View source for Anarchy 44/From the step of a bus

{{header
 | title      = [[../|ANARCHY 44 (Vol 4 No 10) October 1964]]<br>From the step of a bus
 | author     = Arthur Moyse
 | section    =
 | previous   = [[../|Contents of No. 44]]
 | next       = [[../In the trucks|In the trucks]]
 | notes      = 
}}


<div style="max-width:500px; margin:auto;">{{p|289}}

<font size="5">'''From the step<br>of a bus'''</font>

<font size="4">'''[[Author:Arthur Moyse|ARTHUR MOYSE]]'''</font>


<div style="text-align:justify;">{{sc|There are certain areas of pub&shy;lic and so&shy;cial activ&shy;ity}}  that every man con&shy;siders him&shy;self qual&shy;if&shy;ied not only to com&shy;ment, ad&shy;vise or ponti&shy;fic&shy;ate about, but to lay down dog&shy;matic&shy;ally im&shy;mut&shy;able laws, state plans of action and an&shy;nounce fu&shy;ture poli&shy;cies that if fol&shy;lowed would (he will as&shy;sure the saloon bar reg&shy;u&shy;lars) pro&shy;duce profit for all and vic&shy;tory for some vauge and ill de&shy;fined tar&shy;get. Men who gaze into the in&shy;ternal work&shy;ings of an open {{w|pocket watch|Pocket_watch}} with the fas&shy;cin&shy;ated hor&shy;ror of an hyp&shy;not&shy;ized rabbit will, with the aid of a pen&shy;cil and a cap&shy;tive audi&shy;ence, re&shy;site {{w|atomic plants|Nuclear_power_plant}}, lay out huge indus&shy;trial {{w|town&shy;ships|Township_(England)}}, trans&shy;fer tens of thou&shy;sands of their un&shy;for&shy;tunate fel&shy;low coun&shy;try&shy;men half way around the world for the greater good of in&shy;dus&shy;trial pro&shy;duc&shy;tiv&shy;ity and de&shy;vise trans&shy;port hells that not only would span the world even to the ut&shy;most lim&shy;its of the bar room counter, but would pop&shy;u&shy;late de&shy;serts and jun&shy;gles though at the same time turn&shy;ing the hab&shy;it&shy;able parts of this earth over to the beasts and the birds. There are such men who would hesit&shy;ate to switch on a tele&shy;vi&shy;sion set without the super&shy;vi&shy;sion of some qual&shy;if&shy;ied woman, yet left to them&shy;selves would out-<wbr>Napo&shy;leon {{w|Napo&shy;leon|Napoleon}} by send&shy;ing armies flat foot&shy;ing across Europe, fleets of planes into other people{{s}}<!-- without apostrophe in original --> broad blue yonders, and navies across oceans, up rivers and down canals to win un&shy;dec&shy;lared wars for un&shy;dec&shy;lared ob&shy;jects. Yet such is the fun&shy;da&shy;mental sim&shy;pli&shy;city of most of our human prob&shy;lems that in most part they are cor&shy;rect in their as&shy;sump&shy;tions. For un&shy;like the ex&shy;perts they ap&shy;proach these prob&shy;lems not from the ex&shy;pert{{s|r}} wet-<wbr>eyed view-<wbr>point but from that of the so&shy;cial user and suf&shy;ferer. Time and time again the {{w|Unit One|Unit_One}} of the human race has been sac&shy;ri&shy;ficed without apo&shy;logy for a draw&shy;ing board mis&shy;take; and mil&shy;lions of men, women and chil&shy;dren have lived out their short and miser&shy;able lives to en&shy;able an in&shy;dus&shy;trial&shy;ist or a pol&shy;it&shy;i&shy;cian to prove a thesis or show the share&shy;hold&shy;ers a pro&shy;fit and when the second gen&shy;er&shy;a&shy;tion ex&shy;perts have arisen to lay their dry dead hands on new {{qq|facts}}, or with the wis&shy;dom of hind&shy;sight burn&shy;ing bright within the rims of their rim&shy;less spec&shy;tacles, proven that all pre&shy;vi&shy;ous theor&shy;ies were the in&shy;tel&shy;lec&shy;tual dross of their dear old dad, then they in their turn will ex&shy;pound heresy. Un&shy;less they ac&shy;cept the sim&shy;ple and fun&shy;da&shy;mental truth that in&shy;di&shy;vidual man must not be sac&shy;ri&shy;ficed for a myth&shy;ical fu&shy;ture for pos&shy;ter&shy;ity and that the key and the test of all human activ&shy;it&shy;ies is the well being of each and every in&shy;di&shy;vidual. It is at this point that the saloon bar dreamer and the ex&shy;pert make com&shy;mon cause and reach a com&shy;mon fail&shy;ure. For what&shy;ever plans they con&shy;ceive, whether drawn in beer or {{p|290}}typed in tri&shy;pli&shy;cate, they are geared to their own par&shy;tic&shy;u&shy;lar so&shy;cial group&shy;ing and can only be put into oper&shy;a&shy;tion at the ex&shy;pense of less for&shy;tun&shy;ate people. But of all fields of so&shy;cial activ&shy;ity none oc&shy;cupy the user more than that of mass human trans&shy;port. Here is the one so&shy;cial func&shy;tion to which they are forced by cir&shy;cum&shy;stance of em&shy;ploy&shy;ment or pleas&shy;ure to be the daily vic&shy;tim. Each day in every town and city they stand in their queues wait&shy;ing and wait&shy;ing for the bus that never seems to come. They will crowd, in con&shy;di&shy;tions that rightly we would not allow anim&shy;als to suf&shy;fer, into the {{w|Under&shy;ground|Rapid_transit}} sys&shy;tems of the ma&shy;jor cities of the world and they will vent their hate and anger on the lone and solit&shy;ary bus con&shy;duc&shy;tor in the prison/<wbr>warder re&shy;la&shy;tion&shy;ship that this mobile {{w|Kafka cir&shy;cus|Up_in_the_Gallery}} cre&shy;ates. For here is the one person who can be forced by eco&shy;nomic im&shy;prison&shy;ment to stand and ac&shy;cept their whines, their in&shy;so&shy;lence, their bit&shy;ter con&shy;tempt, their intel&shy;li&shy;gent ob&shy;ser&shy;va&shy;tions or their stark bab&shy;bling luna&shy;cies. Yet of all men the bus con&shy;duc&shy;tor is the least able to help them for like them he is the vic&shy;tim of a so&shy;ciety that holds that pro&shy;fit and not so&shy;cial ser&shy;vice must be the key-<wbr>stone of every com&shy;munal en&shy;deav&shy;our, for it is a sys&shy;tem that pan&shy;ders to the bully among the pas&shy;sen&shy;gers and the whin&shy;ing gut&shy;less syco&shy;phant among the em&shy;ployed staff. And men will stand in rain-<wbr>swept queues and prove to their damp and in&shy;dif&shy;fer&shy;ent neigh&shy;bours that if such and such a plan were fol&shy;lowed and put into im&shy;medi&shy;ate oper&shy;a&shy;tion they would have a trans&shy;port serv&shy;ice that would carry them with ease and swift&shy;ness to their des&shy;tin&shy;a&shy;tions. And they will hud&shy;dle in the sway&shy;ing bus search&shy;ing for the small sliver of their fare wor&shy;ry&shy;ing and won&shy;der&shy;ing if they will reach their place of em&shy;ploy&shy;ment on time and what ex&shy;cuse they can offer for their late&shy;ness.

{{tab}}And the ob&shy;ject of their con&shy;tained hat&shy;red for&shy;ces his way through the bus as ir&shy;ri&shy;ta&shy;ted as the tra&shy;vel&shy;ler and hat&shy;ing the col&shy;lec&shy;tive for its slow&shy;ness and its in&shy;so&shy;lence and the stu&shy;pid&shy;ity and the ar&shy;ro&shy;gance of the small but vo&shy;cal min&shy;or&shy;ity. As the pas&shy;sen&shy;ger is the pri&shy;soner of those who plan our so&shy;ci&shy;ety for their own min&shy;or&shy;ity well-<wbr>being, so the con&shy;duc&shy;tor in his turn is the vic&shy;tim of this same ab&shy;stract au&shy;thor&shy;ity. Be&shy;hind him stand an array of uni&shy;formed and plain-<wbr>clothed of&shy;fi&shy;cials that de&shy;mand that he shall be held re&shy;spon&shy;sible for every single un&shy;col&shy;lec&shy;ted fare and even for the tra&shy;vel&shy;ler who would, by ac&shy;ci&shy;dent or de&shy;sign, ride a hun&shy;dred yards passed his paid jour&shy;ney. For {{w|London Trans&shy;port|London_Transport_Board}} obey the oldest of bad em&shy;ploy&shy;er{{s|r}} weap&shy;ons: to gov&shy;ern by fear and threats. Let a child of three be found on a crowded bus with&shy;out a ticket and the bus con&shy;duc&shy;tor will be re&shy;ported for an of&shy;fi&shy;cial inter&shy;view with the Chief Depot In&shy;spec&shy;tor. Let any person, by ac&shy;ci&shy;dent or de&shy;sign, travel beyond his paid jour&shy;ney and the con&shy;duc&shy;tor will be held re&shy;spon&shy;sible and asked to ex&shy;plain why he al&shy;lowed such an in&shy;ci&shy;dent to hap&shy;pen on {{qq|his bus}}. That it is liter&shy;ally im&shy;pos&shy;sible for any man to know what ticket each per&shy;son on a crowded bus is hold&shy;ing or where each per&shy;son has booked to should be self-<wbr>evi&shy;dent and a simple test could prove it. A crowded bus holds sixty-<wbr><!-- no hyphen in original -->one people, ignor&shy;ing the fact that people are con&shy;tinu&shy;ally board&shy;ing and alight&shy;ing, and the cold and clin&shy;ical test is to have sixty-<wbr>one people stand&shy;ing in a line. Let an of&shy;fi&shy;cial walk along that line and then let each in&shy;di&shy;vidual name a fare of his own choos&shy;ing. Then let that same of&shy;fi&shy;cial again walk {{p|291}}along that line and cor&shy;rectly re&shy;name each and every one of the sixty-<wbr>one named fares. It is, of course, a men&shy;tally im&shy;pos&shy;sible feat and London Trans&shy;port, as every<!-- 'ever' in original --> other em&shy;ployer knows, is aware that this fact is self-<!-- no hyphen in original -->evi&shy;dent, but they work on the an&shy;cient and his&shy;tor&shy;ic&shy;ally tested thesis that fear is the eas&shy;i&shy;est weap&shy;on to con&shy;trol those you hire and that tar&shy;gets of work should always be pitched beyond the work&shy;man{{s}} cap&shy;abi&shy;lit&shy;ies. Its out&shy;come is that a man works like a rat in a {{w|Pavlov|Ivan_Pavlov}} trap with&shy;out any ap&shy;par&shy;ent super&shy;vi&shy;sion yet always with the know&shy;ledge that at any mo&shy;ment a uni&shy;formed of&shy;fi&shy;cial will check the bus or that at any time of the day and night he is under the un&shy;known super&shy;vi&shy;sion of plain clothed of&shy;fi&shy;cials tra&shy;vel&shy;ling on these self same buses as fare pay&shy;ing pas&shy;sen&shy;gers. It could be held that this is but the trivia of any dis&shy;con&shy;ten&shy;ted staff, were it not that within our present so&shy;ci&shy;ety a whole organ&shy;iza&shy;tion is built upon men and women doing what is a com&shy;pletely time-<wbr>wast&shy;ing func&shy;tion. For it is on the basis of what the con&shy;duc&shy;tor col&shy;lects in fares that our trans&shy;port ser&shy;vice is planned or cut.

{{tab}}Within the last few years there has been a large in&shy;flux of {{w|co&shy;loured|Colored}} and {{w|casual|Contingent_work}} labour and it is thanks to them that much of the child&shy;ish dis&shy;cipline of London Trans&shy;port has had to be aban&shy;doned.

{{tab}}The {{popup|pre-<wbr>war|World War II began 1 September 1939}} bus crews were men who loved the lash. Highly paid, and cocks within their own work&shy;ing class areas, they took a per&shy;verse pride in their sub&shy;servi&shy;ence. They were the men who loved to stand to at&shy;ten&shy;tion, wear their gleam&shy;ing white coats on the cor&shy;rect day of the year and who knew their well-<wbr>paid place within their semi-<wbr>mili&shy;tary organ&shy;iza&shy;tion. But un&shy;dis&shy;ciplined labour from over&shy;seas has made a for&shy;tun&shy;ate havoc of many stu&shy;pid rules. The bare headed men and women, the co&shy;loured scarves, open necked shirts, brown shoes, the oc&shy;ca&shy;sional punch&shy;ing of a pas&shy;sen&shy;ger, skirts of their own choos&shy;ing in&shy;stead of the of&shy;fi&shy;cial uni&shy;form-<wbr>wear, are small com&shy;forts that have been won against the em&shy;ployer and with&shy;out any as&shy;sist&shy;ance from the of&shy;fi&shy;cial {{w|union|Transport_and_General_Workers'_Union}} by people who are in&shy;dif&shy;fer&shy;ent to the prized hu&shy;mil&shy;ity of the old guard bus&shy;men. For the con&shy;stant break&shy;ing of drear<!-- as printed --> little rules have forced the em&shy;ployer to shrug off with an ill grace their im&shy;pos&shy;sible en&shy;force&shy;ment. That there is a lesson there for the union of&shy;fi&shy;cials to learn is but wasted ef&shy;fort, for though the casu&shy;ally em&shy;ployed co&shy;loured work&shy;men and women have done more to lighten the dis&shy;ciplin&shy;ary bur&shy;den within the last five years than the old time bus-<wbr>men and the of&shy;fi&shy;cial union have achieved within the last fifty years, it would be idle to sug&shy;gest that this debt is ac&shy;know&shy;leged. The old guard is still there, though in smal&shy;ler num&shy;bers every year, for&shy;ever seek&shy;ing an of&shy;fi&shy;cial ear to whine into about the good old days when men knew their place, and when one had to col&shy;lect fares look&shy;ing like a bus&shy;man. And they will tell old nostal&shy;gic tales of how, so many years ago, Old Piss-<wbr>the-<wbr>Bed was sent home for not wear&shy;ing a white shirt or of how they beat a re&shy;port by the quot&shy;ing of an ob&shy;scure regu&shy;la&shy;tion and how the gov&shy;ernor winked at them as they marched smartly out of the office.

{{tab}}And they gaze with open con&shy;tempt at their co&shy;loured work&shy;ers and won&shy;der in loud voices when all this riff-<wbr>raff will be kicked off the job, and the job get back to nor&shy;mal, and the of&shy;fi&shy;cial lean&shy;ing through the {{p|292}}cubby hole will nod his head in sage agree&shy;ment and talk of the need for dis&shy;cipline. The London Trans&shy;port sys&shy;tem is always re&shy;ferred to as pub&shy;lic trans&shy;port and by the con&shy;tin&shy;ual use of that simple title people have come to ac&shy;cept it as a pub&shy;lic serv&shy;ice and to judge its fail&shy;ings ac&shy;cord&shy;ingly. This is one of those abys&shy;mal jokes that even old Unit One stand&shy;ing on a wind&shy;swept, rain&shy;swept street wait&shy;ing for a non-<wbr>run&shy;ning bus can&shy;not drain out of his men&shy;tal back&shy;ground. Yet the London buses are there, as is every other busi&shy;ness big or small, for no other pur&shy;pose than to sell to those who can af&shy;ford to pay, and when there is no pro&shy;fit to be made they do the same as every other busi&shy;ness clique does: they close shop. Like the small shop&shy;keeper they close down their busi&shy;ness when or where trade is slack and like the mult&shy;iple stores they close bran&shy;ches or routes that are no longer con&shy;sid&shy;ered pro&shy;fit&shy;able. Old Unit One stand&shy;ing at his sub&shy;urban and use&shy;less bus-<wbr>stop will grip his mem&shy;ber&shy;ship card of his local {{w|Con&shy;serv&shy;ative Ass.|Conservative_Association}} and tell the world, in a low and re&shy;spec&shy;table rage, that the London Trans&shy;port Ex&shy;ec&shy;utive have no con&shy;sider&shy;a&shy;tion for the gen&shy;eral pub&shy;lic and Unit One is so right. Yet in a so&shy;ci&shy;ety that ac&shy;cepts the pro&shy;fit motive as its only dyn&shy;amic and cares for its old and sick under duress, bus&shy;less Unit One never asks him&shy;self the obvi&shy;ous ques&shy;tion of why any&shy;one in the so&shy;cial set-<wbr>up which he ap&shy;proves for others, should waste time and energy run&shy;ning a bus for his pal&shy;try fare.

{{tab}}The small child with&shy;out the price of a bus fare will have to walk and the old men and women will drag them&shy;selves on their ach&shy;ing legs for the lux&shy;ury of pub&shy;lic trans&shy;port is not for them, no mat&shy;ter how many buses clog the road. For with&shy;out a hand&shy;ful of cop&shy;per coins the phrase pub&shy;lic trans&shy;port is a dis&shy;mal mock&shy;ery. It is in&shy;deed a mock&shy;ery to label any in&shy;dus&shy;try that oper&shy;ates on a pro&shy;fit basis a pub&shy;lic ser&shy;vice. One can have little sym&shy;pathy with the broader mass of the lower-<wbr>middle-<wbr>class who on one single day of every fifth year pledge their al&shy;le&shy;giance to the prin&shy;ciples of per&shy;sonal pro&shy;fit, cut-<wbr>throat com&shy;peti&shy;tion for others, and the ab&shy;ro&shy;ga&shy;tion of any so&shy;cial ser&shy;vice that does not bene&shy;fit them di&shy;rectly, then spend the in&shy;ter&shy;ven&shy;ing four years and three-<wbr>hundred-<wbr>and-<wbr>sixty-<wbr>four days de&shy;mand&shy;ing that their means of trans&shy;port should oper&shy;ate in their par&shy;tic&shy;u&shy;lar sub&shy;urb as a pub&shy;licly-<wbr>sub&shy;sid&shy;ised so&shy;cial ser&shy;vice along with their pub&shy;lic lava&shy;tory, lib&shy;rary, church and sewer&shy;age sys&shy;tem.

{{tab}}One can have little sym&shy;pathy with old Unit One but no mat&shy;ter how much one may dis&shy;like him and all he stands for with his per&shy;sonal greed and anti-<wbr>so&shy;cial at&shy;ti&shy;tudes, ex&shy;cept where his own per&shy;sonal com&shy;forts are in&shy;volved, one can&shy;not plan any so&shy;cial enter&shy;prise on a basis of hate or con&shy;tempt. For no mat&shy;ter how much others may abuse or de&shy;ride what one has at&shy;tempted or achieved one must still plan for bet&shy;ter so&shy;cial ser&shy;vices not as a single and reach&shy;able goal but as links in a chain that alters with the new so&shy;cial con&shy;di&shy;tions that each new so&shy;cial change will cre&shy;ate. It was a su&shy;preme tra&shy;gedy that the {{w|Labour|Labour_Party_(UK)}} {{w|gov&shy;ern&shy;ment of 1945|Attlee_ministry}} failed to measure up to the task and the op&shy;por&shy;tun&shy;ity that his&shy;tory thrust upon them. It was not be&shy;cause they were the in&shy;com&shy;pet&shy;ents of the {{w|tory|Tory}} press, or the trait&shy;ors of the com&shy;mun&shy;ist press, that they failed; but that the whole of their back&shy;ground and train&shy;ing blinded them to their des&shy;tiny {{p|293}}and these nice middle-<wbr>class {{w|Fabian|Fabian_Society}} in&shy;tel&shy;lec&shy;tu&shy;als threw away a cen&shy;tury of work&shy;ing class ideal&shy;ism in a worth&shy;less ef&shy;fort to prove that they could run a {{w|State-<wbr>capit&shy;al&shy;ist|State_capitalism}} so&shy;ciety as pro&shy;fit&shy;ably as the in&shy;di&shy;vid&shy;ual in&shy;dus&shy;trial&shy;ists whose broken and bank&shy;rupt in&shy;dus&shy;tries they took over.

{{tab}}Yet already they held in their hands an in&shy;dus&shy;try that could have been the show piece of pub&shy;lic owner&shy;ship and pub&shy;lic ser&shy;vice and this was the London Trans&shy;port sys&shy;tem. This sys&shy;tem could have been the cor&shy;ner&shy;stone for the whole of pub&shy;lic owner&shy;ship as en&shy;vis&shy;aged by the John-<wbr>the-<wbr>Baptists of the mil&shy;it&shy;ant work&shy;ing class for the Labour Party could have poin&shy;ted to its London trans&shy;port sys&shy;tem and said {{qq|here is the blue print for a new way of living}}. With a {{w|Machia&shy;vel&shy;lian|Machiavellianism}} use of cap&shy;ital in their first year of of&shy;fice they could have abo&shy;lished the fares sys&shy;tem and in&shy;sti&shy;tuted a real&shy;istic scheme of work&shy;ers con&shy;trol and man&shy;age&shy;ment that others would have ac&shy;cepted as the fount of all other so&shy;cial en&shy;deav&shy;ours

{{tab}}Here was an in&shy;dus&shy;try free of the dead hand of middle-<wbr>class con&shy;trol for all con&shy;trol was al&shy;ready in the hands of men with work&shy;ing class back&shy;grounds, and though there is no virtue in this fact it meant that as every of&shy;fi&shy;cial was a minor career man al&shy;ready bro&shy;ken to the ac&shy;cept&shy;ance of work&shy;ing without chal&shy;len&shy;ging those who formu&shy;la&shy;ted policy, the in&shy;dus&shy;try would not have had to fight the black&shy;mail that the med&shy;ical polit&shy;icoes<!-- as printed --> did not hesit&shy;ate to use in their battle against {{w|Bevan|Aneurin_Bevan}}. A trans&shy;port sys&shy;tem oper&shy;at&shy;ing for need not pro&shy;fit with only the cost of wage/<wbr>main&shy;ten&shy;ance to find.

{{tab}}Without its hoards of para&shy;sitic of&shy;fi&shy;cials, as free to use or re&shy;ject as the water in a pub&shy;lic foun&shy;tain. Oper&shy;ated by the men them&shy;selves and an&shy;swer&shy;able to each local coun&shy;cil. Owned and con&shy;trolled by the com&shy;mun&shy;ity it would be re&shy;garded not as the harlot among our pseudo so&shy;cial ser&shy;vices but an ac&shy;cepted and in&shy;dis&shy;pens&shy;able<!-- 'indispensible' in original --> part of our so&shy;cial fabric.

{{DEFAULTSORT:From the step of a bus}}
[[Category:Labour and industry]]
[[Category:Transport]]
[[Category:Workers' control]]
[[Category:Articles]]