A-Infos (en) US, San Francisco:"They Say Fare Hike, We Say Fare Strike"

[Victor Chernov <wsany@hotmail.com>]

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Dear friends and comrades:
Folks living in the San Fransico area who want to fight the impending fare
hike should visit the website of Transit Justice @   http://www.transitjustice.org/
Transit Justice is intended to be a mass based organization.  While not an
anarchist organization, members of the Workers Solidarity Alliance are
actively engaged in its activities.
According to the Principles of Transit Justice, they have come together as an
organization to mobilize Muni riders, fight the fare increase, pursue class
and racial justice in public transit, and to develop an alliance between
Muni riders and workers.

Principles/Purpose:
Transit Justice is committed to the following:

No Fare Hike! -- The working class of San Francisco, particularly people of
color, depend on Muni. To get to their jobs, to get to classes, doctor’s
appointments, and many other destinations. With the rent inflation of recent
times, San Francisco is a very expensive place to live, and wages are often
inadequate. Public funding of Muni is part of the social wage that augments
people’s pay checks. A fare increase would be a wage-cut.

Make Downtown Pay! -- The developers, corporations, and financiers created
the current crsis, from paying inadequate wages in the first place, to suing
the city to cut business taxes, to fomenting the dot-com bubble. The massive
wealth concentrated in downtown office buildings and businesses requires
Muni services, to get workers and customers downtown.

No Cuts to Muni Service! -- Cuts in service create more crowding and deny
essential services to communities. Public safety is compromised when subway
stations lack agents or when people must wait forever on corners for buses.

No Layoffs! -- There have already been too many layoffs in the Bay Area.
Layoffs of workers needed to move people and maintain the buses and
streetcars will further erode Muni service and add burdens to the social
service system. No scape-goating of Muni workers!

Equity for Workfare Workers -- When Prop N is implemented, those doing
Workfare work will be earning only $1.81 an hour. Workfare workers doing
work on Muni should be paid union scale. We oppose the use of Workfare
workers to substitute for work that should be paid at union rates. This is
an attempt to weaken organized labor and super-exploit the labor of
low-income people.

Environmental Protection with Justice -- American over-reliance on the
private automobile has many noxious side-effects, from air pollution to
pedestrian fatalities to the global warming crisis. Part of the solution is
giving public transit priority over the private auto. To keep transit
ridership high, we need cheap fares and quality service."


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