rudebwoy – Member
You are wasting time trying to reason on here, whatever you put up will be ridiculed by shallow self centered reactionaries– and thats being kind
Well I was under the mistaken impression that the point of protesting was to get people to change their mind to allow you to achieve your goals
Could anyone of the pro CM lobby explain why annoying motorists and insulting cyclists help you achieve this goal?
your modus operandi is self defeating.
It was probably inevitable that the Critical Mass bike ride on the night of the opening of the Games would end in trouble. Not because those involved wanted trouble; far from it, but because there was simply “no room” on the streets of Olympic London, both in a physical and a spiritual sense, for an event like this on that night. The police could not let it it happen. They could not allow the possibility of an area of streets close to the Olympic Park being gridlocked at that time. On any other occasion, yes, they could grudgingly live with it, but not on this occasion.
You are right it is the polices fault no one there was confrontational, ignored advce, instruction and “celebration of cycling” could occur in no other way than going where they had been asked not do. When they did obvioulsy the consequences were the fault of the state.
There is no right enforced for cyclists to proceed safely, with fair and civilised treatment, on our roads as they stand.
You are right there are literally no laws to protect us
Ps the full quote is
It has often been said in the last few days that Critical Mass in not a protest, it is just a ride or an event, but in fact it shares characteristics of both protest and festival. It exists because the normal conditions for cycling on the streets of London (and other cities around the world where Critical Masses take place) are no good at all. There is no right enforced for cyclists to proceed safely, with fair and civilised treatment, on our roads as they stand. Critical Mass is definitely a kind of protest against, and a reaction to, that fact. It is a protest demanding a different order in transport and street hierarchy as much as the Suffereagettes were a protest demanding a different hierarchy in sexual politics. There is no Critical Mass in the Netherlands, where cycling is treated as a first-class form of transport, prioritised equitably with other modes.
so ther eyou have it is a protest but not a protest
Ps the link on Holand and crtical mass begins
A couple of weekends ago we cycled over to the anarchist festival
How do anarchists organise things?
The police tried to ban Critical Mass from the north side of the Thames, and they tried to prevent it from invading the sacred space of the Olympic Lanes, both of which conditions were inconsistent with the freeform nature of the event. There was a fundamental discordancy between the spirit of Critical Mass and the nature of Olympic Lockdown London……A police statement said:
People have a right to protest and it is an incredibly important part of our democracy … What people do not have the right to do is to hold a protest that stops other people from exercising their own rights to go about their business – that means athletes who have trained for years for their chance in a lifetime to compete, millions of ticketholders from seeing the world’s greatest sporting event, and everyone else in London who wants to get around.
As i said earlier I gave up with this sort of thing because the participants were fully aware of their own rights but could not give a shit for anyone elses…i just dont see how this sort of attitude is a part of any solution within a society..it is a bout cooperation to make us all safer…deliberate antagonism and confrontation will not be helpful
Laudable aims idiotic and counter productive anarchist principles and disingenuous claims of non protest and celebration whilst annoying motorists are unlikely to see us achieve our common aims but you will hinder it as people see cyclists as lawless cocks
