An Xler as an Activist

Biju Mathew (86PMIR) is more than just a Jesse H Harper Professor of CIS at Rider University. As this article highlights, his work with immigrant New York cab drivers brought about a change in their lives:



"Immigrant labour interests me, " Mathew says. "Not much has been done in the field... the key pin for social transformation is through mass organisation. The anti-war movement is powered greatly by the radical immigrant. There has been a significant decline in mass movements over the world in the last twenty years."


In 1998, Biju started the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, consisting of 24,000 cab drivers representing 80 ethnicities, and led a strike against the then NY City Mayor Giuliani’s “quality of life” and “zero tolerance” programs.

Biju has also written a book Taxi! Cab and Capitalism in New York City based on his conversations with the taxi drivers...

Read on...