No new posts have been added to the site recently, primarily because most people’s focus has now shifted to the defensive struggle against the ConDem government’s vicious attacks on living standards and social welfare. Many people have accepted the lie that we have entered a period where cutbacks are ‘inevitable’. The main aim of activists everywhere must be to counteract that lie, and to mobilise people for the broadest possible fightback against the cuts.
The reality is that, at the time of writing (October 2010), the demand for free public transport seems utopian. Those who have looked into the question know that that is not correct. Firstly, because the crisis being used ideologically at the present time by Tories and LibDems to justify an attack on working class living standards is primarily a crisis of the banking system, which this year plans to spend as much on bonuses (£7 billion) as the scale of the core public sector cuts. And secondly, because a free transport system would generate its own benefits and savings – as has been amply proved elsewhere.
In the present climate, however, where workers are struggling to defend their basic rights, the demands of Bristol CFFPT are unlikely to relate to most people’s daily concerns. The website will of course continue to exist, and you are welcome to get in touch if you would like to help with the campaign. But new activity, at the present time, is likely to be fairly minimal.
Bristol Campaign For Free Public Transport 