https://socialistaction.org/2018/02/01/labor-and-climate-groups-support-transit-equity-day/
Labor and climate groups support Transit Equity Day
/ 23 hours ago
Jan. 2018 El train
An elevated train approaches central Philadelphia.
By BILL ONASCH
On Feb. 5, civil rights, trade union, student, church, and environmental
activists in communities across North America will come together in a
variety of events to call attention to a looming crisis in public transit.
The diversity of these groups indicates that they recognize not only the
urgent need to save what we have but also the potential crucial role
transit expansion can play in providing affordable transportation that
is accessible to all, that can reduce traffic fatalities and
congestion—and that can curtail greenhouse gas emissions driving climate
change.
But today, New York City’s subways—moving a record 5 million passengers
a day—are on the verge of collapse, a major line is being shut down for
renovation lasting for more than a year, and their buses aren’t doing
much better. Washington, D.C., has neglected even routine maintenance,
leading to accidents and delays on the Metro.
Transit-union contract negotiations remain highly contentious in
Washington and Chicago. Some public agencies continue to contract work
out to non-union penny-pinching private outfits who can do it cheaper
only by providing inferior service and paying substandard wages.
Washington, D.C., is moving to privatize the Red Line subway. More of
the same—and even worse—are in store.
This is not the first crisis for transit. After setting record ridership
numbers during World War II, when there was full employment, no new cars
were being built, and tires and gasoline were rationed, the ruling class
took America into a very different postwar development scheme. From the
end of World War II on, highly subsidized urban sprawl promoted a
massive exodus of residents and jobs to new suburban areas. The
streetcar and bus lines in the urban cores did not follow them.
In many cases, such as in Los Angeles and Kansas City, consortiums of
auto, oil, and tire companies became silent owners of transit
properties. They dismantled their impressive electrified streetcar and
trolley bus networks—which would require many billions to replicate
today—replacing them with diesel buses produced by General Motors, as
they steadily slashed service. One result in Los Angeles was the
introduction of a new word to our vocabulary—smog. Out of sprawl an
important new division in the working class soon emerged—either car
dependent or transit dependent.
Because a high percentage of the transit-dependent population remaining
in the depleted urban cores are African Americans, transit has often
been on the agenda of the Civil Rights movement. The chosen date in
February marks the birthday of the late Rosa Parks, who became famous
for an act of civil disobedience that launched the well-planned boycott
campaign to end racial segregation on Montgomery, Ala., buses in 1955.
This pivotal action, initiated by Black trade unionists led by E.D.
Nixon, is credited with launching the revival of the mass Civil Rights
Movement in the South—and propelling Dr Martin Luther King into national
prominence.
Montgomery led to a Supreme Court ruling that segregating passengers was
unconstitutional. Soon afterward, most transit agencies voluntarily
ended their ban on Black bus drivers, and today transit jobs are among
the best employment opportunities for African Americans.
The 1974 Urban Mass Transportation Act stabilized shaky transit systems
by providing for the first time billions in federal funding for both
capital and operating expenses. During the 1970-90s, new subway systems
were built in the Bay Area, Washington, D.C., Atlanta, and Los Angeles.
Less densely populated areas such as Seattle, St Louis, and the Twin
Cities launched highly successful “light rail” systems linking urban
areas to airports and suburbs.
But money from Washington for operational expenses dried up long ago,
and matching funds for capital improvements are to be almost completely
eliminated under Trump’s budget “blueprint” as “offsets” to pay for the
mammoth tax cuts for corporations and the rich.
Transit Equity Day was called by the Labor Network for Sustainability,
Amalgamated Transit Union, Institute for Policy Studies, Jobs with
Justice, Partnership for Working Families, and the Labor Community
Strategy Center. Their website is:
labor4sustainability.org/transitequityday.
TED will not be marked by mass demonstrations like those organized
around women’s and climate issues soon after Trump’s election. The
initiators are setting more modest goals such as getting resolutions
passed by organizations, submitting opinion pieces to local newspapers,
organizing community meetings to discuss local transit issues—and, where
weather permits, outdoor rallies in public places.
The choice of the date was a worthy effort to identify with the historic
link between civil rights and public transit. But it would have been
better to have issued the call much earlier. Some areas were getting
started with initial planning with only a month to go. The response on
Feb. 5 will give a better picture of the current potential for building
the effective transit advocacy movement that is so sorely needed today.
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February 1, 2018 in Environment, Labor.
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