Pie Palace

There’s going to be another bus riders union meeting on Tuesday, May 30th:

CAN’T AFFORD THE FARE:
Ongoing Meetings and Discussion on the Prospects
for an Ottawa Bus Riders Union

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7:00pm
TUESDAY, May 30th, 2006
Ottawa District Labour Council Boardroom
5th Floor, 280 Metcalfe (at Gilmour)
Ottawa
FREE
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Groups and individuals interested in forming an Ottawa Bus or Transit Riders’ Union will meet to discuss the possibility of forming a local bus riders union to fight for the rights of transit users in our city. Everyone is invited to join the discussion and the fight.

This is part of an ongoing series of meetings intended to formulate the structure, principles and priorities of the Transit Riders’ Union.

The first meeting on May 10 began the discussion as to what problems exist with bus service in Ottawa, and possible solutions to those problems. It also allowed us to sketch some possible guidelines on which the bus riders’ union would be based:

 Strive to represent all bus riders
 To be an organization that is multi-lingual
 To organize in a way that opposses racism, sexism, classism, ableism, heterosexism and all other forms of oppression and domination.

And also some core demands:

 OC Transpo and City Council must be accountable and transparent.
 Accessibility
 Safe, reliable and affordable public transit
 Work to increase ridership
 Prioritize transit dependent people
 Environmentally friendly
 End OC transpo practices that are oppressive (End transit racism. End transit sexism.)

The priorities/agenda for the meeting on the 30th will be:

 Creating a basis of unity and mission statement for the BRU
 Formulating some initial demands
 Establishing what needs to be done in order to make the BRU work (research, outreach, actions, and so on)

Like I said before, I really do agree with their goals and their approach. But don’t talk about demands, oppression and words ending in -ism. This is 2006. Terminology has changed: speak in the positive, talk about working together with OC Transpo, and talk about shared goals. Being militant won’t get support. Being constructive will.