This month, the Turtle lauds those who subvert the slogan of the mild-mannered Conservative racist, Norman Tebbit.

When exhorting the British unemployed -- destitute in large part because of the Conservative’s full frontal attack on the welfare state -- to “get on their bikes”, chances are that he probably didn’t have in mind the rather literal interpretation of this month’s Salutees, Critical Mass.

Taking its name from the amount of fissile material necessary to sustain a chain reaction, the Critical Mass cycling movement this month celebrated its tenth anniversary on the streets of San Francisco, where it first began.

The full history of the Critical Mass movement is available here, and it’s a history worth learning from. The basic idea, that mass action can confer not only immunity from prosecution but, albeit painstakingly, achieve lasting change, is a lesson many movements have yet to learn. In San Francisco, in an attempt to appear tough on crime and its causes, Mayor Willy Brown – an incumbent in every way – took it upon himself personally to vilify and outlaw Critical Mass in July 1997 . The media obediently chorused disapproval, and bayed for bicycle blood. The ten thousand cyclists (a figure obtained by doubling the dreadful San Francisco Chronicle's estimate) who turned up for the ride in July 1997 were having none of it. The SFPD bravely poked a hundred and thirty people off their bikes and detained them for an evening. No charges were pressed. And since then, Critical Masshas gone from strength to strength. Although the Tenth Anniversary ride saw fewer riders than the Willie Brown protest ride, the Critical Mass contagion continues.

From Johannesburg to Taipei, from Parramatta to Prague, from Sao Paulo to San Francisco, there are now at least 217 rides in urban areas, on the last Friday of each month, in which cyclists swarm though the streets, not stopping traffic, but becoming it.
The majority of rides take place in North American and European cities, where transport infrastructure thoroughly capitulates to the demands of the auto-industry, and where ecologically sustainable transport, when it exists at all, is token.

So far, no Critical Mass rides take place in the People’s Republic of China; the Turtle would like to believe that this is a direct function of the People’s Republics’ thoroughly sound policy towards cycling, though reluctantly admits that there may be an element of political repression in the explaining.

Ahem.

In any case, the Turtle is proud to salute the fine women and men who, ten years on, present a united front against cars, against the oil industry, and for safer streets for ecological transport.

Comrades, the Turtle is proud to salute Critical Mass!