The specifics may differ in scope and scale, but the broad forces that the Olympics unleash wherever they take root are the same: the expansion of police and military surveillance, rampant corruption, crippling financial waste, environmental degradation, mass displacement, and the trampling of individual rights.
These outcomes are not the symptoms of an otherwise benign project. They are built into the Olympic movement by design and serve the needs and goals of Olympic organizers, who represent some of the most elite and powerful interests in the world. The games are extremely political events that make athletes compete under the banner of nationalism, while inflaming rivalries and international conflict. Despite the claim that the Olympics transcend the violence of wars and conflicts, the Olympics provide an excuse to exploit local residents; oppress the already marginalized; and bring benefit to the few selected wealthy, all of which are justified by the celebration of the victorious athletes who take the stage. This is true regardless of where the games are situated, and it is untenable.
The stakes of disregarding urgent social and environmental crisis have never been higher. Access to shelter across the globe has not been so fragile in generations. The power technology grants to police and military forces has made our ever expanding surveillance apparatus all the more insidious. We sit on the precipice of ecological disaster. It is in this moment of global fragility that we can least afford the corrupt largesse of the Olympics Games, which exacerbates each and every one of the critical issues and crises that our cities face today.
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) members know their project is in crisis. In recent years, wherever residents have been given an opportunity to express their opinion about bidding, the answer has almost always been « NO ». And today, we want to emphasize that the IOC’s meager promises for reforming the candidature procedure and bidding costs are not enough. Until we remove the incentives for exploitation and profit that currently ensnare global sports, no reform will be enough. Until we remove the incentives that send politicians racing to serve the whims of the global elite instead of the needs of their constituents, no reform will be enough.
Instead of the Olympics, we want permanent and truly affordable housing for all our cities’ residents, in healthy and sustainable environments, with access to jobs, education, culture, and community ties. Instead of the Olympics, we want a radical rethinking of existing surveillance and policing methods so that our poor, minority, and immigrant communities are no longer criminalized for existing and surviving. Instead of the Olympics, we want the power to decide what happens in our city in accordance with our real needs, not the speculative interests of the global financial elite.
Today, this vision for our cities is far from a reality. The crises of displacement, poverty, authoritarianism, fascism, environmental collapse and more are felt globally. In each of our cities and communities, we experience their effects on a daily basis. We recognize that the same forces, institutions, and individuals responsible for bringing the Olympics to our cities are responsible for driving each one of these crises. The politicians, corporate oligarchs, and real estate speculators who make up the global power network behind the Olympics will never offer meaningful reform because they directly profit from these crises.
So today we stand together; we do not merely oppose the Olympics in the cities from which we hail. We do not want the Olympics to find another home to spare our hometowns of Tokyo, Paris, and Los Angeles. We do not merely stand with our brethren from Rio and Pyeongchang, and with communities across the globe that have been affected by the games or have successfully resisted them in the past. We go further: we demand an end to the International Olympic Committee. Until the corrupt forces that drive these parasitic events relinquish control, we oppose the Olympic Games in any and all locations.
Anti Pyeongchang Olympics Alliance
Hangorin No Kai
No 2020 Olympics Disaster Okotowari
NOlympics LA
Non aux JO 2024 à Paris