[ Golden Gater Online - September 18, 1997 ]
Combine whining unions with inflexible management, add incompetent negotiators to both sides, and what do you get?
A week-long vacation for BART employees, and unpaid overtime for commuters.
Workers didn't miss a paycheck, and management actually made more money by not operating because most of their funding comes from government subsidies and taxes, not riders. The only victims of this strike were the public - whose very interest the system is designed to serve. An opinion poll conducted by the San Francisco Chronicle showed that while most people blamed both the unions and management, only one-third of people surveyed supported the strikers.
On campus, however, hastily posted flyer-montages heralded the strikers as heroes. Many students sided with the general public's notion that the BART unions are causing all too much trouble for frivolous gains, and a quick look at the flyers revealed the dissenters to be those furious intellectuals of the International Socialist Organization.
Mention the word "strike" and thousands of rubber mallets ricochet off kneecaps. The reflex action: Jaws flap, and rhetoric rockets out of angry, righteous mouths. All of a sudden, it's a revolution against that son-of-a-bitch management by the oppressed proletariat. It's the last straw, can't get stepped on by a bully, time to shut 'em down.
But socialist support of this particular strike did not make sense. Unions quibbled over small raises in salary when they were already among the highest paid transit workers in the country. BART drivers can earn up to $48,000 a year, well over the average San Franciscan's salary of $37,000. It's not bad, considering they don't even have to steer.
Socialists see themselves as modern-day Robin Hoods, except they wouldn't be content to just steal from the rich. They would rather creep into the mansions of fat capitalist pigs and cut out their overconsuming gullets as they sleep. But this strike didn't hurt the rich, it inconvenienced everyone. The minority elite in this case was the workers - a group of 2,600 that forced 275,000 BART commuters to find another ride and clogged the streets for thousands more. It increased pollution and wasted gas. And it didn't help topple the "system," as some radicals might think - economists pointed out that increased expenditures, such as rented cars and additional trucks needed to haul material over congested highways, more than offset the decrease in productivity. The price paid was in personal time. A conservative estimate put it at $3.64 million a day for East Bay commuters alone. Personal time. That meant, for most, less time in bed and more time on the road or at the bus stop. Personally, that pisses me off.
So, if socialists are adamant about the rights of the hard-working citizen, why would they support a strike that weighed heavily against them?
It's an approximation of the socialist's wet dream - Helter-Skelter, but with class as the dividing line instead of race. They'd like to witness a total economic collapse and the blood of the wealthy running down the gutters, but they'll take what they can get, and a strike is the best they can hope for. And while no, most of the strikers probably weren't socialists, their united-labor sentiment was close enough and anything resembling their cause is welcomed.
Socialists aim to emancipate the public from their corporate masters. They want to unshackle those bound by an oppressive government. They can't comprehend it when no one is interested, and the blaming starts. The government, the corporations, the media - these are the reasons the socialist revolt hasn't been realized. The only thing they don't blame is their unpopular, tried-and-failed doctrine. The clenched-fist symbol of the ISO should be changed to an accusatory, pointed finger.
By writing letters and passing out literature, socialists fight the power. They take swings at the system. They might as well go out onto the mud flats and kick at the incoming tide. They'll make a small splash, but as the polluted waters rise, they'll have to make a choice - sink or swim.
[ Golden Gater - September 18, 1997 ]