https://themilitant.com/2019/11/16/only-the-working-class-can-stop-capitalisms-plunder-of-land-labor/
Only the working class can stop capitalism???s plunder of land, labor
??By Terry Evans
Vol. 83/No. 43
November 25, 2019
As the administration of President Donald Trump began the process of
formally withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris accords on climate change
Nov. 4, it was met with rebuke from rival governments from Beijing to
Paris, from prominent Democratic 2020 presidential candidates and
countless others. Under U.N. rules, Washington can???t actually leave the
accord until Nov. 4, 2020.
Proclaimed as a deal to cut pollution, the accords are a sham, with
nothing but voluntary ???targets??? for emission reductions that are set by
the polluting regimes themselves. Discharges of carbon dioxide and other
heat-trapping gases contribute to the gradual rise in the temperature of
the earth???s atmosphere.
The capitalist rulers have no concern for the social consequences of
their rapacious exploitation of labor, nor their depletion of the soil,
destruction of the forests, elimination of species from overhunting or
fishing, and poisoning of the waters.
None of the rival capitalist governments, nor U.S. politicians of
whatever position on the Paris agreement, offer a serious course to halt
the rulers??? ongoing damage to the earth, seas and sky. Nor to halt their
simultaneous attacks on workers??? lives and limbs. Democrats and
Republicans alike subordinate workers??? interests to those of the bosses,
for whom they both seek to rule.
Their calls that ???we??? must all sacrifice to protect the natural
environment are actually directed at the working people here and in the
semicolonial world. It is only the working class and its allies that
have the power to act against the rulers??? plunder of the earth???s natural
resources, as we organize together to fight the impact of their assaults
on our living and working conditions.
The bosses??? competition for markets exacerbates their unrestrained
pollution of the earth???s atmosphere, as they seek to cut costs and cut
corners.
Though scrubbers on coal-fired electrical plants ??? a method of
eliminating most sulphur produced in the process of burning coal ??? have
been around for four decades, almost 30% of coal-fired power plants in
the U.S. still operate without them.
In the name of competing successfully with rivals abroad, the Trump
administration has enacted regulations that require power plant bosses
to reduce hourly carbon emissions, but not their total amount.
Coal miners face the biggest rise in black lung disease in decades, as
mine bosses push speedup, lengthen the working day and have driven
relentlessly to run production without workers having union protection.
The debilitating and ultimately fatal disease had declined 90% from the
1970s to the mid-1990s as a result of a massive fight waged by miners
and their union that won the right to shut down production in unsafe
conditions.
Residents fight steel bosses pollution
Bosses in all industries operate in the same manner. At the end of last
year when anti-pollution controls were destroyed in a fire at the U.S.
Steel plant at Clairton, Pennsylvania, bosses kept the plant right on
working, letting debilitating levels of sulphur dioxide pour into the air.
???U.S. Steel denies they caused any harm to working people,??? Melanie
Meade, who is involved in the fight by area workers against the steel
bosses??? pollution, told a Militant Labor Forum in Pittsburgh in August.
And ???the Health Department is in cahoots with industry,??? she added.
When governments do adopt measures in the name of combating pollution,
they target working people, not the bosses. They say we make stupid
choices because we don???t know better, and push for regulations that will
force us to do ???what???s right.??? Eleven state governments are considering
a ???Transportation and Climate Initiative??? that would force fuel
suppliers to buy ???allowances??? to keep burning fossil fuels. This
wouldn???t do much to stop pollution, but would lead to higher prices
passed on to working people.
Likewise, the U.N. summit on climate change in September discussed
proposals from imperialist powers to limit the development of energy
resources by governments in semicolonial countries. ???It???s too late for
them to develop as we did,??? they lamented, ensuring that the hundreds of
millions with no access to electricity, predominantly in Africa, will
continue to go without.
In contrast, the Socialist Workers Party and its candidates explain that
the fight to defend land and labor falls to the working class and
requires that we organize independently of the bosses and their parties.
They explain that the fight workers need to wage for control over
production and safety in the plants, mines and other workplaces must
include control over emissions of CO2 and other greenhouse gases.
???Science and technology,??? a resolution adopted by the party in 2007
states, ???have established the knowledge and the means to lessen the
burdens and dangers of work, to advance the quality of life, and to
conserve and improve the earth???s patrimony.???
???Yet under capitalism ??? this liberating potential is turned into its
opposite,??? explains the resolution titled ???The Stewardship of Nature
Also Falls to the Working Class; In Defense of Land and Labor,??? and
available in New International no. 14.
Only organizing working people to take political power out of the hands
of the capitalist exploiting class and transforming ourselves in the
struggle, the resolution explains, can lead to creating ???social
relations that are based on human solidarity and that serve our
interaction with and protection of the natural sources of well-being and
culture.???
It will take confidently and boldly organizing along this course to
chart a road forward to defend land and labor ??? not the hysterical
campaigns advanced by middle-class layers to blame working people for
the fouling of earth, water and skies, while instilling fear about the
coming ???catastrophe??? and breeding collaboration with the exploiting class.
In This Issue
Front Page Articles ???Back strikers fighting Asarco union busting!
???UN vote: End Washington???s economic war against Cuba
???Sales of ???Turn to Industry??? book boosts fall campaign
???Stop the execution of Rodney Reed! Family insists: ???Do the right thing???
???Only the working class can stop capitalism???s plunder of land, labor
???Tens of thousands in Iraq protest interference by Tehran, US rulers
Feature Articles ???Nigeria conference: ???Cuba has always stood by Africa???
Also In This Issue ???Canadian election reflects crisis of capitalist rulers
???Stakes in Gibsons??? fight against Oberlin College smear campaign
???Georgia cop imprisoned for killing Anthony Hill
???Fall Campaign to sell Militant subscriptions and books Oct. 5 - Dec. 10
(Week 5)
???Socialist Workers Party Fund Drive Oct. 5 - Dec. 10 (Week 5)
Editorials ???All out for Asarco strike rally Nov. 18!
On the Picket Line ???Striking Minnesota steelworkers rally against 2-tier
wages system
???Virginia bus drivers strike contractor for equal pay
???British Columbia hotel workers gain solidarity in contract fight
Books of the Month ??????Big capital rules through its two parties. It
supports both.???
25, 50 and 75 years ago
Letters
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York, NY 10018?? -?? themilitant@xxxxxxx
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David Hume
??? In our reasonings concerning matter of fact, there are all imaginable
degrees of assurance, from the highest certainty to the lowest species of moral
evidence. A wise man, therefore, proportions his belief to the evidence. ???
??? David Hume,