Skip to content or view mobile version

Home | Mobile | Editorial | Mission | Privacy | About | Contact | Help | Security | Support

A network of individuals, independent and alternative media activists and organisations, offering grassroots, non-corporate, non-commercial coverage of important social and political issues.

Critical Mass in Southampton

Joe Public | 12.07.2005 17:06 | G8 2005 | Ecology | South Coast

In solidarity with everyone protesting against the G8 and global poverty, as well as to highlight a positive step people can take towards reducing global pollution and climate change (go by bike!) roughly 35 cyclists set off from Hoglands Park in central Southampton- also the meeting point for the Make Poverty History demo which, unlike our little outing made the local TV news...

Gathering at Hoglands Park
Gathering at Hoglands Park

Off down high Street
Off down high Street

On towards to the Avenue
On towards to the Avenue

Civic minded citizens passing the Civic Centre
Civic minded citizens passing the Civic Centre


The undamaged Car
The undamaged Car





With cheers of support from the gathered crowds, we set off down to the bottom of the town along with two police cyclists, one acting as a corker. Then up past the Bargate and the city centre with a few cheers from the public along with a few bemused looks...

Along the way any 4x4's that we spotted recieved a "Public Aware" sign. We then proceeded down along the High Street passing the Civic Centre and the Royal Courts of 'Justice'.. and then onto inner avenue where the police decided to leave us to it for 10mins...typical that was time when angry motorists decided to have a go and one irate driver hit the back of a cyclist's bike when he deliberately drove into the back of him.

However- surprisingly, he did no damage to the bike but managed to trash his radiator!! (I think they call that 'instant karma'!) There is more than a little poetic justice in that fact. The second person he drove into was also unhurt. Not only did he ram 2 cyclists and leave the scene, he also mounted the grass verge. We will not be bullied. Being in a hurry is never an excuse to knock down pedestrians or people off their bikes. The police have been informed about the driver leaving the scene of the accident and up to 40 cyclists are willing to give evidence to make sure he gets points on his licence and his insurance premiums go up. He may have been in a rush but a little less haste could have saved him a lot of money!!! (...and not a cop in sight.)

It must be remembered that we slowed traffic for just under an hour on one day&whereas normal traffic clogs up our streets (and air) EVERY DAY, TWICE A DAY. Plus if each one of us on a push-bike that day had done the same journey by car- the traffic would have been even worse. Anyway, it was a positive experience- about 50 cyclists at the end&most encouraging that a few people joined in along the way. Same again next sat 9th July...12pm- Hoglands park, Southampton town centre...see you there.

Joe Public

Upcoming Coverage
View and post events
Upcoming Events UK
24th October, London: 2015 London Anarchist Bookfair
2nd - 8th November: Wrexham, Wales, UK & Everywhere: Week of Action Against the North Wales Prison & the Prison Industrial Complex. Cymraeg: Wythnos o Weithredu yn Erbyn Carchar Gogledd Cymru

Ongoing UK
Every Tuesday 6pm-8pm, Yorkshire: Demo/vigil at NSA/NRO Menwith Hill US Spy Base More info: CAAB.

Every Tuesday, UK & worldwide: Counter Terror Tuesdays. Call the US Embassy nearest to you to protest Obama's Terror Tuesdays. More info here

Every day, London: Vigil for Julian Assange outside Ecuadorian Embassy

Parliament Sq Protest: see topic page
Ongoing Global
Rossport, Ireland: see topic page
Israel-Palestine: Israel Indymedia | Palestine Indymedia
Oaxaca: Chiapas Indymedia
Regions
All Regions
Birmingham
Cambridge
Liverpool
London
Oxford
Sheffield
South Coast
Wales
World
Other Local IMCs
Bristol/South West
Nottingham
Scotland
Social Media
You can follow @ukindymedia on indy.im and Twitter. We are working on a Twitter policy. We do not use Facebook, and advise you not to either.
Support Us
We need help paying the bills for hosting this site, please consider supporting us financially.
Other Media Projects
Schnews
Dissident Island Radio
Corporate Watch
Media Lens
VisionOnTV
Earth First! Action Update
Earth First! Action Reports
Topics
All Topics
Afghanistan
Analysis
Animal Liberation
Anti-Nuclear
Anti-militarism
Anti-racism
Bio-technology
Climate Chaos
Culture
Ecology
Education
Energy Crisis
Fracking
Free Spaces
Gender
Globalisation
Health
History
Indymedia
Iraq
Migration
Ocean Defence
Other Press
Palestine
Policing
Public sector cuts
Repression
Social Struggles
Technology
Terror War
Workers' Movements
Zapatista
Major Reports
NATO 2014
G8 2013
Workfare
2011 Census Resistance
Occupy Everywhere
August Riots
Dale Farm
J30 Strike
Flotilla to Gaza
Mayday 2010
Tar Sands
G20 London Summit
University Occupations for Gaza
Guantanamo
Indymedia Server Seizure
COP15 Climate Summit 2009
Carmel Agrexco
G8 Japan 2008
SHAC
Stop Sequani
Stop RWB
Climate Camp 2008
Oaxaca Uprising
Rossport Solidarity
Smash EDO
SOCPA
Past Major Reports
Encrypted Page
You are viewing this page using an encrypted connection. If you bookmark this page or send its address in an email you might want to use the un-encrypted address of this page.
If you recieved a warning about an untrusted root certificate please install the CAcert root certificate, for more information see the security page.

Global IMC Network


www.indymedia.org

Projects
print
radio
satellite tv
video

Africa

Europe
antwerpen
armenia
athens
austria
barcelona
belarus
belgium
belgrade
brussels
bulgaria
calabria
croatia
cyprus
emilia-romagna
estrecho / madiaq
galiza
germany
grenoble
hungary
ireland
istanbul
italy
la plana
liege
liguria
lille
linksunten
lombardia
madrid
malta
marseille
nantes
napoli
netherlands
northern england
nottingham imc
paris/île-de-france
patras
piemonte
poland
portugal
roma
romania
russia
sardegna
scotland
sverige
switzerland
torun
toscana
ukraine
united kingdom
valencia

Latin America
argentina
bolivia
chiapas
chile
chile sur
cmi brasil
cmi sucre
colombia
ecuador
mexico
peru
puerto rico
qollasuyu
rosario
santiago
tijuana
uruguay
valparaiso
venezuela

Oceania
aotearoa
brisbane
burma
darwin
jakarta
manila
melbourne
perth
qc
sydney

South Asia
india


United States
arizona
arkansas
asheville
atlanta
Austin
binghamton
boston
buffalo
chicago
cleveland
colorado
columbus
dc
hawaii
houston
hudson mohawk
kansas city
la
madison
maine
miami
michigan
milwaukee
minneapolis/st. paul
new hampshire
new jersey
new mexico
new orleans
north carolina
north texas
nyc
oklahoma
philadelphia
pittsburgh
portland
richmond
rochester
rogue valley
saint louis
san diego
san francisco
san francisco bay area
santa barbara
santa cruz, ca
sarasota
seattle
tampa bay
united states
urbana-champaign
vermont
western mass
worcester

West Asia
Armenia
Beirut
Israel
Palestine

Topics
biotech

Process
fbi/legal updates
mailing lists
process & imc docs
tech