Fukushima: more radioactive water, more uninhabitable land

The market at work: The Sunday stroll of the future?

by Richard Mellor

Afscme Local 444, retired

The “vibrant” private sector seems to be failing yet again in Japan where it appears the state will be forced to take over the clean up of the private sector’s huge disaster at the Fukushima nuclear facility.  We need to remind ourselves that when corporations leave a community leaving their polluted properties, land, water and such, it is generally the public sector that is faced with the clean up and the bill not to mention the effect on public health.

Three hundred tons of contaminated water leaked from one of the hundreds of storage tanks used to cool the damaged or broken reactors and Tokyo Electric Power Co. has been repeatedly criticized for incompetence and a failure to produce a long-term plan.  The most incompetent decision was made long ago mind you when it was decided to build nuclear rectors on an earthquake fault in a part of the world referred to as the “ring of fire” due to its seismic activity.  In addition, the plant sits next to the ocean in a land whose language gave us the word “Tsunami”. Good decision making?

Calls for the government to take over are mounting as last week’s leak was the most serious accident at the plant since the meltdown and there are more tanks that are suspect.  It’s impossible to gauge the level of environmental damage as more and more contaminated water leaks in to the ocean amid concerns that there are “growing -- volumes of radioactive water at the site.” according to AFP.

"The leak of contaminated water from the tank was extremely regrettable," Yoshihide Suga Japan’s Cabinet Secretary stated at a news conference adding that, "Failing to manage tanks properly is a big problem."  Japanese government inspectors have stated publicly that the water storage at the plant was “sloppy”.

TEPCO has been accused of hiding the extent of the problems at the disaster site where the clean up is expected to take 4O years.  But like all these disasters, Fukushima, the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico that also killed eleven workers and the West Texas fertilizer plant that blew up the town, the cause is not some mystical or elusive incident. They are not “accidents”as we define an accident, an event beyond our control perhaps, or “acts of god” as some people call them. These disasters are market-induced disasters; the decisions that led to them are made by individuals or groups of individuals with certain economic interests, with class interests. It is most likely that none of the people who made the decision to put the Fukushima reactors on an earthquake fault lived near them.

I am anything but an expert on nuclear power or the effects of radioactive waste on the world’s water bodies but I am convinced that both the BP spill and the Fukushima disaster and all such environmental catastrophes, have short-term but also long-term consequences.  Blue Fin Tuna spawn in the Gulf of Mexico for example; we won’t be fully aware what genetic damage millions of gallons of crude oil has done to these fish or other marine life until it manifests itself in their offspring and even longer than that. There must surely be tons of oil at the bottom of the ocean floor. We are always told that the level of radiation is safe, or the oil has been all but cleaned up but even if the culprits were telling the truth which they rarely are, these chemicals infiltrate everything. Then in the case of oil removal there is the chemical they use to remove it, that is also poisonous.

Scientists have stated that with regard to Fukushima, whole areas will likely be off limits, abandoned for human habitation.  This is just the beginning and the pace of this activity will speed up.  Here in the US recently, there have been numerous incidents of sink-holes opening up and swallowing whole houses, parts of small towns and just this week a cluster of trees disappeared.  This is most often due to mining activity. I remember flying back to Britain once and as we flew over the mountains heading north in to Canada, there were whole bare patches atop the mountains where logging had denuded it.  Imagine if we could see the scars and potholes in the earth, the product of unplanned and profit driven industrial activity.

As the Japanese taxpayer intervenes to bail out the Tokyo Electric Power Co. and pay for its failures, it is important to remind ourselves that capitalism cannot stop the impending environmental catastrophe that looms ahead. If the system is not changed and a democratic socialist plan of production introduced that determines society’s needs based on rational planning, collective ownership and in harmony with nature, there really is a possibility life as we know it will cease to be. It will not be isolated areas that will be uninhabitable but the entire planet. 

To recognize that we must change this situation is not utopian; it is a matter of necessity and the survival of life on this planet as we know it.

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Environmental destruction: No solution under capitalism

by Richard Mellor
Afscme Local 444, retired.

Two items caught my eye in this morning’s paper. One of them was a short clip about Halliburton, the famed energy company associated with the war criminal Dick Cheney.

Halliburton has pleaded guilty to ordering its employees to destroy evidence in the aftermath of the catastrophic oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 that killed 11 workers.

Halliburton has agreed to pay the maximum fine possible and cooperate fully with the government’s ongoing criminal investigation.  We can thank at least, the company employee who admitted to being told to destroy important evidence.  Maybe he is a whistleblower like Bradley Manning who has spent three years in jail for informing the public about serious matters that concern us. Maybe this individual was backed in to a corner, maybe he or she felt the need to fess up, after all, the criminal nature of firms like Halliburton is so vast, a sacrificial lamb and a one time penitential pay off is a good move.  Like confession, the thugs that run Halliburton can move on to fresh waters now.

Alongside this I see that the Mojave Desert town of Hinckley is back in the news again. Hinckley is famous for the Erin Brockovitch lawsuit against Pacific Gas and Electric, the huge San Francisco based energy utility.  PG&E ended up paying $333 million to the victims after poisoning the town’s well water.

How did PG&E poison a town’s well water?   It’s quite simple really.  PG&E has a pipeline that runs through Hinckley carrying natural gas from Texas to the San Francisco Bay Area and it used a very toxic form of chromium in one of its facility’s cooling system.  The chromium was added to water and then PG&E dumped this chromium-laced water in to local ponds.  The chromium ended up in the groundwater and in a desert town where most people get their drinking water from wells, it made people sick.

The problem is that the chromium is still there and is actually spreading which has caused other property owners to seek legal redress. Property values have plummeted and the town’s population declined, “We can’t stay here.” one resident tells the San Francisco Chronicle, “It’s a ghost town.”

Here's a PBS report on drinking water in the US, although I haven't yet seen it yet.

I haven’t been to Hinckley but I have this picture in my mind of scenes from Ecuador where Chevron is in a battle with the Ecuadorian government around the massive environmental destruction US energy giants have left there.  Chevron is spending millions of dollars and using its political clout to avoid responsibility for the damage (read more)

Some individual or group of individuals decided that it was OK to dump toxic chromium in Hinckley’s water sources, any worker with an 8^thgrade education would know that putting poison in a water supply, any water supply, would have serious consequences; in short, they knew what they were doing but didn’t care.  An individual or group of individuals also decided it was OK to poison Ecuador’s streams destroying the natural habitat and the lives of the local population.  They may be the same individuals, as the boards of these giant global corporations have many of the same people on them, they are all connected and linked also with the judges, lawyers and politicians whose interests are harmed by putting the safety of individuals, communities or the natural world before profits.

Who told this Halliburton official to destroy evidence?  These people have names, titles, and addresses. These corporations (legally people) will not put the environment or people’s health and safety before profit. It is not because the people that make the decisions are “evil” which means nothing.  It is because the system of production demands it. Production of society’s energy is determined by the profit such a venture can return to the private individuals who own the capital that can set that production in motion.

A section of the capitalist class argues for no regulation whatsoever, especially in the energy field.  As I’ve mentioned before, the energy industry wrote its own rules for deep water drilling and we see the result of that. 

They make arguments about regulation hindering progress and economic activity which is true if we understand that what they mean by progress is capital accumulation at all costs, poison water be damned.  These argue against “big government” but only when government expenditure doesn’t lead to plump gains for the likes of Halliburton and other corporations that feed at the public trough.  Public services, national parks, food subsidies, the postal service, health care education or mass transit, this is public spending they oppose; these must be for profit ventures which means those that can’t pay for them won’t receive them.  Trillion of dollars in producing and using military hardware is not the “big government” thats a problem.  Another section argues for more regulation recognizing that the effects of completely unrestrained capitalism can increase social stability and lead to social unrest.

I would not argue against any attempts to regulate capital in order to protect the public and the natural world in which we live, and there are no doubt public servants at the lower levels who genuinely want to protect both the public and the environment.

But our most important lesson and the conclusion to draw is that lawsuits and the courts will not halt the destruction of people’s lives or the natural world brought about by the rapacious quest for profit.  They’ll pay the measly fine; they’ll admit that the “corporation” as a person was guilty in any particular instance.  But like Hinckley, the chromium is still there.  They will spend a lot more than $300 million avoiding responsibility when it comes to environmental degradation.  When they calculate the cost of doing business, the land they poison in the course of their activities will be left to the taxpayer to clean up. But the poison is never really cleaned up.  We have very little knowledge of the real damage the Gulf spill has done to the land and water the oil penetrates and in most cases we won’t know for decades, until we see Bluefin Tuna with cancerous tumors or other genetic mutations.
The mass media is very free with information that the 1% wants us to know, the true extent of the market driven environmental crisis and the 1%'s role in it isn't  part of their agenda.

Capitalism cannot solve the environmental crisis and beyond that, cannot even halt it.  No matter all the talk of Green this and Green that; profits come first.  Global hunger will never be halted either for the same reason.  Food is a commodity, if you can’t afford to buy it, you can’t get it.  If it’s not profitable to produce it, capitalism won’t produce it.

As long as private interest determines production, environmental destruction will proceed apace.  Only socialism can stop what will at some point reach a tipping point, a point where whole swathes of our planet will be uninhabitable perhaps for centuries and eventually if not stopped, an end to life as we know it.   How we produce food, how we produce all the important necessities of life, energy, housing, etc.  must be a planned, rational collective process involving those who are directly involved in the production as workers both mental and physical, scientists and production workers, and those as consumers.  There is no stopping environmental degradation under capitalism----only a democratic socialist society can halt it.

For more in depth reading about why the capitalist mode of production is incapable of resolving the environmental crisis and the democratic socialist alternative, visit Climate and Capitalism or click on the link to the right.

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Capitalism will destroy the planet. The environment is ours, lets protect it.

They want us to forget this. But it won't forget us

It should come as no surprise that things are not going well in Japan in the aftermath of the worst nuclear disaster in human history.

Apparently, high levels of Strontium 90 have been discovered in the ground water around the Fukushima nuclear power plant after an earthquake and tsunami two years ago caused three reactor meltdowns. Strontium 90 is a by-product of the fission of uranium and plutonium in nuclear reactors as well as nuclear weapons according to experts.

Reports say that the level of strontium 90 have increased a hundredfold between December 2012 and May of this year.  This level of strontium 90 is more than 30 times the legal limit.

It is becoming apparent that the Tokyo Electric Power Company, (TEPCO) a private company, cannot adequately clean up the mess that the nuclear facility created.   The Fukushima disaster displaced 50,000 households and caused untold damage.  In fact, the level of environmental degradation will not be known for years, maybe centuries and the same applies to the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico.

TEPCO has received a massive infusion of taxpayer dollars (or Yen in this case) in order to help it pay claims as a result of the disaster.  Another example of public funds paying for private sector disasters much like the bail out of the banksters after the collapse of the capitalist economy in 2007.

We have blogged about this disaster many times and remind our readers that one has to wonder at why anyone would put a nuclear power plant on an earthquake fault in a region known as the “Ring of Fire” due to its seismic activity and right next to the ocean in a land that gave us the word “Tsunami”. You can check out these pieces here.

With environmental disaster like these we have to recognize that the level of destruction is hardly known.  In the case of Fukushima as well as the BP disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, we will not know the extent of the damage for many years, perhaps decades.  The Blue Fin Tuna for example spawns in the Gulf of Mexico and we cannot possibly tell the extent of the damage to the habitat and lives of these creatures or other marine life until such damage manifests itself but it is obvious to anyone with a brain that it will be extensive. 

More on the BP spill here.

The most important thing for us to understand is that capitalism cannot prevent such disasters.  Capitalism cannot resolve the environmental crisis and, to be honest, environmental catastrophe. By its very nature capitalism is destructive to the environment and to human society.  It is a system of production that is based on the accumulation of capital (or wealth) by private individuals. It is based on continuous and never ending growth.  But the planet cannot sustain such a system.

The capitalist mode of production will always put personal gain and capital accumulation above the need of human beings or the natural world that nurtures us, that we need to survive. It is inherent in its makeup.

We do not yet know the extent of the damage that Fukushima or the BP spill or any of the other numerous environmental catastrophes have caused.  That will manifest itself in the cancers, deaths, deformities, extinctions and other anomalies that arise because of them.

What we do know is that we have to transform our global society from one that produces the necessities of life based on profit to one that produces them based on social needs.

It’s that simple.  The alternative is not a good one: the end of life as we know it.

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Capitalism and catastrophe: The Case For Ecosocialism

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Moore Oklahoma school deaths could have been avoided with proper safety measures

Moore Oklahoma: calm and comfort after the storm

by Richard Mellor

The death toll in Moore, Oklahoma after a tornado battered the town for 45 minutes stands at 24, ten of them children, more than 240 have been injured according to reports in the media. Seven of the children were killed when the tornado tore through the Plaza Towers School destroying it completely.  According to the National Weather Service, the tornado had winds of 200 miles an hour, was about 17 miles long and 1.3 miles wide.

As we always remind people when the big business press talks about money shortages for this or that social investment, it is important to reject that argument as there’s lots of money, it’s simply a question of allocation.

So once again, the deaths in this instance are largely market induced, they were far from inevitable.  Some building and homes have underground shelters or “safe rooms”, rooms built of reinforced concrete in which residents can take cover when these storms hit. These safe rooms cost a few thousand dollars apparently.

Many schools have them as well.  The Plaza Towers School didn’t have an underground shelter and Oklahoma state law doesn’t require schools to have above ground shelters despite this area being a tornado prone area.  There are about 100 schools in the state do have safe rooms built with federal funds.  But that money “has dried up” the Wall Street Journal reports and many of the schools are now on a waiting list.  Plaza Towers won’t have to wait, as it no longer exists.

"The people of Moore should know that their country will remain on the ground there for them, beside them as long as it takes for their homes and schools to rebuild,", president Obama said today.  But this is typical after the fact.  The same with the West, Texas explosion, workers killed by the explosion on the deep water rig in the Gulf of Mexico and other disasters that inflict more damage and destruction than they should due to the attacks on public spending and the way capital is allocated in society and the priorities as determined by the politicians int he two Wall Street parties.  As I wrote before, OSHA shows up after workers die.

Glenn Lewis, Moore’s mayor said he would propose an ordinance requiring a reinforced shelter to be built in every new home which will also save lives in the future and assumes the bill will pass easily.  But we need to instill firmly in our minds the understanding that certainly the human deaths and most likely structural destruction in these disasters are greatly increased by the priorities of capital.  We do not control the allocation of capital in society otherwise we wouldn’t be spending a few trillion dollars on foreign wars and other expenditures aimed at protecting the rights and bank accounts of the 1%.

There are many instances where measures taken that would improve the quality of our lives, communities and our safety, regulations and government oversight for example, are squelched by politicians in the pay of lobbyists representing the 1%. Mustn’t cut in to profit taking.

A simple thing like a safe room would have saved the lives of six Oklahoma children at least.  But the money’s “dried up" it's called Austerity.

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Environmental crisis: Capitalism destroying the future

The comments below are an excerpt from the  Facts For Working People Global Warming/Environment issue that we published in 2007 when we were putting it out more frequently as Labor's Militant Voice, which is no longer in existence. Since then the environmental crisis has not improved and as we pointed out in 2007, capitalism cannot solve it; instead, it drives humanity down the road to extinction, threatening to destroy life as we know it. Included is the front page of that FFWP that we sent out to our subscriber list.  The information in it is as relevant today as a socialist solution to the environmental crisis as it was 6 years ago.  If you would like to receive that issue send your e mail to: we_know_whats_up@yahoo.com and if you would like to receive future issues let us know.  We still publish it as resources allow.

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The competition inherent within capitalism cannot help but create wasteful duplication. Your average grocery store may stock fifty breakfast cereals and dozens of shampoos, each one slightly different from the next. But each brand represents a different production facility, different packaging, and a different distribution network.

How often have we heard people complain about television: hundreds of channels and nothing to watch. Each program represents a huge amount of money and resources to produce, and yet most have little value. They are produced to sell advertising: to sell other products.

It is through these consumer choices that capitalism equates itself with freedom. Genuine self-expression, personal development and self-awareness are not encouraged. Individuality boils down to your consumer choices, the shoes you wear, the shows you watch, or the color of your i-pod. This “individualism” is more valued than community or co-operation. Genuine freedom begins where this profit addicted system ends.

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Don't forget the victims of Fukushima.

Facts For Working people received the message below from a group helping the victims of this market driven disaster and want to share it with our readers. The website at the bottom is in Japanese.

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Here in Japan over 2,000,000 children, women and men who live in the Fukushima Prefecture where the 3 nuclear reactors that are in meltdown cannot be forgotten.

APRICOT has Launched - APRICOT is the Allied Psychotherapy Relief Initiative for the Children of Tohoku - Please click 'Like' on this page now to show your for support and care for the:

APRICOT CHILDREN
http://www.facebook.com/apricotchildren

APRICOT is a nonprofit that supports the children of Tohoku for the mid-term and long term 'heart mind care' work of mental health carers and the development of health care projects for all children affected by the triple disasters in the East Japan (Tohoku) region ...

APRICOT is you and me, your friends and anyone else with a loving heart and good mind to care about the hearts and minds of the children of East Japan .. a way for you to help contribute and so be a part of helping the Children of Tohoku come safely through all the new years of their Childhoods yet to come.. Please help to start this ball rolling into the New Year by simply clicking the 'Like' button on APRICOT's official Facebook Page and then sharing it on to all the good friends and people you know who have the heart to care and please get them to do the same! ... Support APRICOT CHILDREN now please:

APRICOT CHILDREN
http://www.facebook.com/apricotchildren

Website and contact: http://tokyocounseling.com/jp/apricot/

With kind thanks to you from Andrew of TEAM APRICOT

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Shark deaths are an environmental disaster

This should come as no surprise as human life also has little value when it comes to the profit industry. One only has to remind oneself of Madeline Albright's statement on US TV that the 500,000 or so Iraqi women and children that died due to US sanctions was "worth it" to realize that. But it's still pretty disgusting. Capitalism is an efficient killer. Globally, twelve people died from shark attack in 2011, all outside of the US. Meanwhile scientists estimate that 30 to 70 million sharks are killed each year. Extinction might be a natural process but extinction as a by-product of the capitalist mode of production is a different thing altogether. Such mass slaughter of animal life has consequences just like  polluting the oceans does. If this system of production is not ended, human life on this planet will be next.

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California Prop 37 election fraud?

For our readers' interest from  From Food Democracy Now Please feel free to "share" on Facebook or Twitter and visit the website to sign a letter.

Right now the votes for Prop 37 to label genetically engineered foods are still being counted. On Tuesday morning, Dec 4th, Prop 37 hit 6,004,628 votes on the California Secretary of State’s website, but this tally was quickly reversed within an hour of being publicized by Food Democracy Now!

Since November 6th, the vote count in California has been updated daily until December 4th, when the vote count hit 6 million for the first time. When contacted, the Secretary of State's office stated there would be no further updates to the vote totals until Dec 14th when state law requires the election results to be certified. County elected officials only have until COB Dec 7th to submit final results so we need your help now!

At the same time, Food Democracy Now! has learned that a team of independent statisticians have detected “statistical anomalies” in the largest precincts of 9 counties, including Orange, Los Angeles, San Francisco, Alameda and San Diego counties.

We find this news troubling and think it’s important that the Secretary of State’s office know that we are watching these developments closely and expect honest and fair election results.

Join us in standing up for open and transparent elections, it’s important that all votes be counted and any possible malfeasance is properly investigated by California election officials. Count all the ballots, be open and transparent, because we have the Right to Know!

Click here to download proof that Prop 37 has earned 6 million votes, share on Facebook and with your friends to demand openness and transparency in elections.


For those who want the background, here are the links:
1. "Proposition 37: Genetically Engineered Foods Labeling", California Secretary of State, December 3, 2012, 4:58 p.m.

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/725?t=16&akid=685.163659.SGEb-s

2. “Election fraud in California Prop 37? vote count hits 6 million, then CA Secretary of States site loses 18,000 votes? pic.twitter.com/hlk4VM7i” @food_democracy,  December 4, 2012
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/727?t=19&akid=685.163659.SGEb-s

3. “Documented Deceptions of No on 37 Campaign”, California Right to Know Campaign, November 2, 2012

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/728?t=21&akid=685.163659.SGEb-s

4. "Rigged Elections", Op-Ed News, Michael Collins, October 22, 2012
http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/731?t=23&akid=685.163659.SGEb-s

5. “How to Rig an Election”, Victoria Collier, Harper’s Magazine, November 5, 2012

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/729?t=25&akid=685.163659.SGEb-s

6. “None Dare Call it Stolen”, Mark Crispin Miller, Harper’s Magazine, August 2005

http://action.fooddemocracynow.org/go/730?t=27&akid=685.163659.SGEb-s

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The war against Fracking: The Sky is Pink

Fracking, injecting chemicals in to rock causing it to fracture and release the oil contained in it is coming up against increased opposition. The important lesson here is that we cannot simply oppose it and leave it there. It raises the need for alternative energy sources and this will not happen in any serious way without taking energy production out of private hands. More about fracking in a previous blog.
 

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Burmese workers protest copper mine

I was talking with a friend today about the very important developments in the fast food industry.  We both agreed that the leaders of the US trade Union movement who are involved in this have their own agenda when it comes to organizing workers.  On the one hand they are supporting the decimation of the living standards of the higher paid along with the weakening of Union rights on the job while supporting the Unionization of the low waged which would bring increased income in to what they see as the trade Union business.

Below we see the protests that have been taking place against a copper mine in Burma the last few days, protests that would have meant certain death a few months ago.  It is a similar situation in the sense that once they lift the boot off the neck of the working  class, once they make some minor reforms, which some condemn as not enough, it can be quite difficult to put that genie back in the bottle.  Every gain the working class makes should be supported.

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BP pays $4.5 billion. It won't save us from ecological disasters.

We can stop this

AP reports today that BP will pay the US government $4.5 billion as a settlement for the explosion on its Deepwater Horizon rig in the Gulf of Mexico that released 280 million gallons of oil, spilling an estimated (a very broad estimate) 172 million gallons directly in to the Gulf. Oh, yes, the accident that was not an accident as it was preventable, killed eleven workers as well.

 

 The Associated Press report also other details on the effect of the spill:

"WILDLIFE
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service officials documented 6,104 dead birds, 609 dead sea turtles and 100 dead mammals, including dolphins, from the impacted area. Experts also collected 456 living sea turtles and 2,079 birds that were visibly oiled."

"ECOSYSTEM
The oil soiled sensitive tidal estuaries and beaches, severely affecting the edges of saltwater and brackish marshes. Sand beaches, barrier islands, tidal mud flats and mangrove stands in five coastal states were damaged."

ECONOMY
Sullied waters and health concerns shut down commercial fishing in the region for months, putting thousands of shrimpers and fishermen out of work. Charter captains, property owners, environmental groups, restaurants, hotels and other tourism businesses all claimed they suffered economic losses after the spill.
RESPONSE AND CLEANUP
At the peak of the crisis, the response effort involved 48,200 people, 9,700 vessels and 1.8 million gallons of chemical dispersants. The Coast Guard helped burn 265,450 barrels of oil using controlled fires."

For the deaths of the workers, two BP well-site leaders have been charged with manslaughter and a BP executive has been indicted on charges he lied to authorities. Naughty boys, all three of you.
 

What is not know is what we can't see.  One doesn't have to be an environmental scientist, a marine biologist of sorts, to know that the effects of this major catastrophe are horrific and many will not be know until they are manifested over time.  The effects on Bluefin Tuna and other oceanic life that spawns there cannot be immediately determined.  Perhaps, Proctor and Gamble or Johnson and Jonson will come up with a dissoluble pill that they will convince us will make the area pristine again. 

The fact is, that the oil that was picked up is just the tip of the iceberg.  The ocean floor is full of it you can bet your bottom dollar on that.  The cancers and diseases that are a by product of these activities will emerge more prominently over time.   Perhaps the oil residue will mix with the nuclear waste from Fukushima and the ill effects will cancel each other out.  And the dispersants?  What affect do these have on the environment.

Society's Energy needs, like all social production under capitalism, is in private hands and set in to motion on the basis of profit, for the welfare of those private individuals that own the machinery, technology and human labor power that make it happen. This is the cause of these crises and the only solution is collective ownership of energy production and a plan of production developed by workers, consumers, scientists and all those whose knowledge can benefit society as a whole
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For hundreds of years the damage from this market catastrophe will continue to haunt future generations assuming the planet is still habitable for humans by then.  Fines won't stop these environmental catastrophes like the BP spill and Fukishima. They are market driven disasters, a by-product of the capitalist system.

A democratic socialist society, a world federation of democratic socialist states and a planned and rational system of production based on human need and not private gain is the only solution to ecological Armageddon.

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