We call upon you in the name of the Agora of the earth’s inhabitants, in the name of your electors who have chosen you to defend life in its multiplicity, the life of despoiled humans, the life of uprooted forests, the life of the air, of water, of the animal world that is deteriorating as dramatically as the climate.

We did not call you to serve the interests of predatory profiteers who squander, monetise, control, and appropriate the global public commons for the sole purpose of growing the capital of their shareholders.

You are our ambassadors, the guarantors of our freedoms and expectations. You are our elected representatives and you eat at the table of big finance, you toast with the mega-rich who monopolise our planet with the pernicious weapons of prof

We gave you our vote in a loud voice and it is in a collective howl that we turn to you to denounce your betrayal. You traffic in and obey the laws of the market, tolerating games of power and money. You support war with billions, neglecting the rights to health, education, aid to the destitute, worthy and fraternal support of fleeing sisters and brothers… Where is the campaign for the abolition of poverty in your iniquitous, tendentious and deadly agenda? What you are inflicting on humanity with impunity is criminal and humanity no longer recognises you.

What we want is the advent of a different way of living together, in harmony with the Living, preserving and cultivating the sacrosanct values of life in respect of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.

Life on Earth, its vital resources, and in particular water, are common property and cannot under any circumstances be submitted to the unacceptable rules of global speculative financial markets. Ignoring such manipulation makes us complicit in an unforgivable crime against humanity. 30,000 people including 5,000 children die every day from lack of water or from ingesting putrid water. These figures will explode if these speculative games are not stopped today.

With all women and men of heart, with the small people of the artists involved, we cry out our indignation on this fateful anniversary date of the first water stock exchange listing in Chicago, 7 December 2020.

As a symbol of our denunciation, we raise before you this statue of despoliation, made up of empty and dry buckets, the image of an unprecedented disaster that you approve of tomorrow and that we condemn forcefully and insistently from today.

Bernard Tirtiaux and Pietro Pizzuti, artists

Brussels 23 October 2022