A hidden bar, packed with a bouncy crowd of punksters, small enough for the barman to know that my vague gesture was after a shot of Jagermeister; big enough to have one hell of a party! This sums up the music night set up to raise funds for Tour de Phizz, "an exhibition curated by a team of artists who create artwork interventions and DIY events dealing with the themes of cycling advocacy and social inclusion."
Mark Duggan, a Tottenham local, was shot a week ago in Ferry Lane as police officers attempted to make an arrest. At the moment, there is no evidence of Mark Duggan shooting at the police, and the post-mortem tests found that he died from a single bullet wound to the chest, shot by the police. There are mixed stories about who Mark Duggan was: some stories portrait him as a crack-dealer gangster and other stories as a father of four who wanted to stay out of trouble.
Following this, London had days and nights of riots. Riots, that looked different from the usual protests of marching and banners, and from the riots that our fellow Athenians have made us accustomed to.
The London riots mostly consisted of teens and younger adults breaking windows of shops and stealing what they found inside: Chain stores like JD sports, Currys, and PoundShop (!) were targeted. We also saw videos of teens mugging teens, and an "accusation" from the public that these riots were based on greed and not politics. And yes, in a sense, these London riots felt different: we did not see the politically minded activists targeting police stations as a protest against the police killing a man and authoritarianism; and the targets were not simply against the big capitalist chain shops. But one, thing we cannot deny is that these London riots are political in their own way; they show us the poverty, the gaps within our society, the result of endless prejudice, of not fitting in. These, will result in gangs, in looting, in riots of this kind - because it makes you feel in control, it makes you be part of something, it brings results, and it brings a sense of achievement and revenge against what excluded you in the first place. And this is political.
"There is nothing more dangerous than to build a society with a large segment of people in that society who feel that they have no stake in it; who feel that that have nothing to lose. People who have stake in their society, protect that society, but when they don't have it, they unconsciously want to destroy it."— Martin Luther King Jr.
'When you cut facilities, slash jobs, abuse power, discriminate, drive people into deeper poverty and shoot people dead whilst refusing to provide answers or justice, the people will rise up and express their anger and frustration if you refuse to hear their cries. A riot is the language of the unheard.'
Now the interesting thing, to me, was people's reactions to the riots. I have heard friends saying bring back the curfews and bring the army in. Now, this is just a dumbass idea:
WHY CURFEWS AND RUBBER BULLETS ARE A DUMBASS IDEA:
If a local council introduces a curfew, then the police has powers to break up groups of kids and take anyone under 16 back to their homes or a safe place. Curfews can be introduced in areas where the police and the council agree that gangs have been hanging around and starting trouble or threatening people. Local councils can authorise the police to do this using powers from the 2003 Anti-Social Behaviour Act. The powers can last up to six months. After that, councils have to re-apply.
What makes me disagree with curfews is the power they can have over me and other "innocent" people - who gives anyone the right to tell me not to go to a place at a specific time. We have experienced the police abusing the Stop and Search power, quite a few times, already! Anti-war demonstrators have been filmed and searched by the police numerous times, unfairly and with no obvious reason - these searches felt to simply be a statement of police power; The last thing I really want is to be controlled with a curfew; No sir! i want to cycle to see my friends any time i want; i want to sit in a park and talk rubbish with them. This is not a crime. And curfews simply criminalize our existence of being in certain places at a certain time.
As for bringing in the army, the rubber/plastic bullets... well... No, thanks. Fighting violence with violence is just like fucking for virginity.
Besides, armies and curfews just oppress people. They will not solve the real issue.
THE FEAR
The other reaction was people cancelling plans and being fearful: Just like curfews, the fear becomes a barrier to doing what we usually do, and i found that annoying. So, i made the decision to continue doing what i usually do. The police nor the rioters can control me. No, sir!
THE UGLINESS OF THE WHOLE STORY
The thing that really worried me and upset me was the suffering that the whole situation brought to our cycling community. I mean, i don't care that much about a stolen pair of trainers from JD sports - these big unethical chains can certainly afford it and have already spread alot of evilness (sweat shop products and all the rest, so go on and fight them!), but it does break my heart hearing that one of the nicest bicycle stores was also attacked. Micycle, a friendly bicycle shop and cafe in Islington lost most of their stock:
A youtube video of the Looting at Micycle:
News also traveled fast, that cyclists were targeted in London Fields. Apparently cyclists were pushed off their bikes and mugged. An Evans bicycle shop was also broken into in Chalk Farm.
Unfortunately, the cycling communities were not the only "innocent" ones to suffer. The burning of PIAS distribution centre brought damages to indie music and film labels.
So, just to finish off, dear Rioters, please choose your targets wisely. Smash the system, Shut the City down, Mindfully Rebel.
Let the religious get religion, let consumers get a clue
Let scientists get perspective, let activists get their due
Let industry get a conscience, let the earth inherit the meek
Let the divinity of nature speak
- Ani Difranco
and for the final thought:
"I love the way that we call people who break into chainstores 'looters', yet the rest of us law abiding citizens get to loot the entire planet and are deemed peaceful. Instead of H&M, read rainforests. Instead of JD Sports, read oceans. Instead of Tesco, read soil. If you want to see a looter, look within, we're all looters. Just some are culturally normalised" ~ Mark Boyle
This is how it feels when i cycle in the rain, early morning hours after seeing my best of friends; that enormous intense feeling of... well i am not quite sure what it is...maybe excitement but at the same time calmness, happiness, pure love, gratitude, not wanting it to end, soulful kind of emotion. I guess it has a touch of freedom and catharsis - to just be, listen, fool around, ride, sweat, laugh, hug, accept.
Wallis Bird video clip! It features a bicycle and a speech bubble saying "life is great" and therefore i judge it appropriate for this group! Enjoy my fellow cyclists!
Cycle East took place on Sunday 7th March 2010 and consisted of three concerts in different locations – The London Gypsy Orchestra at Bethnal Green Working Men’s Club, Sweet Billy Pilgrim at the Toynbee Studios, and Soweto Kinch at Rich Mix. The idea was to use bicycles to hop from one venue to the other, and with each band playing at 2pm, 4pm and 6pm cyclists could choose any order they liked to watch the bands.
I ended up watching the London Gypsy Orchestra twice- the second time was much more entertaining as friends and their groovy dance moves joined me- handmade choc also featured in a friend's bag and that carried bonus points to the day! Anyway the London Gypsy Orchestra was excellent and is worth listening to so go ahead and google them.
For the 6pm show we chose Soweto Kinch's gig who i can only describe as a wannabe gangsta who plays jazz and does some rhyming MC-ing. His saxophone playing was much enjoyed and his freestyle MC-ing was fun but I was slightly unable to really enjoy the show as he came across as rude (or more commonly "up his own @rse!" .. i mean if you accidentally kick my friend's bag (twice!) whether you are a wannabe gangster or not, you must apologize. So there, Soweto!
Churros at the nearby restaurant made me forget the rude boy and his saxophone and the day pleasantly ended with another fixie ride back home.
