Environment

Capitalism is an unsustainable system which profits from the exploitation of people and nature. This has been the major contributor to the current environmental crisis. A planned economy which has eliminated the private profit motive has the maximum potential for solving environmental problems.

Communist Alliance policies include:

• control and plan development taking into account that environmental factors are the basis for a sustainable future.
• oppose the privatisation of Australia’s electricity generation, distribution and supply infrastructure.
• develop a national energy plan, with legislated timetables and targets, for transition to an ecologically sustainable energy system.
• transfer subsidies and government support from fossil and nuclear fuel sectors to energy efficiency and renewable energy, including research and development and conversion programs.
• legislate for every enterprise to adopt energy conservation measures and waste disposal or recycling of glass, metal, paper, plastic and other products.
• expand public transport.
• repair Australia’s water systems.

Workers rights

Workers must be involved in the struggle to save the planet from environmental catastrophe. Their job, wages and working conditions must be protected as environmental protection measures are introduced. Conversion to a more sustainable economy will bring a healthier economy as well as a healthier environment.  Changes necessary for more sustainable production would require more workers, not fewer. Australia should focus on renewable energy, energy efficiency, water, biomaterials, green buildings and waste recycling. Decent work and job creation are central to sustainable development because workers and workplaces are at the centre of production and consumption in society and have a key place in transforming production at all levels.

Cuba

Cuba is the world’s most environmentally sustainable economy. Socialist Cuba’s planning has produced stunning results because it focuses on human needs, not profit. Cuba has reduced its greenhouse gas emissions by 40 per cent compared to 1990 levels. It not only uses less energy, but has decentralised its supply grid. Cuba equals the United States in literacy and life expectancy, but Cubans’ energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions are on average about one eighth of those of the US.

Print version of this policy (PDF)

Authorised by T Pearson, 74 Buckingham St, Surry Hills 2010