On February 1, NOlympics gathered together with our coalition members for a day-long retreat to exchange ideas and dream up plans to fight the Olympics and the injustices it inflicts on our communities.
The retreat took place at a critical moment, as Los Angeles is gearing up to host the World Cup, and elected officials push for our city to become a permanent host of mega events, while offering no protection from the horrors of Trump-fueled capitalism, and all its policing, surveillance, gentrification, and displacement. Our retreat offered space to realign, reimagine, and recommit to our resistance efforts.
We had great attendance, with nearly sixty participants representing 25 members from our growing coalition of organizations, aligned on our common platform. These organizations’ work intersects with a range of issues that NOlympics cares about: housing justice and tenants’ rights, policing and surveillance, racial justice and transnational alliances, anti-imperialism, anti-capitalism, and the rights of unhoused residents, sex workers, and poor and working class Angelenos, plus much more. Being together helped us solidify connections amongst coalition members based on geography and organizing focus.
And we had great conversations. Sessions focused on drawing inspiration from past efforts to counter the harms of mega events in other cities; how to organize our efforts today and in the build up to the Games; strategies to confront the fast-approaching World Cup; and concrete plans for the coming years of Olympics resistance.
All this was supported by meeting space generously provided by our long-time coalition member org, SAJE, and nourishing food prepared by People’s Cafe LA.
Our hope is that, throughout the day, participants gained a deeper knowledge about how mega-events like the Olympics are connected to many other struggles, and left with a renewed determination to stop LA from becoming the host of The Forever Games.
We deeply appreciate our participants for their attendance and engagement in the retreat, and are energized to keep working together in the years ahead.
