NEW ORLEANS BICYCLE FORUM | THURSDAY, APRIL 16TH | 6PM | JTLC 1212 ST. BERNARD AVE.

If and when the public is given an opportunity to offer input around urban planning, it often happens during the daytime, while most people are working. Decisions are made behind closed doors, where only a select few can attend, without input from the broader population of our city.

When the economy, planning, or society as a whole goes awry, we have been trained to wait for primaries to vote in a new administration to correct social ills. However, when we go to the ballot to exercise our right to vote, the vast majority of candidates who make it onto the ballot are funded by PAC money, and their allegiances have been purchased by a handful of campaign contributors.

Critical Mass Nola stands for democratic centralism—a system in which our representatives in City Hall are delegates who report what the majority of people voted for at a public assembly held after work hours. Democracy is the mass participation of a society’s citizens—who are largely working-class wage laborers—in planning our economy, society, and infrastructure.

This would naturally lead to planning based on meeting human needs, rather than exploiting human labor and the natural environment. This helps explain why many in positions of power resist expanding direct democratic control.

James Madison, often referred to as the “Father of the Constitution,” helped craft the Constitution in a way that limited direct majority rule; this was orchestrated out of concern about what he called the “tyranny of the majority.”

True democracy does not seek to replace the people—it is the instrument that the people use to make change. Meet with us this Thursday, April 16th, for our first monthly Critical Mass Bicycle Forum. Together, we will have public discussions about proper bicycle infrastructure and strategize on how we can see these ideas brought into fruition.

📅 Thursday, April 16th

📍JTLC 1212 St. Bernard Ave.

⏰ 6PM

Another World Is Possible!