Lannan Foundation

"Life requires access to clean water; to deny the right to water is to deny the right to life." Maude Barlow is an international leader in what she calls the "global water justice movement." Of the current crisis she explains, "On one side are powerful private interests, transnational water and food corporations, most First World governments and most of the major international institutions..." These forces see water as a commodity to be sold and traded, she says, and have established an elaborate infrastructure to promote private control of water. On the other side are environmentalists, human rights activists, indigenous groups, small farmers, peasants, and grassroots communities worldwide. She travels and lectures widely, arguing that water is a basic right and should not be a commodity. Her books include Blue Gold: The Fight to Stop Corporate Theft of the World's Water and the recently released Blue Covenant: The Global Water Crisis and the Coming Battle for the Right to Water. She is the founder of the Blue Planet Project, working internationally for the right to water. Barlow has received honorary doctorates from four Canadian universities for her social justice work and is the recipient of numerous educational awards including a Lannan Cultural Freedom Fellowship in 2005.

Maude Barlow Bio and Cross Links

Laura Flanders is the author of Blue Grit: True Democrats Take Back Politics from the Politicians and the bestselling book BUSHWOMEN: Tales of a Cynical Species, an investigation into the women in George W. Bush's Cabinet, described as "fierce, funny and intelligent" by Publisher's Weekly. She writes regularly for the Nation, Alternet, Ms. Magazine, Znet and others, and is a frequent panelist on television news programs including "Fox News Watch," "The O'Reilly Factor," "Hannity & Colmes," CSPAN's "Washington Journal," and others. She also founded Women's Desk at the media watch group, FAIR, and for more than ten years she produced and hosted CounterSpin, FAIR's nationally-syndicated radio program.

Laura Flanders Bio and Cross Links