On Tuesday, the IOC and Tokyo 2020 announced the postponement of the 2020 Olympics to 2021 due to Covid-19. Holding the Olympics this summer would have been dangerous to public health on a global scale, as has been obvious to everyone except the IOC for some time now. But postponing the Olympics is dangerous too — in some ways, even more dangerous. Along with our allies in Japan, we denounce this postponement and continue our call for the cancellation of the Tokyo Games.
Postponement means the continued forced displacement of folks experiencing houselessness in Tokyo. Aggressive police sweeps targeting houseless settlements have spiked ahead of the Games, as the city seeks to privatize and militarize public parks and ‘clean’ its streets.
Postponement means the continued harassment of political activists. Last month our comrade was harassed and searched by police officers, who arrived in force to invade their home, confiscate their belongings, and even take a hair sample for DNA. A true violation.
Postponement means more time for the government and private security industry to continue to collaborate on unprecedented surveillance and policing techniques to be debuted at the Olympics, including the use of facial recognition technologies that claim to identify suspicious persons who show signs of ‘jitters.’
Postponement means a protraction of trauma for residents of and evacuees from Fukushima. Since 2011 the government has prioritized the appearance of recovery over the actual rebuilding of people’s homes, health, and livelihoods. The Olympics have provided an incentive for the government to lift evacuation orders and cut housing subsidies to evacuees by the Games’ kickoff, regardless of the realities of ongoing radiation risks and housing insecurity. What’s more, the actual reconstruction efforts have been hampered by the Olympics. When construction equipment, labor, and money were desperately needed in Fukushima, they were diverted to Tokyo for the construction of stadiums and the Olympic Village. The postponement of the Olympics will extend this holistic distortion of priorities, and expand it to the recovery from the economic and public health crisis around COVID-19.
Instead, we need to recognize that the Tokyo Olympics were a health crisis, a housing crisis, and a human rights crisis years before COVID-19 came on the scene. From city to city, the Olympics are designed to steamroll over the needs and rights of the vulnerable in order to stuff the pockets of elites. We don’t want their postponement; we need their abolition.
The Tokyo Olympics have already caused so much harm, and they will continue to cause more if the Games are postponed to 2021. Cancellation is the only just option.
NOlympics Anywhere