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From Fare Dodging to Mass Mobilisation w/ 56a Infoshop
February 25, 2023 @ 7:00 pm - 9:00 pm GMT
Join us for the second event on everyday direct actions against the perpetual crisis of the cost of living. In collaboration with 56A Infoshop, we will be looking at small and large manifestations around public transport, with a specific focus on the London-based Fare Dodgers Liberation Front and the legacy of the Brazilian Movimento Passe Livre.
How did a movement for cheaper bus fares turn into a massive uprising in 2013? How did the Movimento Passe Livre (Free Fare Movement) organised itself and move from demanding cheaper fares to instituting a popular movement for free public transport? How did it try to insist on maintaining its own autonomy as a movement and how did its class composition change as the struggle intensified? 20 years before, and in contrast to Brazil, we’ll look at how the small London-based Fare Dodgers Liberation Front (FDLF) burst into transport struggles with a funny but radical take on high fares and the refusal to pay. FDLF knew they would not build a wide and popular movement but they gave it a go nevertheless. We will look at their own reflections and self-criticisms by engaging with archival materials produced and diffused by the FDLF.
With multiple bus and train strikes ongoing, we can also ask – what can we do as commuters to generalise these fights toward wider practical actions against ever-increasing poverty and precarity? What can be the relevance of public transportation-centered campaigns to struggles happening in the spheres of circulation and production?
Bring your own stories and ideas of transport struggles, be that as a commuter, passenger, fare dodger or transport worker!