On Saturday, December 3, prior to leaving to accept the Right Livelihood Award in Sweden, a party was held for Maude Barlow and Tony Clarke to celebrate their work. Read the speech by Bruce Campbell of the Canadian Centre for Policy below.
I feel really privileged that I get to introduce my dear friend Maude tonight as we celebrate her and Tony’s achievement as recipients of the 2005 Swedish “Right Livelihood Award,” or alternative Nobels, as they have come to be known.
The prize is--to quote--“for outstanding vision and work on behalf of our planet and its people; it is to recognize these stars in our human cosmos.” They join other stars such as Bianca Jagger, David Lange, Ken Saro-Wiwa, Vandana Shiva… and many more, including two other Canadians, Pat Mooney and Rosalie Bertell.
Maude and Tony were cited for “their exemplary and longstanding worldwide work for trade justice and the recognition of the fundamental human right to water.”
Maude’s journey during the time I have known her has been absolutely remarkable. It has taken her from church basements, union halls and community centres to the committee rooms and front lawns of parliament; from the slums of Manila and shanties of Mexican maquiladora workers to the steps of the OECD and the IMF; from the streets of Seattle and Quebec City to Wall and Bay streets. She has stood shoulder to shoulder with Korean farmers and Bolivian workers, with the women of Iraq, and with the dispossessed of South Africa.
She has been reviled and demonized in the corporate boardrooms and cabinet tables of the nation, in the editorial rooms of the Globe and Mail and the National Post.
She has taken on some of the most powerful men in Canada: Jean Chretien, Tom d’Aquino, Brian Mulroney, Paul Martin, Michael Wilson, Peter Lougheed, John Crosbie, Conrad Black...
Black dismissed what he called that “ febrile Maude Barlow’s little mind.” Poor Conrad eh...
And Chretien and Mulroney aren’t looking that great either these days. Lougheed is having second thoughts. But Maude’s star shines brighter than ever.
Many of us here tonight were comrades with her in the epic free trade fight. Some go back further. Others perhaps from when she briefly flirted (thankfully briefly) with partisan politics. Maude decided early on that she could be more effective and stay true to herself from outside the system.
That free trade battle was both heart breaking and exhilarating for Maude. After the 1988 election, she lay down for a brief rest and then rose up the very next day to resume the fight. Within two years of the FTA, she had written two books (one with yours truly) and crisscrossed the country, excoriating the parcel of rogues who sold us out and chronicling the human fallout from the deal.
At some point she realized (I’m not really sure when) that the FTA/NAFTA was not the end of the war, but battles in a much bigger struggle. At some point--perhaps when the WTO went through while most of us were focused on NAFTA, or perhaps when she joined the IFG, the group of prominent activists from around the world--she gained a deeper understanding of the interconnectedness of popular struggles. She realized that the fight against “corporate rule”, the struggle for dignity, peace, justice and democracy, had to be global.
From then on Maude could be found at the epicentre of civil society revolt against corporate globalization; in Miami at the Americas summit, at the APEC meetings in Manila and Vancouver, in Seattle, Quebec City, Washington, Genoa etc.
There have been some major victories: the MAI, Seattle, the FTAA, missile defense etc. The world’s business and political elites are not quite so arrogant now--more defensive--and there have even been some notable defections.
And of course, there have also been defeats. And now the dark shadow of Bush-inspired military madness engulfs us.
Maude and Tony’s global work on water--perhaps less known in Canada--was singled out for recognition by the Swedish committee. Their book Blue Gold, about the commodification and privatization of the world’s water, has sold in 40 countries and been translated into 15 languages.
For the last five years Maude has been at the forefront of the campaign to get water legally recognized by the United Nations as a fundamental human right--and with considerable success. The UN ECOSOC has called for water to be recognized as a cornerstone of realizing all other human rights, and to be treated as a social and cultural good not an economic good subject to international trade treaties. She has been part of victories against the water privateers in Bolivia, Argentina, Ghana, India, Brazil, here at home, in the US and recently in Uruguay.
What qualities make Maude so special to us? Many actually. Here are a few.
I’ve always been impressed by the quickness of her intellect, her big heart and her prodigious writing output. [Too Close for Comfort, is now on the Globe bestseller list.] By the way I’ve always thought of Maude as an activist who writes rather than a writer who is politically active. Her books are vehicles for her activism.
I’ve also been impressed by her uncanny ability to sense the political winds, the shape of things to come. It is like Wayne Gretzky’s ability to know where the puck is going to be before it gets there.
I’m struck by her unshakable conviction in the truth her analysis of what is happening in the world and what to do about it; and her determination to fight on no matter what.
Another quality that I admire in Maude is that she doesn’t mix political animosity with personal rancour. Although she harshly attacks her opponents’ actions and policies, she never objectifies them. It’s amazing how she can disarm her opponents at a personal level: for example, when she put her arms around a livid John Crosbie who as chancellor of Memorial University had to confer an honorary doctorate on her. I wish I had been there when you waltzed around the Washington airport with Brian Mulroney showing him how to do the Liberal skate.
Most people struggle to expand their circle of empathy beyond family and friends to their communities and even to national boundaries. For rare souls, the gift of empathy extends to all humanity and indeed to all life. Maude is one of those rare souls.
She once said that she would like to be remembered as someone who helped build a global citizens movement and finally brought the rule of law to stateless and lawless corporations. That she most certainly will. And this award is recognition of this fact.
She once said that in this great struggle she both lost herself and found herself.
I would add Maude that you also found us and we found you and we became part of each other and for that we are immensely grateful.
