Rio 2016 – Pyeongchang 2018 – Tokyo 2020 – Paris 2024 – Los Angeles 2028
Any city can reject the Olympics and tell the IOC that it doesn’t want the displacement, the financial devastation, the increased policing, and the corruption that comes with hosting the Games. But what does it look like for a coalition of allies from across the globe to get together and tell the IOC together, in one voice, that we will not abide the Olympics anywhere?
NOlympics LA wants to answer that question. And that’s why we’re traveling to Tokyo this month.
Our comrades in Tokyo (HanGorin No Kai – 反五輪の会) have been on the frontlines of this battle. From July 20 to 27, a year before the 2020 Games are scheduled to begin, they will stage a series of protests, occupations, and academic symposia centered on the effects of the Olympics on residents of Tokyo. Anti-Olympics organizers from host and bid cities — past, current, and future — around the globe will participate, including representatives from Rio de Janeiro, Pyeongchang, Tokyo, Paris, Los Angeles, and prospective bid cities Seoul and Jakarta.
The Olympics are a global project spearheaded and funded by transnational actors that hop from city to city and country to country without consequences or accountability. To fight the Olympics in LA, we need to be armed with the knowledge and allies to fight the Olympics globally. We have a lot to learn from cities who have hosted or will host the games before us, and have been invited by organizers in Tokyo to share our experiences and strategies so far. In fact, this coming together of anti-Olympics organizers from so many host cities and bidding cities in recognition of that need for a transnationally linked and informed struggle will be a historic first. This is an unprecedented coalition coming together not just to push the Olympics out of an individual city or country, but to say that the Olympics in their current form should not exist anywhere.
Use #NOlympicsAnywhere to follow our updates from Tokyo and to show your solidarity over the course of the week. July 24, when we’ll take to the streets for the “hottest Shinjuku street protest” in Tokyo, is also our transnational day of action, so we want comrades around the world to join us in saying HELL NO to the Olympics, once and for all.
Itinerary:
Saturday, 7/20
9am: New National Stadium and Tokyo Bay Bus Tour
Sunday, 7/21
1:30pm: “Celebration Capitalism and the Olympic Games”: academic roundtable with Jules Boykoff, Atsuhisa Yamamoto, Misako Ichimura, and Satoshi Ukai (location: Waseda University Building 16, Room 106)
Monday, 7/22
8am: Fukushima Bus Tour
7pm: Night Picnic: meet-and-greet with organizers from Rio de Janeiro, Pyeongchang, Tokyo, Paris, and Los Angeles (location: park)
Tuesday, 7/23
TBA: Press Conference (location: TBA)
6pm: Media Workshop and Training: presentations by and discussion among participating cities’ representatives (location: Kagayaki Plaza)
Wednesday, 7/24
6pm: The Hottest Shinjuku Street Protest (location: in front of Shinjuku ALTA)
Thursday, 7/25
6pm: Teach-in for Tokyo Olympics Researchers and Journalists (location: Sophia University)
Friday, 7/26
1pm: ‘Homes Not Games’ Part 1: seminar on the Olympics and environmental destruction featuring Anti Pyeongchang Olympics Alliance (location: Sendagaya Kumin Kaikan)
5pm: ‘Homes Not Games’ Part 2: seminar on housing rights and the Olympics featuring Hangorin no Kai, NOlympics LA, Tsuyoshi Inaba, Takeshi Haraguchi, and more (location: Sendagaya Kumin Kaikan)
Saturday, 7/27
1pm: ‘Make Olympics History’: anti-Olympic solidarity event (location: Sophia University, Institute of Global Concern)