists, campus organizers, Earth First!ers and Indymedia journalists,
our analysis is anti-capitalist at its core: Fundamentally, we believe
that life and the things that support it are sacred, and that it is
vicious and wrong to exploit the needs of living things for private
gain.
We recognize the struggle for water and life as global. We are inspired
by the Bolivians, South Africans, and all who fight to reclaim the
commons all over the world. Ours is a shared affirmation of life.
Tactical diversity gets the goods
We embrace
a “toolbox” approach to organizing. We understand that winning requires
using whatever tactics are necessary to achieve our goals.
We have held protests, engaged in direct action, and supported legal
efforts to fight the appropriation of groundwater by a multinational
bottling company. We have battled utility shutoffs in Detroit. We have
held rogue developers to account. We have lobbied our legislators and
governor to enact meaningful water protection laws in our state. We have
hosted teach-ins, workshops, and organized bike tours to educate our
communities. We have traveled the world and supported the work of water
activists in South Africa, India, and Brazil. We have produced our
own media—video, audio, and print—and have used existing media to
further our grassroots agenda.
In short, we are direct action activists, protesters, lobbyists,
educators, grassroots journalists,
and much more. We don’t waste our time second-guessing our allies’
tactics and strategies. We believe that to win, we must create movements
that are dynamic, adaptable, and tactically diverse.
Life must prevail. Hope dies last.
Build
power. Create democracy. Live creatively.
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