BROOKLYN—On a chilly winter night a Brooklyn church held a forum  on the issue of environmental justice.
About 40 people debated the merits of a capitalist system which only cares about the working class for the cheap labor it provides. Can capitalism be reformed or does the whole rotten system have to go?
Three clergy and a reform activist described some of the problems and proposed policy changes while members of the Progressive Labor Party injected some communist consciousness into the conversation.
Environmental racism = capitalism as usual
The home minister explained how environmental racism uses “redlining” to confine poor Black workers to less desirable areas of a city that don’t have resources such as hospitals and fresh grocery stores. The majority of waste disposal sites are located in mostly Black and Latin working-class areas.
It was quite clear that working class people have little or no say in what ills are brought to their neighborhoods and are denied the opportunity to escape due to racist housing practices.
A Baptist minister spoke clearly and passionately about how a decaying capitalist system uses racism and sexism to oppress workers. It is environmental racism that allows people to live in an area without access to clean-lead free water. Working class people are at the whims of the developers and bankers as to what goes into their neighborhoods.
In Greenpoint, influx of new residents has caused rents to rise and is pushing out longtime residents with no concern to where they can afford to live. This is racist displacement. Environmental racism is pervasive destroying all working class communities with toxic waste placement, lousy services, high food prices, leaded water, etc.
Puerto Rico
Another minister spoke about the debacle in Puerto Rico, and how the working class people are struggling to maintain their dignity in the face of devastation and humiliation by U.S. imperialism.
The minister also spoke passionately about the beautiful bays filled with bioluminescent life that is getting dimmer as the restrictions on dumping waste have been lifted in the wake of the hurricanes. The “logic” of capitalism was called out as the $300 million contract to rebuild the electric grid was awarded to a small company with three employees in the home state of the Interior Secretary.
The last panelist proposed a reform strategy to get businesses to pledge to lower their carbon footprint through cleaner energy, by installing green roofs and solar panels.
After hearing how environmental racism destroys worker’s lives and seeing how workers face even more devastating conditions around the world, green roofs and solar panels seem like a capitalist pipe dream.
We need to address the root cause, rather than just the symptoms. A world run by the working class, communism, is the only solution. The profit motive for environmental racism will be eliminated. Our value for working-class safety and health will guide our collective decision-making and work. It will require countless years of profound unity, creative thinking and actions of  the world’s working class to make our environment safe again.
Call for mass actions
During the floor discussion some of the panelists promoted voting and advocating public officials for change. Others questioned what kind of system would allow people to live in such terrible conditions.
Several people, including one of the ministers, proposed mass actions by a united working class. Although this forum was very reform oriented,  we were able to bring the idea of struggle into the room. We raised the issue of fighting racism with multiracial unity.
Now we must win more friends to fight against the whole damn capitalist system.