In the wake of the global financial crisis, water services have come under renewed neoliberal assault across Europe. At the same time, the struggle against water privatisation has continued to pick up pace, from the re-municipalisation of water in Grenoble in 2000 to the United Nations declaration of water as a human right in 2010.

In Fighting for Water, Andreas Bieler draws on years of extensive fieldwork to dissect the underlying dynamics of the struggle for public water in Europe. By analysing the successful referendum against water privatization in Italy, the European Citizens’ Initiative on ‘Water and Sanitation are a Human Right’, the struggles against water privatisation in Greece and water charges in Ireland, Bieler shows why water has been a fruitful arena for resistance against neoliberal restructuring.

Fighting for Water can be ordered from bookshop@fiveleaves.co.uk. It is published on 17th June.

In association with the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice, University of Nottingham.

Andreas Bieler is Professor of Political Economy in the School of Politics and International Relations, and Fellow of the Centre for the Study of Social and Global Justice (CSSGJ) at the University of Nottingham/UK. His general research is on resistance to neo-liberal globalisation with a particular emphasis on the possible role of labour movements understood in a broad sense. Andreas runs the blog Trade Unions and Global Restructuring.

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