This holiday season, we’re thankful to be participating locally in the Climate Justice movement
Photos by Marlon Aldana
As the weather turns nippy in Oakland and the Rock The Bike takes a breather from work to get in the holiday spirit, we wanted to take a moment to share this note of gratitude.
We are thankful to all our customers who have helped us grow our business and find a stable location in Oakland. You have given us the foundation and stability to make a difference in our local community, to say yes when a local Climate Rally needs a sound system and doesn’t want to rent it from ye’ olde diesel powered sound co.
Not only are we able to participate in these rallies, but we are able and forced to innovate, because our largest events of 2015, in terms of crowd size, have been Climate Rallies. Larger events require more careful planning, more site visits, more thought about which speakers are going to point where.
On Nov 21 at the Northern California Climate Mobilization, put on by 350 Bay Area, 1500-2000 marchers entered Oakland City Hall plaza, sometimes locally known as Oscar Grant Plaza within the progressive community. Oakland’s own Samba Funk got people swaying side to side with their dancing and bloco drumming. Soon the bandleader asked for a live mic, and with it he was able to lead a chant over and get the crowd moving and speaking together, putting their hands in the air together, focusing hundreds of people at the same moment on the same intention: “We have the power to protect the earth”.
Then an Ohlone ritual saluting the four directions, reminding the crowd that we stand on land that was peopled in a very different way, and not long ago.
There was poetry in English and Espanol, a choir, and an update on Climate fight from 350.org.
I first started hearing the term “Climate Justice” only a year or two ago. Since then it has become my favorite way to describe the focus of my activism. It combines the imperative of protecting the planet with the sad acknowledgement that those who are hurt first by Climate Change tend to be from poorer communities and nations. The “Justice” part is to do right by people as we address this biggest threat to the planet.
The ritual, the smell of sage, the sounds of seashells and wind and crowd silence, pedaling, then loud, clear calls to our leaders to act now on Climate Change.
We brought out a 19-bike system including an ‘outfield’ comprised of 1 bike / 1 speaker systems, designed to enclose all the areas of the rally in clear sound.
Video of a previous Climate Rally organized by 350.org
At recent climate rallies our experienced crew has roadied all the equipment to the rally on cargo bikes and bike trailers alongside volunteers from our partner orgs, some of whom had never carried or towed a load with a bicycle before. At the November event, with a mix of our cargo bikes and the volunteers’ normal city bikes, we were able to tow 14 of our Generator Pro bikes. It is more time consuming to do this, more physically demanding, and probably more expensive, even though we save the expense of the box truck rental. When it’s done right the roadying is a big bonding experience for the crew and a source of pride for for the volunteers of the org, who pull off something amazing together with their people power.
We worked a 13 hour day and got a little worked but it was the best way to spend a day. Riding El Arbol down San Pablo avenue in the morning, I noticed my electric motor wasn’t kicking in. I checked it at a light, turned it off and on again. No change. 14 volunteers and roadies were behind me and we were already in the lane. There were 3 miles to City Hall and I went for it and pedaled. The tree weighs about 175 pounds and I was towing 120 more. With a load like that I could feel every change in the pitch of the flat road. But our group stuck together and got to City Hall in enough time to deploy and sound check our system.
