Get on the Bus while you still can

by Tiny/PNN

"Excuse me Ma’am, you need to board in the front of the bus, Ma’am did you hear me? – you need to get on in the front of the bus……Ma’am….Ma’am…!!"

At the last angry command, the more than a little bent over African descendent elder who wore only one duck-taped shoe and a pair of soiled pink polyester pants, mumbled a frightened response to the ground. In one very weathered hand she clutched a ball of fabric that was her waistband, and in the other a fragment of air where a purse, cane or other acroutremount used to dwell.

After one more attempt the tiny woman, all to familiar to abuse by institutionally racist and classist power, limped away on her one shoe into the thick white-yellow afternoon glare. The "undercover" MUNI police, recognizable by their "uniform" of khaki pants and maroon golf shirt, stationed surreptitiously at several bus stops across the City, continued on, after the lady was scared away, to "insist" that an African descendent youth, Asian youth and white homeless man, trying to access affordable transportation in the richest city in the world, get on the front of the bus

Of course, the reverse racist/classist irony of the 21st century assault on the civil rights of people of color by enforcing these peoples’ location on the bus (i.e., not "letting" these Black folk sit in the back of the bus) wasn’t lost on me, or the irony that most of the enforcers of these "laws" were themselves other poor and/or working class folk of color (MUNI employees) and finally, that in 2005, the crime is poverty, and the abused folks of ALL colors and cultures, share the common trait of being very poor

"They put a lot of people out there to do that ad-hoc "policing" who are on disabled leave, you know, sick or injured" Trying to get the "scoop" on this subversive police-ing I spoke with Bari McGruder one of a group of MUNI drivers who were at a rally in solidarity with a broad coalition of working folks, elders and disabled San Franciscans opposing and resisting proposed MUNI fare hikes which, if implemented, will mean rate increases of 25-50 cents per rider. And in advance of fare hikes, MUNI launches their "secret" fare police-ing program

Bari went on to break down her position on the hikes, "I think these fare hikes are unfair to minority, seniors and students," Bari McGruder and Victor Greyson, both long-time MUNI employees received notices from MUNI executive Michael Burns as well as from the union, sanctioning them for speaking out in the media against the layoffs, fare hike, service cuts, and other attacks on workers.

In December of 2004 the Municipal Transportation Authority (MTA) proposed a rate hike to 1.75 per ride to offset its 24 million dollar budget deficit. Due to an organized effort by Coalition for transit Justice members the MTA agreed to drop the fare hikes down to 1.50 fare per rider and only a .15 cent increase for senior, students and disabled riders and agreed to keep the fast pass for all passengers at the current rates. Although this was a huge victory for riders, the fare increases will still have a serious impact on low-income riders

Even at 1.50 per ride, this fare increase will make it more difficult for very low-income folks like me to ride the bus on a regular basis, and considering that poor folks make up a great majority of bus riders, who was the MTA targeting for these rate hikes. Yes its true that in San Francisco conscious privileged people with homes and high paid jobs ride the bus cause they want to, afterall, its better for the environment, but so do poor immigrants, fixed income elders, youth, poor workers, disabled and houseless folks with no homes. We all have different reasons, but we all ride

"All services are hurting because of California’s budget" was MTA’s statement about the 2003 MUNI rate hikes from 1.00 to 1.25 MUNI. At that time MUNI cited the fact that they needed to offset their then 55 million dollar deficit

Of course all public services in California are facing budget deficits but let’s take a moment to connect the dots, or rather, the corporate welfare recipients, i.e, Enron who stole all of California’s surplus with its fake energy crisis and The govenator who didn’t go after Enron for that stolen revenue cause he owns interests in energy stocks and who decided that Hummer owners and other California cars needed to pay less tax which took a major local revenue source away from desperately needy city budgets.

And isn’t that, "We have no more money" plea what The Golden Gate Transit Authority said when they raised the Golden Gate bridge toll to 5:00 dollars and cut their bus service in Marin in half, resulting in the golden gate bridge becoming uncrossable for most poor Bay Area residents while poor immigrant workers of Marin are forced to risk their life walking home from work on the freeways in the middle of the night

As well, Corporate-esque MTA board members are voting against their own best interests when they make public transportation increasingly costly for poor workers because cheap transportation enables the urban/suburban apartheid they rely on to get through their daily lives, i.e., the travel by bus of poor service workers like maids and dishwashers from the poor areas of the city to the wealthy neighborhoods across town where people like them reside.

So what can we, as conscious citizens do to resist these unjust rate hikes, perhaps we should look to the examples by other big cities such as Chicago and Italy who in the face of similar hikes to their public transportation systems’ fares launched city-wide fare strikes. In the case of the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA), the proposed hikes were the result of a corporate takeover of the CTA and had the most dire impact on the poorest citizens of Chicago.

In San Francisco, the fare hikes are planned for the end of August or early September and a coalition of San Franciscans called Social Strike are organizing a City-Wide fare strike which includes not paying the fare AND working with muni operators to keep the buses rolling

As the corporatization of our Amerikkan cities enables the criminalization of the poor, these kinds of resistance are crucial, or in the case of poor folks, perhaps the only way that we will be able to continue to access basic city services at all.

To get involved in the Social Strike call them at (415) 267-4801 or email them at info@socialstrike.net or check their website at www.social strike.net