"...it's a friday night, it's like a fucking party, it's like an RTS on bikes!"
Cyclist from Birmingham
Friday, Oct 28. Almost 1000 cyclists soon growing to a critical mass of an estimated minimum of 2000 cycled around central London. The meeting point was nearby the restricted SOCPA zone in front of the National Film Theatre. The CM moved on to Parliament Square and Downing Street. The samba band was on wheels for the occasion and many were in Halloween attire.
Pics [1 | 2 | 3] Pic-reports [1 | 2 | 3] Reports [1] Video reports [1 | 2]
This is the first London Critical Mass ride after participants were informed about possible arrests at future Critical Mass rides. The Metropolitan Police demanded that the 'organisers' give notice of the route in advance [report].
Solidarity rides are taking place simultaneously in Bristol [more] and Brighton, Nottingham, Leeds and Gothenburg. We are collecting updates from the London streets in a timeline.
The Serious Organised Crime And Police Act 2005 was brought in to ban demonstrations within a one mile radius of Parliament, and to remove the very embarrising presence of Peace Activist Brian Haw. It has been defied on a number of occasions since it was introduced this summer with arrest and demonstrations. Background [1 | 2 | 3 | 4]
And here is a copy of rikki's report on the night:this month there was a call-out for a large critical mass in response to police threats to 'enforce legislation' to treat it as a protest requiring organisation and application for permission. the response to the call-out was absolutely huge, with 1,200 cyclists (that's just the official police estimate!) taking over the streets of central london in a wonderfully anarchic and self-policing jaunt round the capital.
as well as several loud sound systems, the 'rhythms of resistance' samba band took to trikes, rickshaws, roller-blades, and bikes, to provide a fantastic carnival soundtrack to the ride that had passers-by dancing in the streets.
apart from a few irate drivers, and, it has to be said, the daily mail-fed vitriol of a few stereotypical taxi drivers (though many were cool too), the response was generally good-natured considering the traffic havoc caused.
despite the threatening letter of the previous month, it seems the police had reconsidered their authoritarian stance, and provided a truly excellent and sensible facilitation of the ride, mainly consisting of calming down any drivers who tried to take the law into their own hands, and occasionally aiding blocking junctions as the mass passed (although the sheer size meant that they couldn't be at all relevant junctions at all times and much of this was left to cyclists themselves). legal observers reported no known arrests, and in fact virtually no trouble anywhere. the policing comprised just approximately 20 outriders on bicycles and one van following - there was some concern about the 'shoot-to-kill policy' when it was spotted that police bikes carried the logo of gun manufacturers 'smith&wesson', but thankfully there were no assassinations last night.
the route went slowly over waterloo bridge, along the strand, through the mall (taking it completely over at times), past buck house, and then down to parliament square, where the new 'serious organised crime act' legislation banning protest in and around the square is supposed to be in force.
it demonstrates the arbitrary, farcical nature of this law that on tuesday morning just two people with banners from campaigning group 'justice not vengeance' were arrested for a protest outside downing street, one of them possibly facing up to 51 weeks in prison for being an 'organiser', while last night, more than a thousand cyclists cleared the square of traffic, parked up, danced to the sound of the samba band, and used amplified sound systems to shout anti-war and anti-government slogans. there were no arrests!
in their own time, after about twenty minutes, the procession rode up whitehall, stopping outside downing street and holding up their bikes in the air in front of the gates, then on slowly up through trafalgar square and charing cross road to centrepoint, where crowds joined in the samba dancing in the streets for a while. heading west along oxford street, they flooded into the oxford circus junction, in what looked like a scene from the infamous mayday (2001?) when police kettled a huge crowd at this spot for many hours. last night however, the twenty police bicyclists just watched in amusement and helped stop the traffic while the colourful mob celebrated their freedom for a while before making their way down regent's street to piccadilly circus for another rest.
by now it was nearly half past ten, the mass had got a little split up, and everyone one was winding down. gradually the wheeled massive congregated off-road on the upper part of trafalgar square, set up the sound system, cracked open the beers and smokes, and had a post-mass party for a while. the police left, people began to drift away in to the night, and on to various parties, the rain started up, and a peaceful, empowering, celebratory experience was over for another month.
if you missed it and want to come along, the next one is the 25th november. if you came and enjoyed it (how could you not?), then see you all next month too.
more details on the www.criticalmasslondon website.
Comments
Hide the following 7 comments
Resist
29.10.2005 19:17
I am really sad that this is happening as these people seem to have been at the heart & soul of the London CM in the past few years. However, I don't understand why they think that CM should be more organised. What is great about CM is that it teaches you patience, that not everything in life needs to be organised and sometimes when it is not it can be fun. CM is relaxing because it's different from our everyday lives in London which are usually planned out to the minute. It's great that drivers are also taken on this journey (although not voluntarily). Especially those cabbies who think it's really charming that they drive like idiots and risk cyclists' lives every day.
I loved it last night. Because we showed the power of how many will fight stupid regulations authorities are trying to impose (like banning Critical Mass ). CM has been here for 11 years. Those in power have succumbed to their own paranoia and now view ordinary citizens as enemies in their 'war on terror'.
I am so pleased that London resisted the repressive move of the authorities. It reminded me of Serbia under Milosevic's dictatorship (from where I fled to live here in the UK capital). Let the people be.
Buba
Critical Mass Defies Police Commissioner Idiocy
29.10.2005 19:28
New Scotland Yard's threat of making outlaws of cyclists came completely unstuck in the face of the peddle power of over 1, 000 unintimidated citizens at October's ride last night.
No one had given prior notice that they might wish to cycle within the "designated area around Parliament" and yet so many people coincidentally arrived outside the House of Commons. Every individual taking part was supposedly, according to police, committing an offence and liable to arrest.
The lack of police action on 28 October underlined forever that the Met's insistence that "cycle protests are not lawful because no organiser has provided police with the necessary notification" has no meaning at all. Participation in Critical Mass events in future cannot credibly now render anyone liable to prosecution for simply being involved or journeying through a "designated area".
Any future attempt to resuscitate such a threat is completely empty given the public defiance of Critical Mass London clearly 'demonstrated' that this will not be tolerated.
Congratulations to everyone that participated in winning the total climbdown.
Freedom Rider
CM London October 2005: some subjective impressions
30.10.2005 05:14
Dougie
e-mail:
dougie@navarino.org.uk
Homepage:
http://navarino.org.uk:8080/blog
A small point..
31.10.2005 10:52
Doug.
Oct 28th Crit Mass Total Riders
31.10.2005 11:15
Many thanks
Dullard
Slowness
31.10.2005 17:48
become quiet and peaceful even if only for a few minutes. It should never go faster than walking speed because:
1 There are often walkers along with cyclists
2 The people at the back get cut off by traffic lights and can't catch up. Then cars get in between and it all gets dangerous and frustrating.
3 It is inspiring to see the busy world slow down and have fun for a while.
4 Most important it shows what London might be like without private cars. We won on the north side of Trafalgar Square - now lets reclaim the rest!
Freeforall
see also-
01.11.2005 18:25
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