On the weekend of the 20th and 21st March, P.E.D.A.L. began its 100 day cycle ride at Grow Heathrow in Sipson. The choice of the bicycle as an empowering tool is designed to show the need for a life without dependency on fossil fuels and unsustainable transport. A life where there are other options than flying which simply transports you from A to B with no appreciation for what is along the way.
P.E.D.A.L set off on Monday 21st March with a critical mass of cyclists leaving from Grow Heathrow and stopping off at significant sites in London perpetrating oppression and those in resistance.
Speakers along the way on the critical mass included Mortaza Sahibzada, the managing editor of the Jewish National Fund (JNF) eBook Series and Naomi Wimborne Idrisssi, the Secretary of Jews for boycotting Israeli goods. Presentations included stories of struggle and hope in the UK relating to the Palestine struggle outside the Israeli embassy, outside beauty product store Ahava in central London who sell Israeli goods produced from land on illegally occupied territories and then at Cable Street - the scene of historic anti-fascist and anti-racist riots back in the 1930s.
The group will be cycling in solidarity with Palestinian and Israeli popular resistance movements- responding to the call-out from Palestinian civil society in 2005 to support the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions campaign. The ride will trace a trail of corporations complicit in the occupation, pollinate information about the campaign and support activists on trial for BDS actions.
The final destination is Palestine and along the way they will stop at many locations across Europe and the Middle East. The purpose of P.E.D.A.L is to highlight the link between social and environmental injustices and how people across borders are responding to them in creative and innovative ways. This will be seen along the route they as they visit different communities where resistance takes positive forms.
PEDALler Andy Grange said:
"In 2011 we have seen explosions of people power across the Middle East. Across the world communities are fighting battles against economic, environmental and political injustice. Nowhere more do we see this than with the Palestinian people struggling for self-reliance, political rights, and liberation. PEDAL begins at an exciting time for popular movements fighting back."
