[Bru-info] Bus Riders Union March for Economic Human Rights

[bru-info at lists.resist.ca]

   Please forward...
Wednesday, October 08, 2003

Bus Riders Union Members and Supporters March for Economic Human Rights.

March for Economic Human Rights:
for our communities' right to jobs, health, education, housing and transit
?Saturday, October 11, 1PM
?Main Street Skytrain Station

    This Saturday, October 11, the Bus Riders Union will host a March 
for Economic Human Rights, leaving from Main Street Skytrain Station at 
1:00 PM.  Economic human rights include access to public services such 
as transit, reflected in the Bus Riders Union demand for 'Night Owl 
Buses', 'More Buses!' and 'Lower Fares!'  Through the daily struggle for 
economic human rights, the Bus Riders Union also links to broader 
economic needs such as jobs, health, education and housing.

    "People don't experience attacks on their right to transit in 
isolation of other rights; this has been consistently expressed by the 
thousands of bus riders we have spoken to over the past two years," 
explains BRU organizer Aiyanas Ormond.  "Transit-dependent people are 
predominantly low-income and marginalized people who face high levels of 
unemployment and declining wages in the few available jobs.  We face 
mounting financial barriers to accessing health care, education and 
other public services, and suffer a chronic region wide lack of 
affordable housing.  Transit issues such as rising bus fares, service 
cuts, and a night-time curfew are just one example of policies which 
undermine our communities' right to basic human needs." 

    Ormond points out that it is women, immigrants and refugees, and 
First Nations people who have born the brunt of neo-liberal economic 
policies such as the training-wage, attacks on employment standards, 
increasing user fees for health and education, and cuts to public 
services like transit and women's centers.

    "A lot of folks that we talk to on the bus are immigrants or 
migrants who were forced to leave their former homes because of right 
wing economic policies imposed by the International Monetary Fund, the 
World Bank and other institutions of economic and military coercion.  
Here in Canada, immigrants and refugees are generally forced to take the 
lowest-paying jobs and face the most barriers to accessing public 
services.  Migrant workers understand that the neo-liberal policies of 
the B.C. Liberals are a manifestation of global economic order; a 
capitalist world economy which is increasingly exploitative and oppressive."

    "This march is an opportunity for working class and marginalized 
people to struggle together for our rights," says BRU organizer Yang 
Chang.  "No amount of 'economic growth' or corporate profit justifies 
the grinding poverty, injustice and indignity which poor and 
marginalized people in this region face every day. This march is part of 
building a movement to fight for human need as the top priority of all 
economic and social policy."

    Ormond concludes, "We need to build our unity locally and 
internationally, to fight for a world where people's rights to 
livelihood, dignity and justice come first; that is what we are marching 
for." 

Media Contacts:
Bus Riders Union Office 604 215 2775
Jennifer Efting 604 255 4745


 

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/bru-info/attachments/20031009/6a56862c/attachment.html>
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: March for Economic Human Rights Press Release.doc
Type: application/msword
Size: 24064 bytes
Desc: not available
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/bru-info/attachments/20031009/6a56862c/attachment.doc>