The Socialist 18 January 2017

Resist Trump

Labour's civil war continues - build a mass workers' party

Tories torn in two on single market

Resist Trump

Inaugurate the resistance

We can stop Trump's sexist agenda in its tracks

Mexico: Mass movement against "gasolinazo"

USA: Seattle activists win housebuilding programme

1917revolution.org website to launch

'Black alert' NHS: Demonstrate 4 March

Eight billionaires own as much as half humanity!

Pollution kills 600: fight for clean air!

Northern Ireland calls snap election: back Labour Alternative

Millwall FC move threat: Defend the Den - 'wall not Renewal

Billions in profit for Tesco, cuts and job losses for workers

Liverpool dockers and drivers protest "appalling lack of facilities"

Manchester: BA cabin crew pay strike

London: Taxi drivers gridlock City of London

Southern Rail strike continues

Unite the Union elections

PCS union national executive elections

The Socialist: read it, write it, sell it

Protesters surround Sheffield's cutting council

Fracking protest in Sherwood Forest

Residents protest at plans to close nine community centres

Anger at south east Kent Momentum meeting

Socialist Party national committee agrees document for congress

Why I joined the Socialist Party

Theatre review: high art and savage poverty in Bootle

John Berger: remarkable art of a contradictory socialist

Socialist artists invite others to exhibit work

PO Box 1398, Enfield EN1 9GT

020 8988 8777

[email protected]

Link to this page: https://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/932/24247

Search the site	Printable version

Home | The Socialist 18 January 2017 | Join the Socialist Party

Subscribe | Donate | Audio | PDF | ebook

Pollution kills 600: fight for clean air!

Pollution kills 600: fight for clean air, photo Jeff Pardoen (Creative Commons) (Click to enlarge)

Tanis Belsham-Wray, Leeds Socialist Party

For ten days between March and April 2014, levels of poisonous particulates caused an extra 300 premature deaths in the UK, according to a recent government estimate.

This is on top of the expected 300 deaths from air pollution, making a total of 600 deaths that spring.

This is not a one-off incident. This December we had potentially the worst air pollution the UK has ever seen.

In France this spike led to emergency procedures including offering citizens free public transport and implementing restrictions on car usage. The rising levels of cardiovascular and respiratory problems are causing a lot of additional pressure on an already stretched NHS.

The Labour right's solution to this: punish commuters. London's Blairite mayor Sadiq Khan is proposing an additional £10 levy in certain areas of the city. Even Transport for London predicts this will have little to no effect on rising pollution in the area.

And yet the Green Alliance think-tank calculates there will be a 95% decline in investment in renewable energy between 2017 and 2020. Despite growing awareness of the issue, priority is given to the protection of profits for big business.

Only a socialist society, one that isn't dominated by the need for profit and exploitation, can organise the mass investment and integration needed to plan for the future.

Nationalise the energy companies and use the money to invest in safe, renewable energy. Nationalise public transport to create an affordable and reliable system that is a genuine option for commuters.

Run them under the democratic control of workers and service users, in the interests of the many, not the super-rich few.

In this issue

What we think

Labour's civil war continues - build a mass workers' party