Bike project at Kanal Radical Queer Wagonplace

Who we are:
We are a group of Womyn, Lesbian, Trans*, Inter people. We are Black and Persons of Colour. We are refugees,  asylum seekers, volunteers and working class. Our aim is to make people move around in an independent, ecological, cheap and faster way. We see bikes as an important tool for empowerment and with that comes the need of being able to fix and maintain our own means of transportation. The idea is to learn from each other, empower ourselves, share knowledges, take care of our communities and do bike related stuff! All of this a mostly Black and PoC space, avoiding any kind of white / cis male leadership and concepts. We want to change this reality of bike spaces being dominated by cis men and white people, what most of the time leads to racist, sexist and transphobic structures, therefore excluding Trans* people and B.PoCs. Here we are the protagonists of our own reality, of our own space, of our own structure, of our own life. Lets show that representation matters and share space with people in a way that they can also acknowledge their own power, by their owns means. Together we can do it!

What we do

We offer tools and assistance to people who wants fix their bikes themselves or build a new one out of recycled materials and old bike parts. The bike workshop at Kanal is open to receive donations of bike parts, tools and whatever material that makes the bike maintenance possible. We already have some material available, so don’t be shy and come over! We also offer workshops of basic bike mechanics and cycling courses for refugee women* in a all women* environment. There is also planned a big bike fixing action, on April/ June/ August and October, where we can fix a huge amount of bikes together in our workshop or directly at the Refugeeheims, and give them to Refugee Women*. Another part of our project is focused on the kids, the ones who fled and those also living in our neighborhood, specially Rroma kids. We want to create an open and friendly environment where they can come and do the basics in their own bikes and toys with wheels, in a fun and easy way allowing them to play with it at the same time!

Who can use the space

We want to create a Queer* space where W*LT*I and PoC and Black people are welcome, encouraged and active in the group. Even though the bike workshop is open to everybody, we encourage especially Black, PoC, Queer and Trans* persons to come, use the space and shape it together with us, becoming also part of the group structure if they want to.
Keep in mind that this a self-organized group and we work in an horizontal basis, where everybody is responsible for the project, with no hierarchy and specially with no participation of white cismale people at any part of
the structure. This is a safer space for us, Trans* Queer and BPocs.
Why we do it

Because we want to be active and independent! Some of us have a plenty of free time. Some of us do not want to be just ‘waiting’ until our process here gets settled or even started. We do not want to depend on the government tools that wants to have total control of our lives and steps. We want to put our skills in practice, we want to improve our knowledge, we want to have control over our own will and ways, we want to be creative together and make transportation a tool that helps us, not only in our daily mobility but as well in our interpersonal interactions, in our fight for freedom, in our lives.
Where you can find us

The bike workshop is located in the Radical Queer Wagonplace Kanal, in the Kiefholzstr. 74. As the bike activities are done open airs, we are open for the public from April to November, weekly, on Sundays from 2pm to 5pm. But you can also come from December to March, just contact us before hand so we can make sure that everybody can fit inside the Wagon, so we can work in a warm place!