The Socialist 1 December 2000

Stop the Corporate Polluters

Political hot air at the Hague

How to win Fees Battle

Socialist challenges break New Labour's grip

How socialists saw off Labour

Our Bodies - their profits

The Difference between Life and Death

Irish Teachers strike over pay

Previous issues, etc

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Stop the Corporate Polluters

THE ROMAN emperor, Nero played his violin while the city of Rome burned. This example of political irresponsibility is nothing compared to the world's leaders last week at the failed conference on climate change in the Hague.

Bill Hopwood and Peter Glover

Yet again, the world's 'leaders' showed they are unfit to 'run the world': blaming each other while the planet's environment is destroyed.

Sea levels are rising. Islands, such as Takuu in the Pacific, are disappearing beneath the ocean. Extreme weather event such as floods and droughts caused by global warming are wreaking havoc globally.

Britain claims to lead the push for actual cuts in greenhouse gases because there has been a cut of 15% in the last ten years. But this is mainly due to the closure of industry and the switch from coal to gas to produce electricity.

Over the next decade releases will increase in Britain because of more road traffic, while Britain's rail system descends further into chaos.

Global big business is more worried about short-term profit than protecting the environment. And New Labour protects the interests of these big businesses.

With a New Labour government, in the form of John Prescott, doing the dirty work of US government and big business, how can we stop the environmental destruction of our planet?

Socialist Party members in Bootle, Merseyside have been to the fore in a campaign to stop pollution in their area. Mobilising mass opposition they have stopped a landfill being sited just 15 yards from a primary school.

This campaign proved the green credentials of the Socialist Party while organisations such as Greenpeace refused to get involved.

This victory is especially important because Bootle docks is not only the main point of entry for genetically modified grain coming into Britain but is also a storage point for melted-down, slaughtered BSE-infected cattle carcasses.

This Labour government has done nothing to protect working-class families and has accelerated the contamination of our environment. Our party is determined to take a stand against Labour on these environmental issues and run candidates at the general election who will fight for a socialist programme to stop the destruction of our planet.

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Stop the Corporate Polluters