SAVE THE ENVIRONMENT -- PEOPLE BEFORE PROFITS!
Statement by Gloria La Riva

Across California, our communities are being poisoned. Chemical plants, refineries, pesticides, toxic waste dumps and incinerators pump deadly toxic poisons into our air and water . . . and into our bodies. Communities of color and other low income, working class communities of all colors are dumping grounds for industryps poisons. Many of us work in conditions where we are also exposed to dangerous toxics, such as farm workers and those in high-tech industry.

In Richmond, Chevron's refinery and chemical plants pump huge amounts of toxic pollutants into low-income communities of color. Chevron is now trying to expand its incinerator, located next to a school in an African-American neighborhood.

In Wilmington, Texaco refuses to negotiate with the Latino community on safety issues following a toxic fire.

All three of California's toxic waste dumps are located in Spanish-speaking Mexican/Latino communities. Decisions are made by white government officials who refuse to translate key documents or public hearings into Spanish.

The nuclear industry and Pete Wilson hope to dump nuclearwaste in unlined trenches in Ward Valley, near the Colorado River and three Indian reservations in southern California.

Pesticides sprayed on crops poison farm workers and our food. Toxic waste companies increasingly target Indian lands as the next dumping grounds for toxic waste, garbage and nuclear wastes. Both the Bush and Clinton administration offered hundreds of millions of dollars in an attempt to bribe poverty-stricken Indian tribes to accept nuclear wastes from across the U.S.

The African-American community in the Bayview-Hunters Point neighborhood of San Francisco is home to the city's dirty industries and contaminated sites. Hunters Point Naval Shipyard - like military bases nationwide - is a toxic disaster zone, courtesy of the U.S. government.

The La Riva for Governor campaign stands united with the grassroots struggles for environmental justice and against environmental racism that are erupting across the country. We join with poor and working people everywhere who are speaking our for our right to healthy jobs, healthy communities, and a clean environment.

LA RIVA'S ENVIRONMENTAL PROGRAM

* Environmental justice for all

* End environmental racism

* Government must start protecting people, not polluters

* Force polluters to reduce their use of deadly toxic chemicals, and
to use non-toxic alternatives

* Make the polluters pay to immediately clean up our communities
and environment

* We need real democracy where the public has the right to say no to
polluting facilities

* We need safe and toxic-free jobs at decent wages

* Stop incineration and close leaking landfills

* Boycott grapes: end pesticide poisoning of our foods and of farm
workers

* Save the old growth forests--help timber workers with job retraining

* Close all nuclear energy plants and dumps

* Support clean, sustainable energy including solar

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