According the the LA Times, "Demonstrators effectively shut down the meeting and interrupted a hearing involving the 710 before authorities ordered union members to clear the room." Glendale News Press and La Opinion also recognized the BRU. Pasadena Star News and the San Gabriel Valley Tribune ran the same story, which quoted...[Read on for links and more media]

After months of campaigning and an intensive week of fasting and organizing at the Rosa Parks Tent City, 150 BRU members and allies shut down the MTA Board. We were left with no choice but to stop business as usual. We brought the MTA Board meeting to a halt for the better part of 4 hours. In the process, two of our organizers, Sunyoung Yang and Gabriel Strachota, were arrested in an act of civil disobedience. Here's a recap of the day...

The hunger fasters have been using their facebook page to blog, give live updates, and post pics and videos from each day's actions and happenings. After the first night at the Rosa Parks Tent City, Manuel Criollo, BRU member, testifies, "We greeted the morning with the help of a mexica indigenous saumadora with the sweet and earthy scent of copal. In an act of solidarity, Rosa Miranda, one of the BRU fasters for justice, goes to LA City Council to..."

On the morning of Day 5 of the Hunger Fast for Justice the BRU was joined by guest speaker Dolores Huerta.

Interviews with two of the BRU hunger fasters. Rosa Miranda, inmigrante mexicano, lives in Westlake, mother of 3, a bus rider. Staci Williams, unemployed, lives in South LA, mother of 2, a bus rider.

On May 19th in front of the MTA Budget Committee, Esperanza Martinez,
lead organizer for the Bus Riders Union, announced the beginning of the
Hunger Fast for Justice. The Bus Riders Union, wanting to graphically
illustrate the true cost of the MTA's fare increase will begin a hunger
fast on May 20th.

Yesterday on the front page of their local news section, the LA Times ran a strong story on our fight to stop MTA's racist fare hikes. We also saw excellent coverage in La Opinion, by radio and on television (so far we have confirmed coverage on Channel 7, NBC Channel 4). The Times article quoted BRU Co-Chair Barbara Lott-Holland and lead organizer Esperanza Martinez talking...

Housing and Civil Rights advocates gathered to attend a special meeting of the LA City Council for Housing, Community and Economic Development committee. Giving testimony in front of a panel chaired by Councilmember Herb Wesson, residents of public housing and renters from all over Los Angeles county gathered to address the housing crisis.  Speakers covered the pending descruction of public housing and down sized workers unable to keep up with annual rent increases.

Last Friday. we achieved a City Council resolution that urges a public hearing for the MTA fare hikes. Sunyoung put the gears in motion in the meeting she led with Councilmembers Rosendahl and La Bonge, both members of the council's Transportation Committee.
The resolution acknowledges the economic hardship that...

Last November, I blogged about being disturbed by the absence of anger and the outrage in the middle of the worst economic crisis in 80 years. But maybe things are starting to change. Last week the L.A. Daily News was talking about people feeling left out if they didn't have a protest...on Wednesday.

UPDATE 4/22: On Thursday, April 15, Mayor Villaraigosa introduced Motion #49 to the MTA Board, with L.A. DOT General Manger Rita Robinson and L.A. County Supervisor Mark Ridley-Thomas. The motion proposes an informational briefing to announce the fare increase and listen to “comments”; this is not a public hearing and not...

The BRU rallies after our Press Conference at MTA Headquarters to demand a stop to MTA's racist fare increase. BRU calls public attention to MTA's staff attempt to silence the public by denying them their rightful opportunity to speak on the impacts that another fare increase will have on the lives of half a million Black, Latino and Asian working class bus riders!

The BRU rallies after our Press Conference at MTA Headquarters to demand a stop to MTA's racist fare increase. BRU calls public attention to MTA's staff attempt to silence the public by denying them their rightful opportunity to speak on the impacts that another fare increase will have on the lives of half a million Black, Latino and Asian working class bus riders!

Earlier this month, more than 40 people, representing 16 organizations
from across the state, piled into an AC Transit Bus and rode to
Sacramento to demand that our Legislators stop the fare hikes, service
cuts, and layoffs that have been devastating  California transit
operators and their riders.

Two new members were elected for their first time to the Planning Committee this year.  I asked them about their impressions of their first month.  What was it like at your first meeting?  What surprised you?  How has your perspective on our work changed?

January 16th, close to 100 BRU members showed up to the monthly membership meeting with sample ballots in one hand and membership dues in the other, ready to elect their next planning committee. 

As all good organizers do, we begin the year looking back to the lessons and breakthroughs of 2009 that will inform the character of the work of the Bus Riders Union in 2010. The year presented many challenges for the BRU in securing the 20% of Measure R funds that were promised for bus system improvements.  We knew we would have to fight to ensure those funds be used for the much needed expansion of LA's bus system and its primarily working-class, immigrant, Black, Asian and Latina/o riders.

18 year-old BRU Bryan Mauricio member blogs on his experience in transformative organizing.

BRU member Crystal McMillan reports on BRU's commemoration of the 54th anniversary of the Montgomery Bus Boycotts."To use the example of the Boycott, we have to move forward with determination and we have to harness the will of the people. We will come together to stop the 2010 fare increase. We will use the Clean Air and Economic Justice plan to gain true mobility and a healthy environment. We will build an empowered and creative movement that can shape the Long Range Transportation Plan into a document that doesn't use fare increases and service cuts to fund our transit system."

On Thursday November 19th, the Transit Riders for Public Transportation Campaign and the Bus Riders Union hosted a transportation briefing event, "Re-Envision Urban Transit: Los Angeles and Beyond."