Misplaced Pages

Fare strike

Article snapshot taken from Wikipedia with creative commons attribution-sharealike license. Give it a read and then ask your questions in the chat. We can research this topic together.

This is an old revision of this page, as edited by Miasnikov (talk | contribs) at 20:35, 2 May 2009. The present address (URL) is a permanent link to this revision, which may differ significantly from the current revision.

Revision as of 20:35, 2 May 2009 by Miasnikov (talk | contribs)(diff) ← Previous revision | Latest revision (diff) | Newer revision → (diff)
This article is an orphan, as no other articles link to it. Please introduce links to this page from related articles; try the Find link tool for suggestions. (September 2008)
This article does not cite any sources. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.
Find sources: "Fare strike" – news · newspapers · books · scholar · JSTOR (April 2009) (Learn how and when to remove this message)


A fare strike is a direct action in which people in a city with a public transit system carry out mass fare evasion. Jumping turnstiles, boarding buses through the back or very quickly through the front, and leaving doors open in subway stations are all tactics by which people can participate. In some cases, transit operators obstruct the fare box to prevent anyone from paying. Often, fare strikes are used against fare hikes and service cuts, but they also seek to organize working class solidarity between riders and drivers, often in the hopes that struggles around transportation will spread to broader anti-capitalist action.

The first historical mention of a fare strike in the U.S. was in 1944 in Cleveland when "streetcar workers threatened to refuse to collect fares in order to win a pay increase," which was effective because "the City Council gave in before they actually used the tactic." These kinds of "social strikes," which are collective acts of refusal where workers continue to provide vital social services -- in this case transit -- but refuse to collect any money, have occurred in France and parts of Latin America. In 1969, Italy's "Hot Autumn" was sparked at FIAT's Mirafiori plant in Turin as the class struggle spilled past the factory gates as workers coordinated movements using other forms of the social strike: FIAT workers refused to pay for the trams and buses, as well as went into stores to demand 30, 40 & 50% reductions in prices, backed only by showing their factory ID badges. Others squatted houses and collectively refused to pay utility bills. These kinds of struggles spread throughout Italy until the end of the 1970s. Another type of social strike occurred during the 1970 postal strike in the U.S. when "letter carriers promised to deliver welfare checks even while on strike." In 2004, much like in the 1944 example in Cleveland, the Chicago group Midwest Unrest was able to organize for a fare strike that forced the Chicago Transit Authority to back down on service cuts and fare increases. In 2005, at least 5,000 riders participated in the first ever fare strike in Vancouver, Canada.

In San Francisco in 2005, "Despite heavy police presence at major bus transfer points, at least a couple thousand passengers rode the buses for free in San Francisco on Thursday, September 1st - the opening day of a fare strike in North America's most bus-intensive city." Two of the main groups involved in organizing for this were Muni Social Strike and Muni Fare Strike. Another group that participated was the SF Day Laborers, who tried to help get Spanish-speaking working people in San Francisco's Mission District to take part in the fare strike."

In the UK, there was a fare strike on First Great Western in Jan 07, and there was also to be one on 28th Jan 08.

Notes

  1. Root & Branch, eds. (1975). Root & Branch: The Rise of the Workers' Movements.Greenwich, CN: Fawcett Publications, p. 209.
  2. Giachette, D. & Scavino, M. (1999). La Fiat in mano agli operai: L’autunno caldo del 1969. Pisa, Biblioteca Franco Serantini.
  3. Root & Branch, eds. (1975). Root & Branch: The Rise of the Workers' Movements.Greenwich, CN: Fawcett Publications, p. 209.
  4. http://auto_sol.tao.ca/node/1118
  5. http://www.zmag.org/znet/viewArticle/5475


External Links

  • Fare Strike Happened A brief comment containing an even more brief critique of Kevin Keating's involvement in the fare strike, by fare striker Tom Wetzel
Categories:
Fare strike Add topic