You idiots.

Critical Mass is a fantastic way of spreading the word about the joy of cycling and inspiring everyone to join us on two wheels.

By using it as a vehicle for other political messages (however laudanble the intention of those messages) you are damaging the simple non-political inclusiveness of Critical Mass. People will nomlonger see CM as an open easy-going phenomenon for people of all political beliefs - they will see it as a far-left tactic and consider bikes to be alien to anyone who does not share these political beliefs.

Please don't prejudice the repuation and survival of Critical Mass in this way. It is too important.

I wish you all the best with your protest. But I wish you weren't doing it in the name of Critical Mass.

Why on earth is CM being associated with this sort of political message? It's meant to be a protest/movement about transport and should be inclusive across all political beliefs - NOT hijacked for anti-war protests (or for that matter any other political issue). Regardless of whether I agree with the "sack the government" sentiment, I don't want CM involved in it.

CM already suffers from being regarded by the majority of the population as a protest for stereotypically hippies/anarchists/etc which allows the media and goverment to marginalise its message far more easily than if it was regarded as a voice of the people as a whole.

If CM heads in this sort of direction, I'll be withdrawing my support (regardless of the issues its trying to push) and I'm pretty sure I won't be the only one.

Don't be ridiculous, Critical Mass rides have been politicised and supported political protests for pretty much as long they've been happening - such as the Halloween 1993 Stock Exchange Levitation Action in San Francisco; the Bike National Convention against the RNC 2004 in New York; the J18 1999 Mass, Mayday 2000 Mass, Mayday 2001 Mass, DSEi Arms Fair 2001 Mass, Mayday 2002 Mass, Mayday 2003 Mass, DSEi Arms Fair 2003 Masses, Mayday 2004 Mass, Mayday 2005 Mass, DSEi Arms Fair 2005 Masses in London; anti-G8 Masses in Amsterdam (2006), Auckland (2006), Washington DC (2006), Manchester (2005-6) and Sheffield (2005).

Please don't undermine the politics of Critical Mass in this way, it is too important.

Are badly written lines just designed to disrupt. Critical Mass has always been associated with anti-capitalist ideas! Its not just about transport, the environment or any of these issues - it's about the type of world we want to live in, and why!

Lets make this day wicked!

masser -

Just because CM has been hijacked and abused several times in the past, in doesn't mean it's a clever idea to continue doing so.

Think about people's actual perceptions of what they will see. They will see people on bikes expressing extreme political opinions they very likely won't share.

they probably won't be impressed. They will continue associating bikes with extreme opinions and people on the political margins. The point of Crittical Mass is about cycling, and giving everyone the confidence and inspiration to ride. CM is great because everyone is there - the student, the city businessman, the child, the roadie, the courier, the poor and the rich. They are there because tehy love bikes. Their other opinions don't matter.

You run the risk of damaging this by thoughlessly using an inclusive, welcoming idea such as CM for your narrow purposes.

CM is about the politics of transport, cycling and safety, not about your particular brand of politics.

Critical Mass is a political event, at its most basic level, it promotes bikes over cars, and cooperation over competition. To pretend otherwise is absurd.

Critical Mass was not hijacked by those previous events, since Critical Mass is defined by its participants, not your prejudices.

Your claim that being anti-war and anti-repression are "extreme political opinions" is simply laughable, and your suggestion that to end state terror is a "narrow purpose" says more about your own extremism and marginalisation than is healthy.

There are more critical issues at stake than preserving your 'non-political' agenda, like WWIII.

I said before that I supported the reason behind your protest, and I wished you well with it. Did you not read that part?

And I also stated that CM is a political event. But not all political events and happenings are the same thing, are they? We don't all think the same way. 'Politics' is a huge pile of issues and relationships. It's not always helpful to bundle them all together. One cause can be damaged by another.

Think about the perceptions of passers by, not just how it seems from your point of view.

And "weasel words"? What on earth is that? Is that the term for opinions which vary from yours?

... but I can also partly see where baldyc is coming from.

Critical Mass can, and should be called by anyone, and has been. I've been on highly enjoyable Critical Masses at Maydays, DSEis and a bunch of other 'protests'. I think it is totally right on that people do this, and I'll be bringing my bike along on the 9th to join in.

I think where the two negative posts are coming from is that they don't want the regular monthly critical mass (which I guess are titled 'London Critical Mass'), which is fairly fluid in its political nature beyond a love of bikes becoming even more put upon by the police than it already is. I'm not really sure the Sack Parliament Critical Mass will do that though. If the police wanted to use 'politics' against 'London Critical Mass' they could do so without this (and I think it's a bad idea to do anything just because we're scared the police will attack/ arrest/ harrass us if we do something else). If anything I think a critical mass happening on the 9th will just so how wonderful and vibrant bike riders can be.

Perhaps it's also worth remembering that when the call came out last year about supporting October 'London Critical Mass' because the police had threatened to stop it, it was overwhelmingly those with politically 'radical' ideas that came down.

Regardless, I'll see you all at Waterloo on the 9th!

member -

Thanks for reacting constructively and looking at this from the other side. :-)

I would say though, that I DON'T really see this as an issue of how the police see us or deal with us. It's more to do with how the thousands of Londoners who witness CM see us and think of us. They are, after all, more important. The associations and assumptions that they make are significant, and the more that cycling is seen as an activity just for the (how shall we say) 'overtly politically active', then the less powerful is the message of inclusion and fun which I hope will inspire people to leave their cars at home and join us on bikes.

I too was there on that amazing CM following the police warning, with over a thousand people. I suppose I would agree with you that the politically active contingent was useful in swelling the numbers in such a dramatic way. Credit where it's due.

However, later in the ride, the downside of this became clear. The usually easy-going ride became very awkward with people behaving disproportionately aggressively towards the the police and motorists. When things ground to a halt because of the people who had chosen to sit and drink in the middle of Oxford Circus (or another major junction - I forget), the whole thing became boring and uninspiring. Critical Mass normally feels like a party - at that point is started to feel like a seige. So much so that the editor of one of the unofficial CM website sunsequently gave up their site in disgust at what CM had become.

People do things for different reasons. Some people have a loud message, and others have a quieter, but no less important, message to bring. Both have a right to express themselves. Sometimes the loud people need to be quiet and allow space for the words of the quieter, less aggressive people. I see CM as a quiet, but strong voice which talks about how we move around cities and respect each other. Please make sure that this message can still be heard among the shouts of other causes.

When the local activist community buggered off en masse to the drax power station last month, Glasgow CM shrank from around 50 to 5. I am afraid to say I have given up hope that cycling in this country can ever be a viable single issue in politics. I just don't think British society is civilised, thoughtful or free enough for cyclists to attain continental cycling conditions as a sectional interest. I respect the old school concept of CM that BC's espousing, but it just isn't going to make a difference - capitalism has changed since 1992 when CM was invented.

What clearer illustration could there be of Marx's point that the workers and bosses have nothing in common than a poor man riding a bicycle, sweating, but feeling free, being passed with inches to spare his life by a car he couldn't afford; one that deafens and chokes him, and threatens the future habitat of his children - and the children of all the folk like him - whose driver is too bored to think of anything but his own personal status?

And what greater visual symbol can there be for radical politics, especially in this cynical postmodern era, than the bicycle?

That's why I still believe in CM.

"CM is great because everyone is there - the student, the city businessman, the child, the roadie, the courier, the poor and the rich. They are there because tehy love bikes. Their other opinions don't matter."

Dunno where you have been going on critical mass mate, but I have been on loads and have never business men and the rich on them, and from the 90's there have been CM's on demonstrations. Through history bikes have been the transport of the workers, it's great that critical mass has expanded on to other issues.

I wasn't gonna come, thinking of skiving work now and bringing my bike.

current music: My White Bycicle - Tomorrow


BTW, Which CM do you attend BC?

Hi 'Sue'.

How did it go?

I hope it was good and I hope you got your message accross but, as I say, I hope it wasn't at the expense of the public's perception of cyclists as a whole.

You ask which CM I ride: Brighton is my regular ride. In fact, we rode on Friday.

I've also attended London CM quite a few times. Not so much these days, since Southern Trains decided to make life more difficult for cyclists. :-(

It's in London that my point about diversity can really be seen. Alongside the creaking rustbuckets and recycled roadsters of some massers, on London CM I have seen no shortage of expensive hardware: folding Bromptons, couriers on exotic Italian steel frames, and high-end road and mountain machines, some in titatnium or carbon.

This is borne out when you chat to those on the ride. Alongside the student, manual worker and shop assistant there is the architect, the doctor and the senior manager.

It is no longer accurate to simply associate bikes with the poor and cars with the rich. Yes, there is some historic truth in this but it is plainly no longer the case. Car ownership is an obsession throughout our whole society. The poor do own cars - they just own cheaper, older ones. Likewise, there are many seriously wealthy people who have made the decision to get around our cities by train or bike.

I remember on one London CM, a pinstriped city gent on a beautiful old Pashley bike, openly heckling with Brian Haw in Parliament Square. This guy was fairly conservative, and held views very different from the majority of CMers, but it what still good to have him along. He was cyclist. That's all that mattered.

There is another story (one that I did not witness) of a London CMer whose bike was run over by an angry motorist. The motorist got out of her car and started screaming at the biker berating him for "not getting a job so he could afford a car like everyone else". When she calmed down, the cyclist asked for her details so he could send her the repair bill for his titanium bike, worth about four times her ageing vehicle.

CM is about politics, yes.

But it's the politics of transport choices and responsibility, not the politics of wealth.

CM is a tactic. You can use it for anything you wish. As some one has already pointed out its the riders involved that determins its cause not CM as a whole.

[Quote]

Idiotic Criticism of Parliament Mass

Don't be ridiculous, Critical Mass rides have been politicised and supported political protests for pretty much as long they've been happening - such as the Halloween 1993 Stock Exchange Levitation Action in San Francisco; the Bike National Convention against the RNC 2004 in New York; the J18 1999 Mass, Mayday 2000 Mass, Mayday 2001 Mass, DSEi Arms Fair 2001 Mass, Mayday 2002 Mass, Mayday 2003 Mass, DSEi Arms Fair 2003 Masses, Mayday 2004 Mass, Mayday 2005 Mass, DSEi Arms Fair 2005 Masses in London; anti-G8 Masses in Amsterdam (2006), Auckland (2006), Washington DC (2006), Manchester (2005-6) and Sheffield (2005).

[End Quote]

Thank you for pointing out the facts to the new Boys in their pin stripe suits who think is hip to join the CM ride.

Quote: "Thank you for pointing out the facts to the new Boys in their pin stripe suits who think is hip to join the CM ride. "

Hip? Why the hell not? It's participation. People on bikes. That is undeniably a good thing.

Is CM just about your exclusive little club, solely for those who think and look like you?

How boring would that be?