Bikeit! Rides through Rochester!

Come out Monday June 14th at 6pm for a potluck at the Flying Squirrel Community Space to meet bicycle riders on their way out to the US Social Forum in Detroit. This will be a great opportunity to learn more about what activists in the upstate NY area are working on and to learn more about the US Social Forum.

Who is going on this ride?
The Finger Lakes BikeIt Ride is open to all residents in the Finger Lakes area who are passionate about biking to the US Social Forum in a large group of people committed to social & environmental justice, community service and mutual aid. We will likely have riders from Ithaca, Syracuse, and Binghamton, as well as from several smaller towns in the area.

We will have a maximum of 50 riders in our group, as well as a sagwagon team and a kitchen crew (from Mandibble Café!) who will prepare 3 meals a day for the cyclists. We will be a diverse group, with cyclists in high school to cyclists in their 70’s. We want to make this ride a safe space for all different kinds of people, with the agreement that by taking part of this ride we will commit to taking care of one another. All participants must go through a registration process & an anti-oppression agreement in order to join the ride.

Why do this bike trip?
-Because bike touring is an amazing and unforgettable experience, and bike touring in a large group of others who care about the world and believe in mutual aid is even more amazing.
-Because we can give back to the communities we visit through service-learning projects in urban agriculture and food justice.
-Because we will have the luxury of having 3 meals a day prepared for us by Mandibble Café.
-Because we can get to know ourselves and each other better, and form a cohesive group of cycling allies.
-We will see beautiful landscapes and sleep under gorgeous stars. We will learn the history of the Erie Canal and the geography of Lake Erie.
-We’ll be able to share many things together– biking, chopping veggies, camping, songs and stories around campfires. We will be challenged and grow as people.
-Because biking is a blast, and the world seen from a bike saddle is beautiful!

BikeIT is about people power. It is about alternative transportation, it is about organizing ourselves to have a world of clean air, clean water, healthy food and health care, economic and racial justice, and it is about making that statement all together. It is about joining 20,000 other folks who will be coming by any means necessary to get to the Social Forum.

The BikeIt ride that will leave from Ithaca, NY on June 12, 2010 to arrive in Detroit, MI for the US Social Forum, taking place from June 22-26, 2010.

The Fingerlakes ride is just one of many rides that will be embarking on a journey to the Social Forum by bicycle from all over the country. Rides are being organized by folks in Chicago, Madison, Philadelphia, New York City, Albany, Rochester and Ithaca. We will all converge on the Motor City together, bringing an inspirational message about the future of sustainable transportation for the U.S. and the world, demonstrating how bikes can be an efficient, economic, autonomous and fun form of transportation for all.

What is the US Social Forum? The US Social forum is a national convocation of community organizers working for social and environmental justice. It is part of the movement of World Social Forums started in Brazil in 2001, initiated as a response by global social movements to the challenge of economic policies that have concentrated wealth and power in fewer hands, while forcing millions into poverty. The Forum is a place to learn, be challenged, network, have fun and get inspired!

Find out more. www.bikeit.org
http://www.ussf2010.org/