Occupy Wall Street group chains open gates to New York subway stations

Subway station emergency doors propped open as activists with the movement try to highlight city's public transit woes

Signs resembling Metro Transit Authority notices were posted on the subway walls of stations around New York City. Photograph: strikeeverywhere.net

An Occupy Wall Street-affiliated group has claimed responsibility for chaining open more than 20 subway gates in New York City, in an action intended to highlight issues surrounding the public transit system.

According to a statement released by a group calling itself the Rank and File Initiative, "teams of activists, many from Occupy Wall Street, in conjunction with rank-and-file workers from the Transport Workers Union Local 100 and the Amalgamated Transit Union, opened up more than 20 stations across the city for free entry".

Chains and padlocks were used to hold emergency gates open on the F, L, R, Q, 3, and 6 lines. Signs resembling Metro Transit Authority notices were posted on the subway walls that read "Free Entry, No Fare. Please Enter Through The Service Gate", while activists above ground urged passengers to ride for free.

The Rank and File Initiative pointed to "escalating service cuts, fare hikes, racist policing, assaults on transit workers' working conditions and livelihoods — and the profiteering of the super-rich by way of a system they've rigged in their favor".

Transit fares have increased by 50% over the last decade.

"It was an attempt to say we're united," said Occupy supporter José Martín. "When there's a fare increase, there's a service cut or there's a lay-off on transit workers, it's an attack on both the transit workers themselves as well as the workers and students and youth who are riders."

While the Rank and File Initiative's press statement indicated that union members worked "in conjunction" with the action, union leaders denied knowledge of the plans.

Martín said one of the motivations for Wednesday's action was to highlight the number of minorities arrested for fare evasion. "One of the driving motivations was the criminalization of black and brown youth through the NYPD quota system," he explained. "A lot of Occupiers have been going to jail for the last six months and finding themselves in jail cells with black and Latino youth who are often there for nothing more than fare evasion, thrown in cages for such a tiny violation and then often forced to lose their job or get in trouble in school."

According to Martín, the action was part of strategy known as a "noncompliance campaign". Similar fare strikes have been carried out in other parts of the United States, Canada and Europe.

Martín said Wednesday's action foreshadows Occupy's plans for the coming months, including a "general strike" activists have called for on 1 May and "foreclosure defense" actions that Occupy supporters have been involved in for months.