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2018 in Relief: What NOlympics LA Did vs. What LA 2028 Did

We wanted to take a step back to look at the work we did versus the LA 2028 bid and associated political actors around the bid.

In our efforts to educate, agitate, and organize around all the many ways in which this 2028 Olympic bid – like any of these lotteryism projects – is hostile to life and democracy in Los Angeles, we spoke with communities, from academic circles to organizing groups – anti-gentrification, anti-policing and surveillance groups.  We engaged with journalists, planners, students, teachers, architects, tenants, the unhoused, social justice groups. We tabled. We phone banked. We went door-to-door speaking to folks in our own neighborhoods across town. We conducted research. 

We’ve been actively involved in harm mitigation and trying to improve material conditions on the ground today for Angelenos feeling the crush of neoliberalism. In addition to advancing our own goals, we supported initiatives like DSA-LA’s Street Watch and the Yes on Prop 10 campaign. We attended actions of our coalition partners in LA – from LATU’s actions relating the Mariachi apartment building and the Burlington Unidos tenants to showing up for tenants at risk of displacement by The Fig and the residents of Skid Row demanding bike lanes and more infrastructure. We were involved and vocal in direct actions focused on our mayor and other centers of power around the LA 2028 bid and well beyond.

We also started taking more time to document our work and research. From a new website, to original videos, animations, memes, podcasts, our blog, and our ever-expanding resources section, we’ve created tools and artifacts we hope will both educate and empower.

Finally, we conducted our research and polling, something that local media failed to do throughout the bid process, and the results of our polling became national news.

So what did the LA 2028 Organizing committee do this past year?

Not much, it seems. At least, not much good or productive for the people who live LA who aren’t millionaires and billionaires. The LA 2028 organizing committee and city electeds participated in all of one public meeting in October 2018, fourteen months after signing the host city contract. ONE meeting. We were there, of course, as they congratulated themselves for addressing the “crisis” of youth swimming deaths.

However, in the past month, LA 2028 – Garcetti and Wasserman in particular – were called out by the 180 survivors of Larry Nassar and the multiple Olympic entities and actors responsible for the massive and ongoing cover-up.

Republican mega-donor and Goldman Sachs executive Gene Sykes stepped down from his role as LA 2028 CEO. Meanwhile, co-chairs Casey Wasserman and Eric Garcetti suffered many humiliations in the press – from Wasserman’s Papa John’s fiasco to the myriad ways in which Garcetti has embarrassed himself, like hanging out with Saudi Arabia Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman or bungling his role in the UTLA negotiations and his feckless endorsement of Prop 10 – as the Olympic brand disintegrates in all directions.

The 2028 Organizing Committee also hasn’t addressed any of our coalition’s concerns, which is an odd tactic, seeing as how dramatically unpopular the IOC and American Olympic bodies have become – both abroad and here at home – since we launched in 2017.

Also worth mentioning is that 2 of the 12 city council members who rubber stamped the 2028 host city contract are no longer in the picture. Mitch Englander is stepping down to pursue a private sector position working in the LA sports industrial complex, which of course is connected to his compliance with the Olympic bid. And Jose Huizar – noted champion of displacement and gentrification – had his offices and home raided by the FBI in Q4 and is likely going to pay the price for his indiscretions, bribes, and other misuse of the public trust. Bye!!!

On the other hand, we – a group powered entirely by volunteer efforts and representing a broad network of local, state, national, and transnational groups – were extremely busy changing the conversation in 2018 and strengthening our ties within our growing coalition.

And we think we did a pretty successful job of being anywhere and everywhere the Olympics were (and weren’t  — but should’ve been) being discussed across California. Here are a few selected actions, events, and community meetings we held or participated in the past year as we honored our goals of changing the conversation and engaging and educating Angelenos, essentially everything the LA bid committee was afraid of or unwilling to do.  

*****

January

  • We gave comment at city council on the World Cup to an empty and indifferent chamber at City Hall. Months later, North America would be awarded the World Cup, all but ensuring a few matches in LA (and a likely NSSE to go with it) in 2026.
  • We met with journalists and activists from Rio and strategized on the future of this growing transnational movement.
  • We connected with our allies in Calgary fighting the 2026 Winter bid.

February

  • We supported activists and published an analysis of their objection to the Olympics during the Pyeongchang games as they protested and advocated around a variety of issues plaguing the region before, during, and after Pyeonchang 2018 left its mark.  For each of the 17 days of the 2018 games, we published a new Olympic story of athletes and residents of host cities who have been harmed by the Olympic machine. 
  • We collaborated with our comrades at DSA Long Beach and gave comment at Long Beach City Council on all the ways the this Olympic bid (and their 8 x 28 Long Beach infrastructure plan) is a terrible deal for their city as well as the entire region.
  • We began our survey work.
  • We celebrated with the Mariachi building tenants in Boyle Heights who were able to iron out a deal with slumlord BJ Turner after a year of intense direct action and organizing.


March

  • We supported our comrades in Tokyo for an action in Fukushima they held to recognize the 7 year anniversary of the Fukushima Daichi disaster and how that plays into Tokyo 2020. 
  • We co-hosted an action and screening with our partners LA CAN in Skid Row called Skid Rio, which connected the struggles against militarization and displacement between LA and Rio.
  • We presented at the Long Beach Tenants Union, a new grassroots org fighting displacement in Long Beach.


April

  • We co-hosted a combined strategic meeting with DSA-LA’s housing and homelessness committee and LA CAN to talk about right to the city projects.
  • We spoke at UCLA about the displacement, militarization, and anti-democratic of the LA 2028 bid process.


May

  • We presented again at UCLA and Cal State Long Beach, again exploring all the ways in which LA 2028 obfuscated democracy.
  • We marched in solidarity with workers on May Day and explored labor harm the Olympics inflict.
  • We asked some direct questions during another one of Garcetti’s dreadful AMAs, which were (as usual) riddled with pre-written technocratic treatises that did nothing to move the needle. Also, Garcetti said some weird shit.  
  • We attended an AIA salon on “Designing an Inclusive Olympics”.


June


July

  • We helped drown out our occasional mayor during the Families Belong Together march as he continued to cape for ICE.
  • We gave Garcetti a rude awakening and protested his pro-criminalization comments as the shelter plan started to ramp up.
  • We showed up to support the tenants of the Fig multiple times in committee and council meetings, and watched as they were shamefully shut out by Curren Price.


August


September

  • We published our statement on the Olympic abuse epidemic in solidarity with the Olympic athletes.
  • We canvassed for Prop 10.
  • We held our first retreat.
  • We attended LATU’s labor day picnic.
  • We began casting for a new mayor.


October


November

  • Calgarians voted down the 2026 Olympic bid.
  • We gave comment at the one and only public meeting held by any city electeds on the Olympics in 2018 (in this case, City Council conveniently meeting in Van Nuys at Friday at 8:30am)
  • We released the final episode of our ten part podcast series, “Rings of Hell: the LA Olympics Podcast”.
  • We participated in the anti-Olympic torch handing off from Pyeongchang to Tokyo organizers via video.
  • We attended a 2028 meeting at the Long Beach Petroleum club where Long Beach Mayor Robert Garcia was addressing the “8 x 28” plan. Public comment/questions by our members wasn’t allowed.


December

  • Our NOlympics allies in Denver defeated the 2030 bid and vowed to continue working on a ballot measure to force more democracy and transparency if the IOC ever comes back to their city.
  • We went on a road trip to the Bay area to present with Sonoma State University and DSA East Bay.
  • We joined LA CAN and many other groups to protest and no-platform Garcetti at USC, who was scheduled to speak at a “Human Rights” event.
  • We responded to the LA Times Editorial board’s reactionary screed against our tactics.
  • We attended a Stop LAPD Spying teach-in and action at Central Division.
  • We memorialized Bomber.
  • We connected with allies in Queens who launched an opposition to the Amazon HQ2 bid and starting building bridges to connect these struggles against lotteryism.


If you believe in what we do, please reach out email us ([email protected]) to see how you can support our work, whether you live in LA or not.

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