Women in the Workshop

This Monday we had our first womens' bicycle maintenance get together at the workshop. It was great!!! Lots of women came, some to fix their bikes others to make one up from scratch and some just came to join in and help. Between us we solved most problems. We just need to bring a blow dryer next week, to fix the mudguard.

People who couldn't make it rang to say they'll come next week.... it's got off to a really good start and i'm sure the night will continue beyond the four week trial and develop and grow into a regular fixture here at the Bristol Bike Project. Come along! Please either call or email Sylvie on 07961 225053 or bikebeard@googlemail.com for further info....
Vive la Velorution! La Bici e libera!

Bicycology & No Borders

This Friday (22nd January), we are happy to open our workshop doors to a group people from the Bicycology cycling collective who are coming in to fix up a bunch of our bikes to be used by No Borders folk in Calais.

Calais, a French coastal town, is a border between France and Britain. Last year it was “home” to over a thousand migrants waiting to travel to the UK. Now, due to increasingly repressive measures taken by the French state (and endorsed by the UK government), numbers have dropped to around 350 resident migrants at any one time. Most are forced to live in make shift tents or abandoned buildings; these are routinely destroyed by riot police.

Bikes are an essential tool in Calais and are used by No Borders activists as quick, cheap and efficient transport to enable them to monitor police activity in different migrant areas; the bikes will also form a bike library for migrants. For more info about No Borders and the situation in Calais, check out: www.calaismigrantsolidarity.wordpress.com

Bicycology is a cyclists' collective that offers a range of activities to promote cycling and make the links with wider issues of environmental and social responsibility. A passion for cycling is used to pursue a vision of a just and sustainable world through a combination of education, entertainment and creative direct action. For more info see: www.bicycology.org.uk

Martin Luther King Jr. Day

"I refuse to accept the view that mankind is so tragically bound to the starless midnight of racism and war that the bright daybreak of peace and brotherhood can never become a reality... I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word".

Social Tandems - kids' bikes wanted!

a social tandem bike!

Our good buddies at Spoke'n'Chain are in the process of building social tandems for schools in Bristol, to be used as working vehicles to encourage bicycle use and to enable the schools to take part in this year's Cycling Carnival, coming to Bristol in September 2010. They use recycled bicycles to build these and are looking in particular for medium sized girls' bikes.

They are also beginning to build bicycle-based fairground rides and are generally interested in reusing kids bikes. We are currently not using a great deal of kids' bikes here at The Bristol Bike Project and would encourage you to get in contact with Sylvie if you have any unwanted kids' bikes and would like to donate them. Please either call or email Sylvie on 07961 225053 or bikebeard@googlemail.com

Thanks!

Let Refugees Live in Peace

We went to show our solidarity for 50 refugees & asylum-seekers that were being moved against their wishes from Bristol to Cardiff today, some of which we have worked alongside and given bikes to here at the project. Many of those being moved had very short notice, in some cases barely a week and many of them have been based here in Bristol for a substantial amount of time - some for 9 or more years. There is no explanation given as to why this has taken place.

This is a shockingly disrespectful way to treat people who are here lawfully and who are doing their best to try and live with dignity in a situation that is already fraught with uncertainty and limitation. Despite not having the chance to work and support themselves as they would prefer to do, these 50 people are learning English at college here and trying to become integrated and to feel part of the community as best they can. But how can we expect people to integrate and to feel settled if this is the way they are treated?

Despite the large crowd of protestors at the demonstration today, the coach finally managed to leave at lunchtime, albeit with a lot of police assistance. After the coach had finally managed to depart, I politely asked a couple of policemen present if they were proud of what they had just helped to facilitate and both replied that they were 'just doing their job'. Simple as that, apparently. Even when various people attempted to explain to them what was taking place they were totally uninterested in the cause and completely non-questioning of their actions - not that i expected anything else.

The Bristol Bike Project originally started because of our desire to help refugees & asylum-seekers gain more independence and to hopefully make their lives a little bit more manageable here in Bristol and we are appalled at the way this group of people has been treated today.

snow & scrap wheels