Twenty-five years ago, carried by the momentum of the massive social movements for civil rights, women's rights, and against the Vietnam War, millions of young people and others turned out for the first Earth Day determined to fight against the poisoning and destruction of the world's air, land, and water.

A quarter century later, the problems remain - mountains of nuclear waste cannot be safely dealt with, toxic spills from factories and oil tankers seep into the water and soil, tracts of rainforest as large as England are chopped down in Latin America - the list goes on and on and on.

The U.S. government tries to promote itself as the protector of the environment. The Clinton administration even boasts that it has an "environmental vice president" in Al Gore. In reality, though, every modest gain in regulating pollution and other environmental hazards has been won in struggle. For thousands who will turn out for this year's Earth Day events, their participation will be linked to broader fights against attacks by the government and employers against immigrant workers, women's rights, workers' living standards, and the right to an education.

The bosses and their politicians in the Democratic and Republican parties always try to counterpose jobs to the environment. "We can't afford to run this factory cleanly," the owners complain. "If you insist, we'll close up shop and move where there aren't regulations."

This is coming from the same capitalist class that is driving hard to bring down workers' wages and impose harsher working conditions. The railroad owners, for instance, have pushed through crew size reductions that force two workers to do the job of five. The cost is paid in workers' lives, greater risks of hazardous spills, and thousands of unemployed. The banner of "protecting jobs" is hypocritically flown by those who are trying to gut the totally insufficient protections workers have won from the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

"We must maintain our nuclear arsenal," Washington insists, "to protect freedom and democracy." This is the argument of U.S. imperialist rulers - who had no hesitation in killing up to 3 million Vietnamese workers and peasants, leaving Indochina poisoned for decades by Agent Orange, napalm, and other horrors; who dropped the atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki and considered using them in Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, and who knows where else.

Washington also provides the military muscle today to back up the banks that demand governments in Africa, Asia, and Latin America sign over oil, virgin forest, minerals, land for toxic waste dumps, and human labor to pay back loans whose purpose was always to transfer wealth from the semi- colonial world to the coffers of the billionaires.

The labor movement needs to wage a fight to halt the destruction of the environment. It is the working class throughout the world that has the biggest stake in protecting the environment, as an integral part of defending its health, safety, and working and living conditions.

One example of how the working class can take up these questions is the role played by the United Mine Workers of America, and other unions, in the fight against nuclear power in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The miners, who were also fighting for better health and safety rights on the job, explained the dangers of nuclear accidents and the radioactive waste generated by the power plants. They advocated the development of renewable energy sources and the use of coal "mined safely and burned cleanly," and they joined in protests with other forces to halt the nuclear power danger.

Industry and technology in and of themselves don't lead to the destruction of the environment, or of the human beings who work in the factories. But as long as they are run for capitalist profits, the bosses will try to get away with as much as they can in their drive for a higher bottom line.

The working class can and must take the lead in fighting to end the destruction of the environment, because unlike the capitalists, we have an interest in doing so. Demands we can put forward include:

End nuclear power. Dismantle Washington's nuclear weapons arsenal.

Union control of health and safety, with the employers paying the bill.

Jobs for all - 30 hours' work for 40 hours' pay. Hire enough workers so we can do the job safely and cleanly.

Cancel the Third World debt to the imperialist banks.  
 
 
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