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Labor & the Environment
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The technology driving our agriculture, manufacturing, and transportation, that has dramatically improved human life over the past two centuries, has also had a profound, negative impact on the health of our planet.
There is no longer any real doubt that carbon-driven human activity has greatly accelerated any natural process of global warming. It is clear that this altering of our climate is moving faster than expected even a few years ago. It is a threat to human existence as we know it on a par with the dangers of nuclear war. Far reaching changes are urgently needed to save our civilization, our planet.
Ozone, and other air pollution problems also continue to grow.
The massive use of fertilizers, pesticides, and herbicides are fouling our water
and exhausting our soil.
Enormous piles of radioactive waste are collecting with no plan for safe
disposal—because there is no known way of safe disposal.
We are depleting nonrenewable fossil fuels at an alarming rate.
Mercury is collecting in our drinking water and the fish we eat.
The factory methods used by dairies, livestock, and poultry corporations are not
only inhumane in their treatment of animals; the widespread use of antibiotics
essential to these operations are creating mutated bacterial monsters that
threaten human health as well.
The impact of these trends has been heightened in this country by urban
sprawl—which has led to a host of other social and economic problems as well.
Worse yet, these problems are being exported with capital in the process now
known as Globalization.
We cannot rely upon the captains of industry to be the guardians of our
environment. They are driven by the profit motive—and little else. Industry
usually bitterly resists any environmental restrictions. They often cynically
complain that environmental measures eliminate jobs—just as they falsely
predicted that safety measures like OSHA would put them out of business.
Unfortunately, some unions have bought the bosses’ line. Some have partnered up
with the coal industry in a misguided “Unions for Jobs and the Environment”
scam. Others have shilled for Big Oil in promoting drilling in pristine Arctic
preserves and opposing fuel economy standards for cars. This is a lose-lose
path. These corporations care nothing about either our jobs or our environment.
It is true that some needed environmental measures could
impact jobs. But working people cannot afford to get caught in a no-win counter
posing of jobs versus the environment. What is required is simultaneous action
to develop alternative jobs and training for workers displaced by environmental
restructuring. The Labor Party took up this question at its Founding Convention
in 1996:
Labor
Party Program on a Just Transition
If we act soon, boldly and decisively, we can begin to repair and reverse
environmental destruction while providing decent jobs for all. If we delay, we
will leave a bleak, shameful heritage to future generations.
Labor’s natural allies in this struggle will include environmentalists,
scientists, and organic farmers. Our adversaries will be Big Business, along
with their bought and paid for politicians and mass media. This is a challenge.
But, along with having science on our side, those of us who do all the work have
the power to change—and save—the world.
Global Capital’s Turbulent Trifecta
Labor Party Greetings To Kansas City ‘Step It Up’ Rally, April 14, 2007
Labor and Environmental Movements
Are Natural Allies
Presentation at Labor and Sustainability
Conference, St Paul, January 19-20, 2007
Video Clips From the Labor and Sustainability Conference
Some Past Articles From Labor Advocate Online ...
A Lingering Odor Seeps Out of the House of Labor February, 2005
Labor, Oil, and the Environment
July, 2000
Two Companion Articles by Bill Onasch
Jobs in the Arctic Refuge: Myth Versus Reality
Some major environmental groups:
Blue Green Alliance
Natural Resources Defense Council
EnviroLink
Environmental
Defense Fund
Environmental
Justice Resource Center
Friends of
the Earth
Greenpeace
Sierra
Club
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