ed's website

After writing a couple of blog posts (one and two) about how Cranks could be clearer about its politics for its members and the general public, I was happy to see when I went in the other day that there were three sheets of paper on the wall explaining the politics of the place.

I am not involved with Cranks any more, nor did I write the following text, but I thought it would be good to follow up the previous blog posts by putting it online. It seems like my writing had some influence on the place!

Here we go:

1) HOW DOES IT RUN?

Cranks is run entirely by unpaid volunteers.

We rely on donations and sales of bikes that we have fixed up that would otherwise ended up in lndfill or melted down into something less useful like bullets or a 4x4.

If you steal from us you are stealing from a community resource run for the benefit of everyone, not just bosses or shareholders.

(If you want to steal stuff, got to some big corporate bike store like Halfords - they can afford it, we can't!)

2) WHO'S IN CHARGE?

No -one.

Cranks is run as a members co-operative.

There is no boss telling everyone what to do, all members of Cranks get to decide what happens in this space and have an equal say in how things are run.

(It's called mutual-aid, or anarchy, or democracy - not the sham democracy of capitalism where money buys votes and power...)

When Cranks is open to the public the Cranks members who are working that shift decide on what happens.

3) WHAT IS THIS PLACE?

Cranks is a DIY workshop.

The idea is that we show you how to mend your bike so that you are more self-reliant and confident about your bike.

You can fix your bike here using our tools, we have some second-hand and new parts to use.

We ask for donations to cover use of tools and second-hand parts.

New parts carry a fixed price - usually below that of a commercial bike shop.