[sustran] CAR BUSTERS BULLETIN #12 - OCTOBER 1999

[Car Busters]

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-- -- -- -- CAR BUSTERS BULLETIN -- -- --
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from CAR BUSTERS, 44 rue Burdeau, 69001 Lyon, France
tel: +(33) 4 72 00 23 57  -  fax: +(33) 4 78 28 57 78
<carbusters at wanadoo.fr>  -  <www.antenna.nl/eyfa/cb>
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Monthly edition no. 12  -  October, 1999  -  English Version
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Car Busters is a magazine and resource centre
for the European car-free/anti-car movement.


IN THIS EDITION:

- EUROPEAN CAR-FREE DAY: "CITY CENTRE WITHOUT MY CAR"
- 100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF THE
        FIRST AMERICAN KILLED BY A CAR
- FINNISH TRANSPORT ACTION
- CALL FOR MATERIAL
- ACTIVIST CALENDAR
- DISCLAIMER


EUROPEAN CAR FREE DAY: "CITY CENTRE WITHOUT MY CAR"

    PARIS, SEPTEMBER 22 - More than 150 cities from Paris to Palermo
defied the wrath of car-crazy residents last Wednesday, banning cars
from town centres for the day.
    In France, it was the second such experiment and drew mixed
responses, from enthusiastic environmentalists who called for a
week-long car ban next year, to angry shopkeepers who saw business
shrink.
French Environment Minister Dominique Voynet urged all European cities
to ban cars for a day next year, joining a controversial experiment
which France, Italy and Switzerland carried out last week. Voynet said
a survey in France showed that the percentage or residents using their
cars in the city centre had dropped to five percent from 22 percent
and pollution had fallen by 20 to 30 percent. She said an IFOP opinion
poll showed 83 percent of residents in the French cities involved
wanted the experiment to be repeated, and only four percent believed
the car-free day was a gimmick.
    "The 'City Centre Without my Car' day will take place every year
on September 22. In 2000, it will be resolutely European," Voynet
wrote in the left-wing daily Liberation.
    - Reuters News Service


100TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE DEATH OF THE
    FIRST AMERICAN KILLED BY A CAR

    MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 13 was Remember Bliss Day: the hundredth
anniversary of the death of Henry Bliss, the first person killed by a
car in North America. (Since then, 30 million have been crushed under
car wheels, and twice that many have died from tailpipe toxins.)
Activists in Toronto commemorated Mr. Bliss' death  with a car burial.
On September 12, with shovels and bagel-power, they dug a hole two
metres into the ground, and then pushed a car in. Most of it went into
the hole, but about 1.7 metres of it stuck out into the air. It was a
sight to behold. The activists then filled in the hole and planted a
few graveplot crosses for effect. The next day they held a funeral,
complete with live dirge music on the organ, in the pouring rain.
There were a dozen mourners dressed in black, standing alongside a
banner that read: "Stop the Car-Nage." One activist, dressed as a
pastor, delivered the sermon. A clutch of media reporters recorded the
scene for posterity.


FINNISH TRANSPORT ACTION

    ON SEPTEMBER 13, activists in Finland held an action at the
Iittala 3 motorway building site, stopping machines by locking
themselves to them. "Engineers were aggressive and took one banner
off, shouting how stupid we were but we didn't care," said one of the
activists, Anssi Pajuoja.  The head road builder was then heard to
say, "You can drive over activists if they are in the front of [the
machines]!"
   "I gripped in the front of the machine with my legs under it,"
Anssi explains, "and it went on!"
   The action led to a lot of media coverage, with newspapers saying
that every motorway resister in Finland is now invited to come to
Iittala to drink coffee and promising that the environment will be
taken into consideration in motorway building.
   "Of course we`ll go there," Annsi comments, " but we'll discuss
only that all of the motorway building must stop!"
   For more info contact Anssi Pajuoja at pajuojaa at hmltol.hamkk.fi


CALL FOR MATERIAL

    LONDON RECLAIM THE STREETS are putting together a series of three
booklets about Reclaim the Streets and transnational activism. It will
not be an academic recuperation but inspirational agitational
propaganda written by activist themselves. They are desperate for
images, texts, leaflets, posters, agitprop, ideas, rants, press
cuttings - whatever you might have that could be part of this project,
which tells the story of your street parties or June 18th actions or
other relevant activities. If you have anything or want more info
please send it to:
Reclaim the Streets Book Project, c/o Sebastian Budgen, 6 Meard
Street, London W1V 3HR, UK; or e-mail <artactivism at gn.apc.org>.


ACTIVIST CALENDAR

**European Union Transport Ministers Meeting
Warsaw, October, 14 - 15
"There are serious plans for some actions..." E-mail Frank van Schaik
at A SEED:  <frank at aseed.antenna.nl>.
**COP5, the fifth Conference of the Parties to the Climate Convention,
meets in Bonn, where climate activists will be making themselves heard
and seen. It is happening September 25th to November 5th. For more
information, contact <risingtide at iname.com>.
**The Third Action Day on Aviation
October 29-30
Under the slogan "the sky has a limit," as many groups as possible
will take part in the Third Action Day on Aviation. If you would like
to take part or want more information, contact Paul de Clerck,
Campaign Coordinator of The Right Price for Air Travel campaign.
E-mail: <paul at milieudefensie.nl>; web:
<www.milieudefensie.nl/airtravel>.


ALTERNATIVES: SEND THEM IN

   CAR BUSTERS issue #7, we change our minds, will be on alternatives
to car dependence. If you have any ideas or proven solutions, wacky or
realistic, send them to us.


DISCLAIMER

   Car Busters hereby denounces everything it has ever printed,
including this disclaimer.


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