I have been watching this thread with great interest, as we have had an awakening here at Bike Pirates in regards to our *perceived* political profile and a vague if not completely unclear understanding from within the group of what our "politics" are.

We often work with other community groups and host events for activist organizations, community fundraisers, etc. The decision to host these groups is based on our availability/compatibility and whether we feel the two groups are on-side with eachother's politics. But it has recently become quite clear to us that we don't have a clear idea of what our "politics" are, despite some long-standing assumptions in the city based on the original roots of Bike Pirates and the politics of the founding members.

This is going to be a big project for us, as we are a varied and diverse group, some more activist-y and left-wing than others, but to simply call ourselves apolitical would be disastrous IMHO.

As Geoff mentioned earlier in the thread, we have created a splinter group (Bikes Not Bombs) which we give permission to use our tools and trailer to do support at demos or activist events where we may not feel that Bike Pirates should be or would feel safe having our name present at. This has worked out quite well but obviously limits what we can do to support certain actions or events.

Thanks,
Ainsley
Bike Pirates, Toronto.