S’bu Zikode with Ron Blount of the United Taxi Worker’s Alliance in Philadelphia
Click here to watch a video of a United Taxi Worker’s Alliance rally and read the article below to learn more about the struggle of Ron and his comrades in the United Taxi Worker’s Alliance – Ron was found not guilty of all charges.
http://phillylabor.org/truth-trial-mass-media-and-ppa-versus-ron-blount-and-rest-us
Truth on Trial: The mass media and the PPA versus Ron Blount and the rest of us
10/07/2009
This Friday, Unified Taxi Workers Alliance (UTWA) President Ron Blount will stand trial in a court of law. Let’s hope that the courtroom is a more balanced venue than the mass media, which has had Ron on trial for quite some time. Case in point: The last time UTWA held a rally, hundreds came out to demand that the Philadelphia Parking Authority (PPA) stop their unjust practice of drive-by ticketing. While their demands directly affected the livelihoods of thousands of hard-working Philadelphia taxi drivers, the Metro “covered the story” by ignoring them and focusing instead on Ron’s trial, which was still months away. Their coverage, like so much other coverage we have seen in the last year, hid the very real concerns of many struggling Philadelphians with an individual distraction.
Of course, Ron is an impressive individual. Wherever Ron travels in Philadelphia, there are people who want to shake his hand. Windows open. Cars pull over. Meals are left to get cold. He is greeted as a brother by taxi drivers of all ages and races, from every corner of the city and beyond. Ron is a taxi driver and the popularly-elected President of the Unified Taxi Workers Alliance. He is also a student and a teacher, a thinker and a fighter. He listens more than he talks. When he talks, many listen.
The PPA—which drivers have been fighting for years to clean up—would love to discredit Ron and watch the Taxi Workers Alliance fail. But contrary to mass media reporting, UTWA is not about any one leader. UTWA is an organization of powerful leaders, many of whom bring experience of struggles for justice that have happened all over the world. This is a group of people who have come together across races, nationalities and languages to form an organization that stands for human rights. In an op-ed piece this August, Ron laid out some of the economic realities that underlie their commitment:
“According to the PPA, drivers book on average $119 per 12-hour shift. When we subtract $60 to rent the cab, plus another $30 for gas, drivers are left with $29 plus tips. Drivers, according to the PPA’s own records, are making $50 per 12-hour shift, or $4.17 an hour. Because of the low return for their labor, many drivers are working 12-16 hours per day, and six to seven days per week. To add insult to injury, drivers are not covered on the taxi’s auto insurance policy. So in case of an accident, they are left to fend for themselves. In fact, they have no safety net or benefits, relying instead on the victims’ compensation program or hospital emergency rooms. Out of necessity, taxi drivers continue to work after suffering strokes, diabetic complications, fractured limbs and other medical problems without the riding public suspecting a thing.”
And the members of UTWA do more than advocate for their fellow drivers. When students stand up to demand qualified teachers in their schools, UTWA stands with them. When security guards or hotel workers demand a living wage, UTWA demands with them. When members of the clergy face arrest for their opposition to casinos, UTWA joins them. They are heroes of this city.
Now Ron, their President and most visible member, is charged with allegedly assaulting a customer. He was arrested (several weeks after the incident is said to have occurred, despite being someone who is very easy to find) at PPA headquarters. PPA officials were waiting for the event, and laughed and cheered to see this representative of the people taken away in handcuffs. They charged Ron with a felony, but the first time he went in front of a judge, the judge dismissed the charge. A few months later, the charge was mysteriously reinstated.
Shortly after his arrest, Ron consoled those who were worried about the pain all of this might cause him, saying philosophically, “This is a war. Sometimes we are going to get hit.” And it is true that courageous leaders throughout history have faced similar persecution for the fact that people listened when they spoke for the poor against the rich and the ruling classes—Martin Luther King, for example, when he launched his Poor People’s Campaign, or Jesus Christ when he overturned the money changers’ tables. Today, leaders of Abahlali baseMjondolo, a movement of shack dwellers in South Africa, are in hiding after government-sponsored attacks on their homes and families. As Mazwi Nzimande, Abahlali’s Youth League President, told MMP in a radio interview last week, “If we were not having an impact on the government, this was not going to happen. [These attacks] mean that we are really having the impact.”
What happens Friday will show us how any of those leaders would be treated if they were in Philadelphia today. Because these trials in the courtroom and the media are not just about Ron, and they are not just about taxi drivers. They are about every parent who’s working 16-hour shifts and still barely able to provide for their kids. Every person who tunes into the mass media and cannot find their reality reflected there. Every worker who dares to ask for decent pay for hard work. Every human being who has the audacity to expect baseline respect. They are about every one of us who has stood up and said, Enough. My life is worth more than this.
Ron is on trial for speaking the truth. And he is not the only one.
