June 1, 2020

City Bus Drivers Are Driving Home a Message to Protesters: We’re With You

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In the wake of George Floyd’s death and in solidarity with protesters across the country, city bus drivers are taking a stand, banding together against police violence by refusing to transport arrested protesters to jail. “[We] do not work for the NYPD. We transport the working families of NYC,” tweeted a drivers union. “All [of our] operators should refuse to transport arrested protestors,” an affirmation echoed by a wave of drivers in Minneapolis who pledged, “We are willing to do what we can to ensure our labor is not used to help the Minneapolis Police Department shut down calls for justice.”

Another driver stepped off peacefully and refused to drive when NYPD commandeered his bus for transporting arrested protesters, to the cheers of the crowd.

If you see or hear of bus drivers going above and beyond with acts of kindness, generosity, decency, and safe, strong shows of support related (or not) to protests, drop a line to recharge@motherjones.com. And bookmark the blog at motherjones.com/recharge.

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WE CAME UP SHORT.

We just wrapped up a shorter-than-normal, urgent-as-ever fundraising drive and we came up about $45,000 short of our $300,000 goal.

That means we're going to have upwards of $350,000, maybe more, to raise in online donations between now and June 30, when our fiscal year ends and we have to get to break-even. And even though there's zero cushion to miss the mark, we won't be all that in your face about our fundraising again until June.

So we urgently need this specific ask, what you're reading right now, to start bringing in more donations than it ever has. The reality, for these next few months and next few years, is that we have to start finding ways to grow our online supporter base in a big way—and we're optimistic we can keep making real headway by being real with you about this.

Because the bottom line: Corporations and powerful people with deep pockets will never sustain the type of journalism Mother Jones exists to do. The only investors who won’t let independent, investigative journalism down are the people who actually care about its future—you.

And we hope you might consider pitching in before moving on to whatever it is you're about to do next. We really need to see if we'll be able to raise more with this real estate on a daily basis than we have been, so we're hoping to see a promising start.

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