The voice of the people can dilute corporate power

In Bolivia, we consider water to be a common good - a human right, not a commodity. It is central to life and all that it embraces. It is collective property, yet in another sense it belongs to no one. These ideas, which have their roots in indigenous people's thinking, are what mobilised working people, both in the countryside and in the cities. The struggle to take control of our water supplies in 2000 became known as the "water war" of Cochabamba.

Bechtel, a large multinational, came to Cochabamba with the intention of privatising water. Its aim was to profit greatly from water. People were deeply opposed to their aims and, after major demonstrations, the company was made to leave Bolivia. This resistance was important not only because it reinforced the idea that water could not be traded like a commodity, but also because there was clear opposition to wider neo-liberal, privatisation models.

After the water war, Bechtel went to the international courts to demand that Bolivia pay $25m (£13.6m) for damages and costs. This enraged people even more and hundreds of campaigns around the world were started against the company. After four years, Bechtel dropped its demand for a stake in Bolivian water. A seemingly-invincible multinational had been defeated by a third world city.

This confrontation was against the logic that tries to turn everything into commodities. All over Latin America, people now see that multinationals are trying to take over our resources and our goods held in common ownership including gas and oil - for their own profit. They are mobilising to take them back. Many companies in Bolivia against which we are fighting are British. And the demonstrations are very passionate because it is about our survival.

Here in Britain, people have to pay large amounts of money for water. Just as in Bolivia, privatisation deals are signed on the backs of the people. Privatisations are always in the financial interests of the water companies.

There are many ways of commercialising water - not only where a public utility is privatised, but also when water is lost, or when it is polluted. Then people must buy bottled drinking water, which costs far more.

People must be made aware that what multinationals and rich governments want is to turn water into a commodity.

Oscar Olivera, secretary of the Bolivian Federation of Factory Workers, was in Britain to address the World Development Movement conference, Whose Rules Rule. He was a protest leader against water privatisation and won the 2001 Goldman environment prize.