WASHINGTON, DC, June 28 — Over 60 protestors including bus drivers, transit riders, workers from other unions, and Occupy activists rallied and picketed outside the board meeting of the DC Metro transit system. The rally demanded cancellation of the planned fare hike for riders and the racist pay freeze and benefit cuts for the predominantly black workforce. Chanting, “lower fares, higher wages, make the bosses pay”, demonstrators condemned the bosses for putting the cost of the system on the backs of the working class.
The transit system makes billions of dollars for the businesses (like the Verizon Center, the Nationals’ baseball stadium, and dozens more law firms and big office buildings) located near subway stops. It makes economic activity possible in the city as a whole. So why shouldn’t the real estate developers, big businessmen, and banks pay for something that makes profits for them? Because they run the government and will do everything they can to maximize their profits at our expense.
Metro is trying to play off riders against the union, blaming the wages, pensions and benefits of workers for the fare hikes, and then turning around and telling Metro workers that they should support the fare increase so they can be paid. But even under capitalism, most transit systems don’t rely on the farebox for their operating costs. In D.C., 70% of the operating costs of the system come from fares, a national record!
At the rally today, several Metro workers took their first step in getting involved in conscious class struggle. All of the Metro workers as well as most of the other demonstrators received copies of CHALLENGE, learning more about the long-term struggle for revolution that will take from the bosses everything that the bosses have stolen from the labor of our class. All of the demonstrators were pleased to see the unity in life shown by the rally, and pledged to continue the struggle together.