The struggle goes on for the rights of the people of the Borough of Sussex, NJ against the greed of the corporation.  Aqua New Jersey, which is a subsidiary of Aqua America is the culprit.  This legalized theft of the Sussex Water and Sewer Authority has been in the works on again and off again since the 60's.  Former Mayor Alonzo Little, now well into his 90s, informed me that that is what got him into politics.  Perhaps this theft that is politely and facetiously referred to as "privatization" was put on the back burner for a decade or two, but "Privatization" on a much larger scale was put into high gear with the GATT (General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade) Treaty in the Uruguay Round.

Let us take a step back in time to explain how we got to this.  As you may already be aware a treaty requires a two thirds majority in the Senate to pass, and it is subject to heated debate before a vote is taken.  President Nixon claimed that this process was a hindrance to trade discussions, and especially for tariffs. So the Senate took the step down the slippery slope to Fast Track, but only on the tariff rates.  It is a moment in time that signaled the end of discussion and the democratic process, and replaced it with trans national wish lists discussed in secret.

You may go to the following link to study the history of this:

www.fasttrackhistory.org/theriseandfalloffasttrack.pdf

President Ronald Reagan changed the definition of treaties to mere agreements.  He did this because what he was going to push through Congress would never have gotten a two thirds majority in the Senate. He pushed the Caribbean Basin Initiative under the guise of stopping the influence of Communism.  Yes, Communism was still the boogie man that he needed.

See http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/reagan-announces-caribbean-basin-initiative

If Capitalism was so good for the common man why would Communism be a threat?  One could look at the work of Charlie Kurnaghan, who was the head of  the National Labor Committee (now knows as the Institute for Global Labor and Human Rights).  See http://www.globallabourrights.org/  Charlie was the one that uncovered where and how the clothing with the Cathy Lee Gifford label was manufactured and under what deplorable conditions.  In his work he showed how the treasonous bastards of our government encouraged the garment industry to move to the Caribbean Countries, and how to make it profitable.  This was the another  step in the deindustrialization of the United States of America.  Today we make less than 5% of our clothing.  You might ask "What has this to do with privatization of a utility".  We hope to answer that in this post, or at least begin to.

In 1999 General Motors closed its last plant in in Flint, Michigan.  See http://www.wsws.org/en/articles/1999/07/auto-j02.html.   It used to employ 30,000 people in Flint that was a vibrant city of 150,000.  Today is is just as bad if not worse than Detroit.  While closing plants in Flint, it opened plants in Mexico due to cheap labor and a soon to be devalued peso.  These plants were part of the Maquiladora program.

You may recall an acclaimed documentary about GM and Flint,  Michigan entitled "Rodger and Me" by Michael Moore.  See http://www.freep.com/story/entertainment/movies/2014/10/04/roger-michael-moore-blu-ray-th-anniverwary/16673457/

Then we had Daddy Bush as President and Bill Clinton who few people knew much about running for President.  Bush had a democratic House and Senate.  The SSG (Secret Shadow Government) wanted to continue to push the so-called "free" trade agenda, but knew that it could not succeed with Bush as the President as he was a Republican.  So coke snorting, womanizing, and money laundering Clinton was picked by the Bilderberg group at a meeting in Baden-Baden Germany to be the next President of the United States.

Bill worked to get NAFTA, GATT, MAI (Multi Agreement on Investment), and GATS (General Agreement on Trade and Services).
Note: The MAI gave a rich man the right to do what he damn well pleased or your municipality, county or nation would pay him if he was restricted from his investment.  The GATS put any asset or service of the public up for private ownership.  This passed in the Uruguay Round in 1996. 
Clinton got NAFTA and GATT through with Fast Track, and a bit of pork handed out to the Congress.  What did these bills do?  They accelerated the deindustrialization of the United States, lowered the standard of living, and tax base while increasing those on the public dole.

So now you can see that this would bring in less taxes to governments, yet raise their outlays for those citizens in distress.  This puts the local, state and national governments in a hole, but it facilitates the privatization of public assets and services.  So privatization does not solve any problems of the local, state or national governments.  No it always results in increased cost to the individual and thus less money to spend out of pocket.  That means less sales tax, and only furthers the downward spiral of the masses.  It is the reinstitution of feudalism. It is the taking away of what is ours, and then charging us for what is ours.

So many of us are working to save a 118 year old water system in Sussex, NJ.  We are called naysayers, but we are not.  We are the ones that say the people of Sussex can run the water system, and run it better.  It seems that the Hegelian dialectic was at work among three members of the Sussex Borough Council.  So they let the system go into disrepair, and then claim that they cannot fund the repair.  They failed to look at the grants available from the USDA, nor did they raise their voice when the State of New Jersey posted a bond for $16.8 million to repair private damns in the state.

They claim that some of us are outsiders, in that we do not live within the Borough.  I have worked with two of the candidates for council in 2007 and again in 2011 as is my Constitutional right.  Unlike Mr. Ass
ellta of Aqua New Jersey many of us are not there because of profits but because of principle.  Yet one of the proponents of the sale is moving out of town in December of this year.  If the sale goes through he will have no skin in the game.

They are already trying to change the rules of the game as they know that the vast majority of the people do not want to sell the utility.  They see loss of control, poor service, and higher costs with the sale, and Aqua America's record attests to that.  State Senators Sarlo and Kyrillos sponsored bill S2412 which is facetiously entitled "Water Structure Protection Act".  It is should be called the "Facilitation of the Theft of Public Utlities".  So even is the vote on the referendum to sell is a resounding NO this act will enable the bypass of the democratic process and facilitate the theft of the water sewer system.  Sarlo is also the Chief Operating Officer of Sanzari Construction.

This is a battle that many are fighting all over the world, and against great odds.  We shall win one battle at a time, but we will win.  We do not have a great deal of money, but we have something stronger than that and that is determination to work for the benefit of the people and not for the monied interests.  We shall overcome.