It is becoming ever more apparent that struggles in defence of the environment are central to the fight for socialism - and for survival in large areas of the planet which are increasingly threatened by the consequences of global warming and pollution of all types.
Capitalism, a system rooted in the exploitation of human labour and the raw materials of the earth for maximum short-term profit, has consistently shown itself to be incapable of thinking or planning for the long term.
150 years ago Engels and then Karl Marx warned that capitalism was not just a system of exploitation, but one which also polluted the air, land and water, adulterated even the most basic foodstuffs for profit and degraded the health of the whole population.
Marx’s analysis showed that capitalism has from its very beginnings turned what once were common property and common goods into commodities "owned" by the capitalist. This process has continued and led to the world’s surface being largely carved up between different competing capitalist interests. Even apparently simple and rational moves - such as preserving the ozone layer by limiting emissions of greenhouse gases, or preserving fish stocks by restricting the use of "factory ships" have proved difficult or even impossible to achieve because of the clash of interests.
But capitalism also has to continue to expand, while minimising "overhead" costs (those not directly connected with production) in order to ensure that it can sustain its rate of profit. This makes it impossible for capitalists to take any long-term or socially responsible approach. Each expansion degrades and plunders a new area of the natural world - but then moves on to new areas of exploitation, leaving the damage behind.
The pursuit of maximum profit for minimum fixed investment is also the underlying driving force behind modern "just in time" production techniques, which mean that specialist factories carry low stocks of components, and rely on extensive transport links to bring in constant supplies - each produced in the cheapest possible situation, often from many miles away or even from other countries.
This type of production therefore generates a huge expansion of road traffic, road building and pollution. But capitalists are also responding in their own way to the environmental lobby at home - by switching much of their most polluting and potentially dangerous production overseas, to underdeveloped economies with compliant governments ready to turn a blind eye to safety regulations and environmental concerns.
New Labour, as a party in thrall to the global market and to big business at home, has proved itself predictably ineffective in defending the environment. Gordon Brown happily embraced the fraud of the Tory fuel tax escalator, claiming it was a means to stem pollution, but followed the Tory example by squandering the revenue from it on tax cuts for the rich - and even for the oil industry! - while doing nothing to invest in the public transport infrastructure which is vital if car use is to be cut back.
It has done nothing to curb the power of the agribusiness multinationals which have brought us the horrors of BSE, poisoned our meat, vegetables and processed food, and which continue shamelessly to exploit small farmers and consumers alike. New Labour has tagged tamely behind major corporations as they slash back, "rationalise" and "centralise" production, relying on "just in time" methods, and leaving vast polluted wastelands behind them as they pull out of old industrial areas.
Instead it has got tough with environmental protestors, and brought forward policies in the Terrorism Act which would impose long prison sentences on anyone who destroys or even threatens to destroy GM crops. While the GM companies which want to swamp the land with ever-increasing quantities of insecticide and weedkillers are given a green light to proceed with their unpopular and irresponsible experiments, British farmers are being offered the most feeble handouts (a national fund of £18m) to switch to organic methods.
While ministers have paid lip-service to other environmental issues such as preserving biodiversity, they have not given the agencies governing the countryside the resources or the powers necessary to protect it.
We say that any socialist government has to take urgent and sustained action to liberate the countryside from the vice-like grip of capital and agribusiness, and to halt and reverse the environmental destruction which threatens new calamities to come.
This means a major programme of investment and research into safe, cheap, sustainable and practical alternatives to the use of fossil fuels.
We believe it is essential to find ways to popularise environmental issues, and to take the campaign for them into the mainstream of trade union movement and political discussion. Such debates work best when they centre on specific and understandable demands and proposals which clearly identify and address the key problems.