This book is an inspiring read. It is based on extensive research and interviews with trade union- and water movement- activists . It shows that the water struggles and resistance to privatisation in several countries and for the human right to water and sanitation at EU level are part of a broader fight to move beyond capitalism. Critical but always sympathetic and engaged the book finds what joint campaigns of social movements can achieve. These will be valuable lessons in the years to come when we face the aftermath of the pandemic's economic crisis of 2020 and we will demand the redistribution of wealth.

Jan Willem Goudriaan, The General Secretary of EPSU, Europe's largest federation of public service trade unions

For decades, creeping privatization of water services has threatened the human right to water all over the world. This timely and impeccably researched book shows how European activists successfully challenged the giant water corporations in their own backyard, thereby advancing the human rights to water and sanitation everywhere. This is a story of hope, at a time when we all need it.

Maude Barlow, Author and Water Activist

Fighting for Water is a fascinating, exciting account of the struggle for publicly owned water. Bieler's analysis of campaign victories in Italy, Greece, Ireland and at the European level is inspiring, highlighting the successful alliances that can be built between trade unions, environmental groups and citizens' movements. This book is a huge contribution to understanding how we can take back our water as a commons, not a commodity – something that people across the world believe in.

Cat Hobbs, Founder and Director of We Own It

Andreas Bieler's book Fighting for Water undertakes a breathtaking comparative analysis of water privatization in Europe to demonstrate the importance of understanding connections across local resistances to wider capitalist exploitation of water. A historical materialist approach to investigate capitalism in the restructuring the political economy of water and social movements, with excellent empirical examples, provides readers with deeper appreciation of the specificities of cases but fluidly demonstrates why understanding the wider nature of capitalist crises remains fundamental. The book is essential reading to anyone interested in how neoliberal capitalism is continually restructuring our worlds and the importance of ongoing social struggles to fulfill of our basic human right to water.

Farhana Sultana, Associate Professor, Syracuse University