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47,000 kids exposed to illegal toxic air
Fight for publicly owned green energy and transport
Car exhaust contains poisonous nitrogen oxides, photo Simone Ramella (Creative Commons) (Click to enlarge)
Aaron Smith, Bristol South Socialist Party
Thousands of kids across Britain are having their living conditions worsened and lives potentially shortened as they are exposed to illegal levels of air pollution.
Alongside carbon dioxide, methane and sulphur, the Guardian and Greenpeace have found there are dangerous levels of nitrogen dioxide around over 2,000 schools.
Although the worst of the pollution is in London, Birmingham and Manchester, smaller cities like Plymouth and Newcastle are affected almost as much.
The main culprit is diesel vehicles. The Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs estimates that of the 40,000 premature deaths from air pollution, 23,500 result from exposure to nitrogen dioxide.
This is partly due to the Blairites. In 2001, the New Labour government gave diesels breaks on vehicle tax to encourage consumers to buy them. Gordon Brown, then chancellor, apparently believed the diesel industry's claim to be 'cleaner' than petrol.
But this proved to be utter rubbish, as former science minister Lord Drayson admitted in 2015. And then the Volkswagen emissions scandal came out.
Our health is at great risk, and the big business profiteers and their politicians can't be trusted to sort it out.
The Socialist Party fights for nationalisation of the energy and transport industries under democratic workers' control and management.
That would allow mass investment in public transport and infrastructure without the interference of the profit motive. Polluting cars could also be converted to cleaner fuels without punishing car owners.
Clean up our air and water!
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Finance appeal
The coronavirus crisis has laid bare the class character of society in numerous ways. It is making clear to many that it is the working class that keeps society running, not the CEOs of major corporations.
The results of austerity have been graphically demonstrated as public services strain to cope with the crisis.
The government has now ripped up its 'austerity' mantra and turned to policies that not long ago were denounced as socialist. But after the corona crisis, it will try to make the working class pay for it, by trying to claw back what has been given.
- The Socialist Party's material is more vital than ever, so we can continue to report from workers who are fighting for better health and safety measures, against layoffs, for adequate staffing levels, etc.
- When the health crisis subsides, we must be ready for the stormy events ahead and the need to arm workers' movements with a socialist programme - one which puts the health and needs of humanity before the profits of a few.
Inevitably, during the crisis we have not been able to sell the Socialist and raise funds in the ways we normally would.
We therefore urgently appeal to all our viewers to donate to our Fighting Fund.
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