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.

Pix of Critical Mass London, 11th Birthday Ride, Fri 29 Apr 05 - Set 1 of 2

Tim D Jones | 01.05.2005 15:17 | Free Spaces | Social Struggles | London

Static and from-the-saddle pictures of Critical Mass London's 11th Birthday Ride.

For permission to copy and use, see CopyLeft at the end of the story below the photos.
For a link to the other set of photos, see one of the comments at the foot of this page.

Peace, Justice and Fun
Peace, Justice and Fun

An exceptional example of great engineering gets the pedestal status it deserves
An exceptional example of great engineering gets the pedestal status it deserves

Your photographer/cyclist, snapped by a friendly Dutch tourist
Your photographer/cyclist, snapped by a friendly Dutch tourist

Des does the radio mike PA thang at the meeting point
Des does the radio mike PA thang at the meeting point

From Waterloo Bridge, a horizontal panorama, left ...
From Waterloo Bridge, a horizontal panorama, left ...

... and right
... and right

And a vertical panorama, looking down ...
And a vertical panorama, looking down ...

... along ...
... along ...

... and up
... and up

Oh my god, it's full of cyclists!
Oh my god, it's full of cyclists!

Mobile sound system and Des' recumbent doodad in a sea of cyclists
Mobile sound system and Des' recumbent doodad in a sea of cyclists

As we set off across Waterloo Bridge, we encircle the bfi IMAX cinema
As we set off across Waterloo Bridge, we encircle the bfi IMAX cinema

Fellow 4-eyed Bromtonista expresses rational attitude to bourgeois 'democracy'
Fellow 4-eyed Bromtonista expresses rational attitude to bourgeois 'democracy'


Several hundred people from children to elders converged on the south bank of the Thames from 18:00-19:00, under Waterloo Bridge and outside the National Film Theatre Café, to celebrate the 11th Birthday of London's Critical Mass rides with a human-powered vehicular tour of central and west London.

Having emailed all by cycling chums about the event, I waited in Bernie Spain Gardens for a CM newcomer friend, parking my Brompton folding bike on a stone pedestal -- which immediately attracted the attention of four Dutch tourists, one of whom kindly took my photo. After one cold beer in the Royal Festival Hall, we joined the massing cyclists in the warm spring air, and worra lorra people there were! Somewhere in the middle, Des was using a radio mike to announce the event, and suggest that we target the location on Cromwell Road where a cyclist had recently been killed by a hit-and-run 4x4 driver.

After flooding over Waterloo bridge, our first stop was in Whitehall, opposite Downing Street. After several people took the mike to generally denounce not only the government but also the whole sham electoral circus about which we're supposed to give a damn (surely some mistake), we cycled on to Parliament Square. Peace protester and MP candidate Brian Haw was sitting in his folding chair with a compact word processor, drawing much admiring attention from many of the cyclists. One of Brian's supporters was even riding the mass clad in an artfully executed DIY banner highlighting his slogan "Love Is The Answer".

Brian and his colourful peace camp have occupied Parliament Square permanently for over four years, becoming such an embarrassment to the 'New' Labour war-mongers that they included clauses in the Serious Crime Bill to remove him and restrict all our human rights to peaceful assembly and protest within 1km of the Houses of Parliament. Despite the Bill being rushed through without debate in the days before the parliamentary den of thieves broke for the 'election' campaign, the cops have yet to make their move against Brian. Perhaps even the rozzers would be just too embarrassed to evict an independent peace-and-justice parliamentary candidate for the Cities of London and Westminster constituency from his home of these last four years? To find out more, please visit:
 http://www.parliament-square.org.uk

Critical Mass isn't just for conventional cycles -- any human-powered vehicle is welcome, and the pace is such that even those using nowt but Shanks' Pony can keep up! Our number included a four-wheel two-person quad-bike, several recumbents, loads of SK8ERs on decorated boards, and more folding bikes than I've ever seen -- Bickertons, Dahons and a shed load of Bromptons. Unfortunately, before I could figure a way to rally 'em all for a mass folder photo, my camera battery flaked out :-(

In Cromwell Road, we halted to pay our respects to Thomas Sippel-Dau. While cycling home from work, he was mown down from behind by a hit-and-run Range Rover driver, who has yet to be brought to justice. A cycling friend of his led a one minute silence to honour his memory, and paid tribute to a life so cruelly cut short -- which received much warm and appreciative applause. Des and I railed against the many absurdities of driving gas-guzling death-dealing road-hogging SUVs in urban streets, and I recommended the re-education of these death wagon drivers by leaving mock 'Poor Vehicle Choice' parking tickets under their windscreen wipers -- you can download and print your own from:
 http://www.wastemonsters.org.uk
See also: Alliance Against Urban 4x4s  http://www.stopurban4x4s.org.uk

Critical Mass London happens 12 times a year, on the last Friday of the month. We meet on the south bank from 18:00-18:45, under Waterloo Bridge and outside the National Film Theatre Café. The slow-paced ride around central London is suitable for cyclists of all ages, and any human-power vehicle is welcome, from roller skaters and rollerbladers through wheelchairs and recumbent trikes to multi-person pedal-powered extravaganzas. For more info, and downloadable fliers which you can staple around the frames of parked bikes, please see:
 http://www.criticalmasslondon.org.uk

Critical Mass is an international phenomena, whereby bike owners in our millions in 300+ cities the world over assert our identity as cyclists, and celebrate the freedom we should enjoy as people-and-planet friendly road users -- while affording city users a brief glimpse of how peaceful, clean and quiet our urban streets could be if only we would break from their domination by dangerous, dirty and noisy motorised traffic.

In International Solidarity,

Tim D Jones

PS: Special thanks to the staff and management of The Cottage Hotel, Hope Cove, Devon  http://www.hopecove.com for facilitating this upload via WiFi broadband.

All these photos are 'CopyLeft'. This means you are free to copy and distribute any of my photos you find here, under the following license:
Copyright ©2005 Tim D Jones
Permission is granted to anyone to make or distribute copies of these photographs, in any medium, for personal and not-for-profit purposes, provided that this copyright notice and permission notice are preserved, and that the distributor grants the recipient permission for further redistribution as permitted by this notice.
Modified versions may not be made. Accreditation:  tim_d_jones@yahoo.co.uk

Tim D Jones
- e-mail: tim_d_jones@yahoo.co.uk

Comments

Display the following 4 comments

  1. Correction — Tim D Jones
  2. Correction — Tim D Jones
  3. Correction — Tim D Jones
  4. Links — Tim D Jones
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