DEMOCRACY AND REGULATION WINS ACLU AWARD

DEMOCRACY AND REGULATION will be awarded the ACLU’s Upton Sinclair Freedom of Expression Award (the “Uppie”) on Saturday, May 15, 2004, in Los Angeles.

“Greg Palast and we wrote Democracy And Regulation to expose the exploitation and injustice imposed by turning utility service over to the marketplace,” said co-authors Jerrold Oppenheim and Theo MacGregor. “We also set out the steps by which ordinary citizens can, and do, control multi-billion dollar utility industries, so we are proud to become part of the legacy of the ACLU and of Upton Sinclair: Freedom of Expression that leads to action.”

The Award will be given to celebrate the 81^st anniversary of Upton Sinclair's 1923 arrest at Liberty Hill for reading the First Amendment to the US Constitution to Marine Transport Workers (IWW) strikers. Sinclair’s speech and arrest led to the founding of the ACLU of Southern California. Co-authors Jerrold Oppenheim and Theo MacGregor will speak in person, Greg Palast on tape.

Democracy And Regulation, published by Pluto Press, is a citizen’s guide to essential services such as electricity and water utilities. Revised and expanded from an edition first published by the United Nations International Labour Office, Democracy And Regulation is used worldwide by the UN, consumer groups, trade unions, universities and others to help teach and create public policies to reduce prices for the poor, fund environmental investments, open utilities to financial inspection, and maintain a skilled labor force to provide quality services.

The Award is co-sponsored by The Harry Bridges Institute; The International Longshore and Warehouse Union, AFL-CIO (ILWU); Amalgamated Bank; Random Lengths News; The Whale & Ale Restaurant; The Living Newspaper Theatre; The Center for the Theatre of the Oppressed; and the City of Los Angeles Cultural Affairs Department.

Here is the May 15 schedule:

Fair Trade Rally at Liberty Hill Plaza, Noon

Book signing at 1-4 pm, Harry Bridges Institute, Community Labor Room

Award Presentations at 7:00-8:30 pm, Warner Grand Theatre

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CALIFORNIA PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSIONER CARL WOOD writes in his introduction to DEMOCRACY AND REGULATION, "Palast, Oppenheim and MacGregor have drawn on a vast pool of practical experience, wide international contacts and profoundly democratic motivation to examine and explain the U.S. utility regulatory system as a model for an epoch which is characterized worldwide by the sudden and often unconsidered privatisation of essential utility services previously owned and operated (however well or poorly) for the public good."

MEG POWER, NATIONAL COMMUNITY ACTION FOUNDATION: "This masterpiece suggests the way the whole world should see the amazing system of utility governance we Americans take for granted. This book is required reading for anyone committed to maximum feasible participation of those directly affected by public policy."

ENTERGY CORP. STRATEGIC PLANNING MANAGER BENGT JARLSJO: “Very informative, unique, and uplifting. I believe that every person, including regulators, environmentalists, consultants, and employees, working to implement new projects, rates, and programs for regulated companies should consider DEMOCRACY AND REGULATION required reading.”

ICELAND CONFEDERATION OF STATE AND MUNICIPAL EMPLOYEES (BSRB) OFFICIAL ANNA ATLADOTTIR: "Your book is a tremendous help in my work as the Icelandic member Of The Standing Committee on Public Utilities of the European Federation of Public Services Unions (EPSU). Thank you for setting forth complicated issues in such a way that ordinary people are able to understand them."

NATIONAL CONSUMER LAW CENTER: "DEMOCRACY AND REGULATION is a valuable book for those who believe in regulating utilities in the public interest, filled with useful data, tables and ample footnotes."

EUROPEAN FEDERATION OF PUBLIC SERVICE UNIONS (EPSU) “recommends the book as a valuable contribution to what will inevitably become the new battleground in Europe’s liberalised energy markets: how to control powerful profit maximising, often transnational, energy companies, ensuring they deliver a reliable and affordable public service. Competition is not the answer but democratic regulation is.”

NEW HAMPSHIRE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSIONER NANCY BROCKWAY: "If you have no other books on public utilities, you should have this one. Palast, Oppenheim and MacGregor provide a timely and thoroughly documented analysis of the necessary role of the public in overseeing provision of electricity, gas and other utility services in a free market society. DEMOCRACY AND REGULATION is a timely reminder that these essential services cannot simply be left to the invisible hand of the market, or worse to the inscrutable hand of the back-room deal."

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