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National car-free day in France (press release dated 25.09.98) French pedestrians enjoyed a brief revenge over motorists today as 35 cities ban cars from central districts during NATIONAL CAR-FREE DAY. Activists in Paris decided that the official efforts were not enough and went one step further, using a tripod to block the famous Champs Elys�e during rush hour this morning. Lyon, still reeling from the fact that that their city council did not want to play ball and even take in the day, blocked their own street with street barricades and "street closed" signs borrowed from the city council. Sand was spread on the street for a game or 200 of "boules" (national game hitting metal balls with other metal balls) and a hand-made volly-ball net went up at the other end. In true French style everyone brought apple tarts and cakes. The flics (pigs) drove slowly round and round the block, oggling at the car-free crowd, celebrating Lyon Car Free Day in their own special way (with some gratuitous petrol wasting). Anti-car activists in Dijon held a Critical Mass this evening to express their feelings on the day. CAR BUSTERS Magazine and Resource Centre 44 rue Burdeau, 69001 Lyon, France tel.: +(33) 4 72 00 23 57; fax: +(33) 4 78 28 57 78 [email protected] If Donald Dewar and his administration were truly intent upon honouring their international commitments, they would be making plans to mix the Georgian uranium with high level waste, rendering it permanently useless to bomb-makers, and seal it in glass for permanent storage. They would be persuading the International Atomic Energy Agency to stop helping to build new reactors in impoverished countries, and start helping those countries to clean up their existing mess. But this decision has nothing to do with good global governance, and nothing to do with non-proliferation. It has everything to do with a cowardly government's insatiable desire to please the powerful, while generating and distributing the most dangerous materials on earth. |