3rd, 4th and 5th of july amsterdam cyclist declare a war on cars

When the wars on cars begin we’ll have: crit­i­cal mass­es, alley cat races, tall bike joust­ings, bike wars, bike polo, road block­ades, work­shops, info­s­tands, food not bombs, par­ties and a lot of fun! Bike action days, this sum­mer in ams­ter­dam.

Man­i­festo

In the week­end of july 4th we declare a war on cars. In this week­end there will be a bike fes­ti­val in Ams­ter­dam. On dif­fer­ent loca­tions events, work­shops, info stands, fun & games, par­ties, and direct actions to block and frus­trate the traf­fic will be held. Cars lead to pol­lu­tion, cli­mate change, deaths and injuries. They are a nui­sance, and are dom­i­nat­ing the pub­lic space.Where the pub­lic space is not designed to facil­i­tate the ever con­sum­ing shop­ping fren­zy and indus­try it is designed to please fos­sil-fuel-traf­fic.

Since there is so lit­tle time left to pre­vent cli­mate change to turn into cat­a­stroph­ic dis­as­ter we con­sid­er it irre­spon­si­ble to invest in any type of fos­sil fuels. To give way to the same cor­rupt­ed indus­tries that got us in this mess in the first place is redicu­lous. Still the gov­ern­ment is con­struct­ing more roads and high­ways, more lanes on exist­ing high­ways, and invest­ing in more indus­try and world trade. Even ‘Agro-fuels’ are not going to save the world. On the con­trairy they will starve most of the world’s pop­u­la­tion. The oil-age is at its end and west­ern soci­ety is clasp­ing on to its unfair­ly acquired con­cen­tra­tion of wealth and lux­u­ry. Now not only dev­as­tat­ing life else­where on this plan­et but with cli­mate change also mak­ing sure that in the future of the whole earth will not be so pleas­ant and bio-divers.

We are not going to take it any­more! When the war on cars begins we will send out a mes­sage to car users that they do not have ulti­mate pri­or­i­ty in pub­lic space any­more, that cars are out­dat­ed tech­nol­o­gy since oil will not be afford­able for ever and that we demand a healthy earth for the next gen­er­a­tions. We will tem­porar­i­ly reclaim some pub­lic space for games and fun, pro­mot­ing bikes and demand­ing more space and facil­i­ties for bikes, and for inform­ing peo­ple about alter­na­tives to an oil-based soci­ety.

Through­out the week­end there will be an ´alley-cat´-race, a car­ri­er bike (bak­fi­ets) race, tall bike joust­ing and bike wars. To enter an event send an email of your team name and which event to enter to or just show up with your (carrier)bike, tall bike or war­bike. Also a lot of help is need­ed in orga­niz­ing, and mobi­liz­ing. Espe­cial­ly out­side Ams­ter­dam and Hol­land! So get in touch, inform your sur­round­ings, get involved, get active!

bikesnotcars@gmail.com
http://bikesnotcars.wordpress.com