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| Planka.nu |
Planka.nu (https://planka.nu) fights for a fare-free public transportation, where workers and commuters are in charge. It is a campaign aimed at toppling “the traffic power structure, where cities are built for cars and mobility is forced upon us”.
The main component of the campaign has been the P-kassan (P-fund). It is a fund where members pay a monthly fee and the fund pays back any fines they might incur if they are caught free-riding. The fund has a few hundred members and membership costs 100 SEK per month.
While Planka.nu had initially focused on the ticket prices, the initiative quickly realized that the prices are just a part of the larger politics of transport. This became particularly evident once they understood that the urban free-ways were developed using funds originally destined for public transportation. Roads are financed by tax money and are free to use, whereas public transportation is financed by fares and is not free at the point of use.
In Stockholm, all those who make less than 75,000 kronor per month (about 8,300 euros) would benefit if a small tax was levied to finance public transportation. Free public transportation is a way of taking from the richest and giving to the rest of the society. Furthermore, the present, controlled system of public transport, where tickets can increasingly be bought only by electronic means, is also a way to police the paperless and the poor, extending structural exclusions into the realm of mobility.