the Voice of
The Communist League of Revolutionary Workers–Internationalist
“The emancipation of the working class will only be achieved by the working class itself.”
— Karl Marx
Feb 5, 2007
This year George Bush finally mentioned global warming in his State of the Union speech. His main proposal is to cut gasoline usage by 20%.
In other words, they expect the population to pay higher gasoline prices and make more sacrifices than we already do now.
Of course, if the politicians really tried to tackle the problem, no workers would have to sacrifice. Instead, companies would be required to put in new technology to protect the environment. It would not be necessary to completely get rid of coal-powered energy plants, for example, if companies implemented controls to reduce their carbon dioxide emissions.
To address the problem of emissions from vehicles, the government could reduce the necessity of people to use cars by creating a public transportation system. The U.S. doesn’t have one, but it has an auto industry. Auto workers could be put to work building the vehicles for a mass transit system. The construction industry could be put back to work building the system infrastructure.
If the public transportation system were cheap, comfortable, easy-to-use, and frequent, most people wouldn’t want to use their cars.
And the money to pay for it could come by taxing the people who’ve made fortunes off the auto and oil industries–the capitalists who politicians like Bush are there to protect!