Public Sector

One thing this week has become infamous for is the spread of rumors, and Friday night ended with a scare that a fleet of Tea Party buses were on their way to counter-protest with Sarah Palin at the head. WEAC members passed out flyers Friday afternoon briefing demonstrators on what to expect and how to conduct themselves, but apart from overworked activists and a few union bureaucrats, the crowd seemed unbothered by the right wing threat. Of course when a little more than a thousand tea party activists got to the capitol (sans Palin), most people seemed to think their presence was laughable and carried on without incident.

Clayton County, a working-class, mainly immigrant and African-American suburb just south of Atlanta, is the latest victim of neoliberalism. Last year, the Clayton County Board of Commissioners voted 4-1 to shut down C-TRAN, the county's bus service, which had been around for almost a decade. In response, Atlanta Jobs with Justice started mobilizing riders last October, but there was not enough time to develop a large and strong enough movement to push back the cuts.

Besides the lack of time, most people simply were not able to believe that the county would actually cut their buses, their only means of transportation to work, school, and grocery stores. Many who were able to do so sought individual responses to the cuts, like getting a car or simply moving somewhere else. With more time to organize riders, these initial responses could have been minimized.

Activists are still in the midst of unraveling the damages that this has done to the Clayton community. We have some reports, but much more is yet to be discovered:

A week after the buses stopped running, people still showed up to some bus stops, which might have been a combination of language barriers and not understanding that the County could and did take away their buses.

Clayton county has very few sidewalks. There are many people with children who have to walk for extended amounts of time. There are people with disabilities who will not be able to leave their homes anymore. Others report that crime has gone up tremendously.

BRUCE DIXON, Managing Editor, Black Agenda Report