On Wednesday, December 18, activists from the Bail Out the People
Movement attended the MTA board meeting to protest proposed draconian
budget cuts and fare hikes. The increase in subway & bus fares,
layoffs, and service cuts are all going to fatten the coffers of
Wall Street Bankers - the same bankers who have received hundreds
of billions of dollars in bailout money.
Steve Millies, a long time activist, took the podium at the meeting
and denounced the MTA as "a collection agency for the biggest
banks and insurance companies," and said that the budget should
be "thrown in the garbage can."
“We don’t need any fare increases and
we don’t need our transit system ravaged either,”
said Mr. Millies, who said he was an Amtrak signal-tower operator
and a member of the Bail Out the People Campaign, a group that
has stood up for victims of the economic crisis. He called for
the subway and bus fare to be reduced to $1, to help unemployed
New Yorkers.
Then, referring to the authority’s chief
executive, who was sitting about 15 feet away, he said: “Where
is Elliot Sander?” He stooped, slipped off one of his shoes
and shouted, “You made $300,000 last year.”
Immediately, authority police officers swarmed
him and pushed him out of the room. He was clutching his shoe,
a black, thick-soled oxford, in his hand....
“I wanted to show the sole of the shoe as
a sign of contempt for someone who makes so much money and yet
wants to raise fares on the disabled,” he said. He said
that the authority’s plans to more than double the $2 fare
for disabled passengers who use the Access-a-Ride service particularly
incensed him.
He said the gesture was planned with Muntader al-Zaidi,
the Iraqi shoe-thrower, in mind.
“I was very much inspired by that courageous
Iraqi journalist who was protesting the occupation of his country
by the American and British oil companies and their governments,”
Mr. Millies said.
Mr. Millies said the ticket he was given charged
him with “intent to cause a public annoyance.”
“What’s the point of having a public
hearing,” he said, “unless you allow people to annoy
public officials?”
Activists all around the city and country are applauding
Steve Millies. He did what millions of New Yorkers, who are paying
more for everything while bankers are being bailed out, would love
to do.
Millies reported for work yesterday at AMTRAK, where
he has been a union worker for 24 years, and was told by his supervisors
to go home because of this incident.
