Sleepover Time, Bicycle Repair and Prison Abolition – Turku 06.07.-09.07.2024

we arrived in turku fashionably chaotic and one day late during the afternoon and evening. a very sweet person from ABC showed us around.

if you have never been to a bikekitchen: imagine a place that is only about bicycles. there were wheels hanging from the ceiling in all sizes and shapes, some empty bicycle frames scattered in between. on the walls hung front forks in shiny metallic colours like garlands, stood shelves with front racks, backracks, tubes, gears, tools and more parts. some cables sticking out over here, piles of boxes with screws over there.

Turun Pyöräpaja (Turku Bike Workshop) was one of the biggest bike kitches most of us had seen so far. And so well organised!

some of the people there had hosted the biketour already almost 10 years ago and someone had cycled with ecotopia more than 20 years ago. they might join us again in tallinn!

it was so nice to hear some stories from “the olden days” and to learn more about the bikeworkshop’s history too.

one of them said to me “ah, i see it is still like this, 10 years later”

“what?”, i asked.

“you still ride…. shitty bikes”

we started putting down our mats for a massive sleepover. One big-ish room, one toilet and one water hose (for outside showering) for 15 people. We slept next to each other in one massive row – some people looking for a semblance of privacy by putting their mats in a corner between bike stands and workbenches.

we managed quite well, although it was difficult to sleep with so many people in one room. We had to agree on a “lights-out-time” and a “allowed-to-rustle-and-bustle-again-in-the-morning-time”.

during our stay in turku we repaired and pimped our bikes and the trailers. i wrote “honk if you are gay ” on the back of my bike and since then two things have happened: 1. much less people honk at me and 2. when they do i’m really happy about it. can recommend!

we also had a long circle and an emotional round talking about our experiences and feelings so far, dumpster dived, cooked, hung out, welcomed new members and tried to get all the organising and logistics done that were still open.

on the evening of our first full day in turku we watched a movie about some wild bicycle-outcast-groups from the 90s (?) in new york city. we’re not sure if any of us would really recommend it but it was nice to have a movie night together.

on the 8th of july we went to the bookcafé in turku, which had suuuuuper tasty vegan cakes and so many interesting books and zines. but we were there for another purpose – the writing to prisoners event!

almost all of us wrote a letter or postcard or made a drawing to one of the people on ABCs list of “political” prisoners (we also discussed afterwards what makes someone a “political” prisoner. in many ways all encaged persons are “political” from an abolitionists perspective).

the people from ABC Turku were super sweet and helped those of us who had never written  a letter to a prisoner before. we had an exchange round where we talked about our experiences with prisoners support, prison abolition in general, difficulties we face when talking about this topic and possible alternatives around conflict resolution, transformative justice, etc.

the event was over way to soon and so was our stay in turku. some last minute circling and trailer fixing, some last adjustments to our bikes and we were ready to leave again on tuesday morning.

by the way, our package with a big pot, the stoves and a tarp arrived! next task: find fuel and get these stoves to work.