A SOCIALIST STRATEGY

The Socialist Labour Party's environmental policies are closely connected to those on transport and energy. We believe that only Socialist strategies can deal with pollution and toxic waste, ensure animal welfare, protect food chains as well as forests from destruction.

As a Party committed to extra-Parliamentary struggle, we applaud direct actions taken against motorway development, the live export of cattle and opencast mining. We are proud that Socialist Labour members are involved in these campaigns, and believe that their actions set an example for us all.

The commercial irradiation of many types of food - without our knowledge, let alone our consent - means that a number of foods now last weeks rather than days, but at what cost? What effect does irradiation have on the human body, and how long before we all have to pay the price of the fast-food, get-rich-quick system which now operates in Britain?

The development of genetically modified crops is highly dangerous, and is something against which our Party campaigns. Those who try to 'play God' with our food, environment and the earth itself threaten disaster for future generations; they should be actively opposed in their manipulation of our eco-systems.

A GREENER BRITIAN

We want to protect the countryside and all creatures that live in it. We are completely opposed to all blood sports, and condemn those who advocate the killing of innocent animals and birds in the name of sport. Oscar Wilde was right when he described fox hunting as the 'unspeakable in pursuit of the uneatable'. We go further, and say that those who advocate hunting and killing for pleasure are the unacceptable pursuing for self gratification the defenceless and the innocent.

The Socialist Labour Party is committed to developing an environment in which living things are safe. There was no point in holding a world summit in Rio which lay down targets for reducing and eliminating pollution and then allowing countries like the USA - the worst polluter in the world - to blatantly breach international guidelines set `for the elimination of pollution.

We can transform the environment. We can eliminate acid rain by introducing gas de-sulphurisation units into our power stations. We can reduce dramatically the 'greenhouse effect' if power stations were to use fluidised bed combustion, together with a combined heat and power system. This would not only combat pollution but more than double the energy efficiency of coal-fired power stations.

Our Party is committed to dealing with toxic waste, which should not be burned in incinerators; to help ensure the protection of animals including ourselves, and of our habitats, pollution from chemical and other plants must be declared illegal.

We estimate that a properly funded environmental policy designed to clean up Britain would cost £10 billion, a figure which could easily be paid out of the £50 billion annual profits of those industries and services which have been privatised since 1979.