While the fact that US citizens have recently lost jobs and retirement funds is apparently a story the corporate media cannot ignore, Enron's track record prior to its spectacular collapse is shocking and rarely makes headline news even now, as reported by the Seattle IMC.

Enron helped create thousands of environmental refugees in India, where they pushed through development of the Dabhol power project. India's Maharashtra State Electricity Board (MSEB) guaranteed $30 Billion (US) in payment to Enron for building the project. Now, after Enron's collapse, the project is apparently closed, and the people who lost their land are demanding its return.

On January 25, 1999, Human Rights Watch published an 166 page book documenting extensive human rights abuses in connection with the construction of the project. Relocation of villagers and towns affected by the project never occured, and the completed dam projects have only produced 20% of the projected electricity output projected. Despite India's long history of popular resistance to dam projects (Narmada and Koel-Karo among others), plans for more are in the works.

For more background on the rest of the Enron story that the major media is not covering, including George Bush's long history of working to globalize Enron's destructive potential, read Pratap Chatterjee's article, Global Gospel of Gas (Jan. 98).

India IMC

Power Politics, by Arundhati Roy

July 11 Feature on Corporate Corruption

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