Knowledge is power, and people can’t build power without it.

In this library, we share articles we’ve written, political education sessions we’ve developed, and informative resources we’ve come across.

A critical tool in this fight is an understanding and analysis of how the contemporary state of public transportation does not serve working people. From deep dives into the agencies that fund and plan our transportation system to analyses of funding, urban development, and operations, we intend to shed light on the obscure, abstract, and complicated aspects of public transportation. In so doing, we intend to build power to put pressure on transit systems and transform them into we know to be our right: comprehensive, accessible, reliable, equitable, and efficient public transportation systems.

We hope that providing consistent coverage and political education we are able to help equip riders, organizers, and workers with resources to lean on for deciphering and participating in the fight for public transportation.

February 6, 2023

Learning From Rosa Parks on Transit Equity Day

5 minute read tw: racism, sexual assault This past Saturday, Feb. 4th, 2023, was Transit Equity Day, “a collaborative effort of several organizations and unions to promote public transit as a civil right and a strategy to combat climate change…”1organized by Labor 4 Sustainability. For Transit Equity Day 2023, the People’s Transit Alliance held a canvass of transit riders in Downtown Berkeley to discuss what improvements could be made to the bus system, the planned service redesign, and the importance of transit workers and riders building power together.

March 18, 2022

Reading group - No Shortcuts by Jane McAlevey

In part 1 of our political education session on No Shortcuts, we summarized chapter 1 and discussed what Jane McAlevey describes as the three avenues that make up activism: advocacy, mobilizing, and organizing. How can ordinary people fight for and win improvements in their workplaces and communities in the 21st century’s “new guilded age”? McAlevey’s response is both simple and radical; old but also new. Here’s out notes on the discussion.

November 3, 2021

Poltical Education: Organizing in the Public Sector

In this political education session we watched Against the Tide, an eleven minute segment from a larger ten part documentary series called Golden Lands, Working Hands, about the history of the California labor movement. This segment covers the rise of public sector unionism, focusing especially on teachers and their ultimately successful push for a statewide collective bargaining law for education employees in K-12 and community college. You can watch Against the Tide at this link: https://www.

September 29, 2021

Political Education: What is public about public transit?

In this political education session we asked: what is public about public transportation in contemporary times? We worked through several questions as a group, including how public services intersect with capitalism and the history of the transition from private to public ownership for transit in the East Bay. It was an open forum around a handful of topics, the presentation can be found here and some items that came up in the discussion can be found here.

August 18, 2021

Political Education: Organizing the Ridership

Overview On August 18th, 2021, the People’s Transit Alliance led a political education session where we watched the first 32 mins of a documentary on the LA Bus Riders Union. We watched this together to inform our overall politics around organizing at the site of transit, but in particular to inform an upcoming ridership canvassing campaign we were developing. Link to watch documentary: https://vimeo.com/362379614 Watch up to the 32 min mark, though feel free to watch further!

August 6, 2021

Article: Demanding hazard pay, transit workers force AC Transit to the negotiating table

By Annie Lloyd and Richard Marcantonio On July 28, over 40 AC Transit workers and riders spoke up at the AC Transit board meeting to demand transit workers be paid retroactive hazard pay. After more than an hour of powerful stories, the board directed AC Transit’s labor negotiators to sit down with Local 192 of the Amalgamated Transit Union (ATU). This is a major first step for the union to win its demand for back hazard pay.

July 13, 2021

Politcal Education: Transit for the People

The People’s Transit Alliance and the Political Education Committee of the East Bay DSA hosted this Night School to discuss how public transportation is an important site for socialist organizing. From public transit’s role as a unionized labor sector to its crucial position as a tool in the fight for ecosocialism and collective struggle, it’s clear that the stakes of how we move around where we live are high. We reflected on transportation’s role in capitalism and how it might be transformed, important moments in socialist history that engage transit, and a few possible angles for organizing class struggle and winning a transit system that exists for and through the working class.

June 22, 2021

Bulletin #3 - A Deep Dive Into Fares

By Annie Lloyd On May 11, with a possible fare hike set for July, riders who were eager to return to transit and who are fed up with AC Transit’s slow recovery pressured the AC Transit Board of Directors to delay the fare increase to 2022. The increase would have raised the price for single rides on AC Transit buses from the current price of $2.50 to $2.75. The board passed the planned increase in 2019 as part of a five-year fare schedule, with the intention of matching fares to inflation and ensuring reliable revenue for AC Transit.

May 5, 2021

Article: Who is hiding $2b in Bay Area transit rescue funds?

By Joty Dhaliwal and Annie Lloyd As vaccinations increase and California reopens, local governments and boards will be responsible for their jurisdiction’s recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. The $1.9 trillion COVID relief spending package President Biden signed into law on March 11 provides a crucial lifeline for this recovery, but there is a hitch: State and local implementation is required to “turn on the money hose” to deliver jobs and vital services to struggling working-class communities of color.

March 31, 2021

Bulletin #2 - March 2021

By Annie Lloyd Since our last edition of the People’s Transit Bulletin on March 9, COVID-19 cases in Alameda County have sunk to levels not seen since before the winter surge. The Bay Area is opening back up and vaccinations are increasing. But we shouldn’t be complacent: we need to demand that safety remain a priority. Only a third of Bay Area residents are fully vaccinated, and many operators have yet to receive their shots.

February 28, 2021

Bulletin #1 - February 2021

By Annie Lloyd Welcome to the first edition of the Transit Corridor Bulletin! We here at the People’s Transit Alliance are fighting for green and fare-free transit, good union jobs, and an accessible transit system that prioritizes working-class and transit-reliant riders. Doing anything in life — going to school or work, seeing our families, or accessing healthcare — requires the ability to get from one place to the next in a safe, convenient, equitable, and affordable manner.