Hi all,
First of all, apologies for some of the links that follow and are in french. As Angel stated, the French have a network, L’Heureux Cyclage, which is very similar to Bike Collectives, but a little more formal: It is a “association de loi 1901” the French equivalent of a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) organization. Like Bike Collectives / Bike! Bike! It has a charter of values, and all belonging organizations need to adhere to those values to become members:
https://www.heureux-cyclage.org/charte.html?lang=fr
The organization grew around the same time as Bike Collectives/Bike!Bike! but under a French context. It is strongly influenced by French anarchism and French libertarianism ( equal parts equality and liberty), and some of the original members are very close to the French freeware movement, the Framasoft people because of the shared values:
https://framablog.org/2013/12/02/utopie-du-logiciel-libre-sebastien-broca/
https://framablog.org/2009/11/23/logiciel-libre-theories-intelligence-collective-sebastien-broca/
In fact, the first paid position of the network was for the guy in charge of running the software for the bike kitchens to allow them to emancipate themselves from big tech.
I think the big differences between LHC and Bike!Bike! is due to different cultural, social, political, and economic contexts:
1) Most funding in France for not-for-profits is public, so there is a cultural expectation to get money from the different layers of the government while keeping politically independent.
2) French anarchism/libertarianism is slightly different from the American version.
3) There is a bigger emphasis on degrowth ( no one drives to a kitchen in France, most people don’t own cars, and most radical kitchens are opposed even to electric bikes, and people shame you(me) for flying even though both my research and organizing require for me to do so.
Clavettes ( Cotters): Because of questions of values and political outlook, the network aims at decentralizing and encouraging local cooperation. The clavettes are the local networks of kitchens, the strongest ones are in Lyon, Greater, Paris, and Grenoble ( which is kind of the mecca of French kitchens). Clavettes are very useful because they shared issues, they are better at spreading ( the French use the word essaimer, which would translate to swarming, as the bees do), sharing resources, and mobilizing together.
There also working groups for specific issues: gender stuff, race stuff, coop employees, and low-density territories. For some of these issues, the network has produced guides ( often financed by the French government and the territorial agencies).
https://www.heureux-cyclage.org/guides.html?lang=fr
@Geoffrey:
Like the Bike Collective, LHC is decentralized, and volunteer-run. The way I see it is that it runs on the heart, which means that it works better with a small group of committed and motivated people, the downside is that some stuff doesn’t happen because nobody takes the wheel for annoying tasks that need to happen. Also, like in the US, burnout is prevalent ( I have talked with many people about this, on both sides of the ocean, both for my research and because they are my friends and allies). There are many academic publications on the subject (See Adonia Lugo Bicycle/Race) and currently there are some efforts to document the issue of cycling and trauma.
Geoffroy Pleyers in the early 2000s studied the alter-globalization movement and split them into what he called the way of the reason, those that were into policy-making and invading spaces of power, and those of the way of subjectivity ( those who were in the ground, close to the people mobilizing) for me the bike movement has both, and both LHC and bike collectives are of the latter kind. The issue is that each form of mobilization has its limits ( and a fair share of unsolvable problems, like how to get more volunteers, how to reach people and resources without selling out, how to keep true to our values while reaching out most people…).
https://www.academia.edu/44702177/Alter_globalization_Becoming_actors_in_the_global_age_Full_book.
@Luke:
The French network also has a list like this one, except that only members can access it, and it is not as easy to handle as this one ( kudos to all the people involved in making this so easy, thanks!)
https://sympa.heureux-cyclage.org/info/rayons
The other thing is that French radical people are very private, and most of them dislike high-tech and even cell phones… The pandemic changed that a little bit as it forced people to have online meetings, but still, there is resistance towards online stuff. The other thing is language, for creative language is also very important for the network ( for instance the name of the network is a pun, which translates into happy cycling, but it also reads like “le recyclage” /recycling).
The last thing I want to say is that collectives that run with the heart, need face-to-face spaces to keep alive. To strengthen the bonds of people, and to have those liminal spaces where new ideas flourish, I hope Bike!Bike! gets to meet in person soon, and I hope those people who live close to each other get to meet each other to share together.
PS:
I have written about bike kitchens both in French and in English, here are a couple of links:
Alejandro
forwarding another message that bounced...============ Forwarded message ============
From: angel york <bike@angelyork.com>
To: "The Think Tank"<thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org>
Cc: "Luke Box"<lukebox@gmail.com>
Date: Mon, 10 Jul 2023 02:57:27 -0700
Subject: Re: [TheThinkTank] Re: Question re community bike shops
============ Forwarded message ============Hi all,I have a migraine right now, so maybe I missed something. Anyone who wants to is welcome to start anything they want. Anyone who wants to be involved in existing or new projects is encouraged to do so. Email bikebikeeverywhere@gmail.com.I'll do a brief overview of existing and potential ways to communicate with this community. This has also turned into an impromtu update, it is not a complete update. I didn't run it past the tech and planning teams.Active volunteer groups: There's the planning team (english/spanish) for Bike!Bike! Everywhere! (the online conference) and the tech team (currently english/technobabble). There was also intercambio/language exchange for a few months after B!B!E!2022, that was a lot of fun. Right now, the planning team communicates over email and now also WhatsApp and the tech team communicates by email. Both groups have recurring video meetings.Social media:There is no form of social media that's going to work for everyone. Anti-capitalism is important but so is intersectionality. If we care about DEIB, and we do, sometimes we have to reach people where they are.
- People made an account for instagram for a past B!B!, Tijuana I think, so B!B!E! planners use it to post event announcements, to reach people where they are.
- There's a really old facebook group with a lot of people in it, so the B!B!E! planners have a stub of a facebook account to be able to interact with the people there.
- There's a discord room, it's not active but it's there.
- At 9:07 a.m. this morning I submitted a request to create a Mastodon account because I suspect some of our community is on Mastodon. My plan was to create a guppy group after checking with the planning and/or tech teams, just a stub so people could use it if they want. Sounds like there's interest.
Websites and various accounts: bikebike.org and bikecollectives.org are both community resources. Anyone who wants to post an event to bikebike.org can do so, you just have to email bikebikeeverywhere@gmail.com and we will connect you with a login to create an event. We are aware that the front page of bikecollectives.org needs an overhaul, it is actively on the to do list to update it with an organized overview of resources that are available to all, switch out the picture, that sort of thing.Fact check: Technically the bike collectives network isn't a non-profit. We're run by anarchy. B!B!E! has a non-profit fiscal host. That's OCF. They handle the money. Their values align well with the values of our community and they have been just fantastic to work with and we're lucky to have them and the open collective software.Speaking of money, we're still all volunteer-run. Translators and interpreters get a stipend which is paid by B!B!E! attendees, and we have several generous recurring donors covering tech infrastructure expenses.Tech: At the last tech meeting, we finished putting together a major update of what we've been working on. Nothing particularly visible, mostly a lot of deferred maintenance type stuff - getting the existing tech like this mailing list and the wiki and bikebike.org updated and onto a hosting provider that meets our needs better. Once that is done, we'd like to see what new stuff we can implement to meet some of the needs you are describing. It's slow going, because we have approximately 1.6 techie volunteers (between the three active people on the tech team) working on all of it. We're waiting on the translation to Spanish before posting that update. Should be up some time this month.B!B!E! Planning: Due to various illnesses, this year's planning team is just getting warmed up this past month or so. They'll be putting out an announcement with an update and a request for B!B!E! and tech volunteers probably some time in the next month or so.Communications: B!B! in person regional and international events, B!B!E! virtual events, the websites, this email list, the wiki, the social media accounts, all of these resources are about finding and connecting with each other. We are run by whoever puts love into it. That's all of us!Anyone who wants to is welcome to start anything they want. Anyone who wants to be involved in existing or new projects is encouraged to do so. Email bikebikeeverywhere@gmail.com.Back to the original question, "a case where community bike shops have united together to form some kind of federation or coalition ?" I think the French ones did that, not sure if it's the scale you're looking for though: https://www.heureux-cyclage.org/La-carte-de-L-Heureux-Cyclage-le.html?lang=en<3 Angel_______________________________________________On Sun, Jul 9, 2023 at 11:02 PM Luke Box via TheThinkTank <thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org> wrote:_______________________________________________This community (The Bicycle Collective) is the largest global network of non-profit/do good bicycle shops. There is a maintained wiki with a whole bunch of really great resources and most of the email discussions here are archived and searchable online. They've also been very involved in organizing BikeBike in real life, and virtually.
It sounds like what you're seeking (similar to myself) is somewhere/something with more/easier engagement and conversation. In your case, maybe regionally. In my case, I just want folks to interact with from anywhere, that are doing similar work than me. Call it a federation or coalition or whatever. Personally, I just want somewhere where there is active discussion about "how do y'all do this at your shop", "get a load of this shit" etc. I think we all have similar enough goals that there doesn't need to be 'an organization'.
ThinkCollective organizers/managers/founders have been hesitant to develop or encourage discussions in this regard, outside of this space/network. Point being, using alternative services provided by for-profit companies and corporations create accessibility/ownership barriers, defies the 'collective fundamentals' that the network was founded on and directly interfere with some anti-capitalist notions that they've busted their ass to not be a part of. They're a non-profit that maintain all their own servers and rely on open-source software and services to operate and organize volunteer translators to translate a lot of their resources. If you're reading this, you owe them a huge thank you. Thanks y'all. This bike co-op stuff has changed my life, for real.
I've deleted a bit of this email where I had written about alternative ways to communicate outside the Bike Collective Network, out of respect.
I love and fully support the fundamentals and efforts made by Bike Collective to create a self sustaining and accessible trove of information and discussion. I (as well as others) would really love(need?) a 'living online space' where co-op organizers/volunteers/managers/board members/ etc. can help each other and communicate. This email listserv and the archives are not it.
People want an app on their phone that is easy to use and looks good where they can send short form text messages, and create threads and channels/rooms and direct replies and send pictures and videos and stupid gifs. Younger generations of adults who are now managing/developing non-profit bicycles cooperative are not going to search an online archive or use a wiki. This discussion exists there, and it keeps happening due to this fact. People organize and communicate online much differently now, than they did when this network was founded. I hate the means by which this comes, but it's not going to change how people behave.
Anyone is welcome to reply to me if you're interested in an alternative space to organize/chat outside of this network. It sucks to fork/branch/divide efforts made here, but it's going to happen if not managed internally. I've had a chat with BikeCollective organizers, and they have done a whole bunch of work to organize this email listserv archive but it seems they are not interested/don't have the time/space/money to maintain any more than what exists here.On Sun, Jul 9, 2023 at 11:16 AM Geoffrey B via TheThinkTank <thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org> wrote:It has happened several times in Toronto. I'd say the opposite is beneficial. When a group gets too big, they lose something.It happens every few decades. Groups lose faith and merge, but it never ends well.My group lost a lot of its integrity when they focused on the massive rent due every month. We all worked for the landlord and not the community.Mandates get lost, and members leave from burnout.The smaller the operation, the better. Especially in a city like Montreal._______________________________________________On Sun, Jul 9, 2023, 2:13 a.m. Emory Shaw via TheThinkTank <thethinktank@lists.bikecollectives.org> wrote:_______________________________________________HI all,I'm just doing a bit of research and I figured this would be a good place to ask a question: does anyone know of a case where community bike shops have united together to form some kind of federation or coalition ? Many cities are dotted with such shops that tend to share a similar social mission: are there any examples of cities or regions where they have come together to better address shared challenges (re volunteers, suppliers, financing etc.)? It would be great to get some insight on this, as there are talks of doing this kind of thing in the city I'm in (Montreal). I'm curious to know if and how other places might have succeeded or not at achieving this. Any thoughts or leads would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!Emory
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