San Francisco
Vallejo, California: Unions help city with lay-offs
The city of Vallejo in the San Francisco Bay Area may be the first city in California history to declare bankruptcy. However several unions are helping the city to cut jobs in an effort to ward off bankruptcy.
This cash-strapped city reached a tentative deal with its police and firefighters unions Thursday, just before city leaders convened to decide if the city would seek bankruptcy protection from a swell of economic uncertainty.
That question remains unresolved, however, as details of the deal will be made public today before the council revisits the issue Monday.
Two Local Chapters in the Spectacle of Decomposition - Chris Shutes
Situationist-influenced reflections and critique on; the Jonestown cult massacre, conspiracy theory, black leftist ideology, San Francisco in the late 1970s, disco, the Harvey Milk murder and gay culture etc...
Published by Chris Shutes in Berkeley, CA, USA; May 1979.
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"Everything is said about the spectacle except what it always & fundamentally is: the colonization of the point of view of the individual by the point of view of the collectivity." Daniel Denevert
Danny Glover - lifelong activist
Lethal Weapon actor Danny Glover has a long history of radicalism, from the opposition to the Vietnam war, through to the Panthers, the Iraq war and anti-racism today.
Born in San Francisco to two postal workers and NAACP activists, Danny Glover went on to study at San Francisco State University where he participated in the longest student strike in US history.
Fare strike - San Francisco 2005
Pamphlet with first-hand accounts and analysis of the self-organised 2005 fare strike, in PDF and text format.
Fare strike in PDF format (2.14Mb)
Fare strike!
San Francisco 2005
First-Hand Accounts
INTRODUCTION
Post mortem on the San Francisco fare strike, 2005 - Tom Wetzel
Tom Wetzel analyses the fare strike of San Francisco public transport riders in 2005. He examines what ways of organising can be used to win struggles and form the basis of a new society.
In September, 2005 several thousand riders of Muni - San Francisco's city-owned transit system - participated in a mass fare strike, to fight service cuts, layoffs, and the second fare hike in two years. More than five dozen people were actively involved in the organizing. The last action connected with the fare strike was a November 10th protest march, initiated by the organized day laborers.
Fighting the fare hike in San Francisco
A report on organising that is going on here in San Francisco against the rise in fares for buses and trams.
Back in April the MTA Board, which runs Muni (the bus and streetcar system in San Francisco) voted to increase the transit fare from $1.25 to $1.50, to cut service on many bus lines, and to lay off about 200 drivers. This Thursday, Sept 1, is when the fare hike is supposed to go into effect. This is the second fare hike in two years. Since 2003 the fare has gone up 50 percent.
Thousands ride free in San Francisco transport fight
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.
In the days leading up to September 1st, more than 50 people were actively organizing for the fare strike, with new groups endorsing the effort in the last week. More than 20,000 leaflets had been distributed and 10,000 stickers were attached to bus shelters and poles throughout the city — in Spanish and Chinese as well as English.
