Revolution #193, February 21, 2010
Olympics Resistance in Vancouver
Significant protests are planned in opposition to the Winter Olympics in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The protests are being coordinated by the Olympic Resistance Network (ORN), made up of 50 activist and social service organizations. ORN's website says, "We call on all anti-capitalist, indigenous, housing rights, labour, migrant justice, environmental, anti-war, community-loving, anti-poverty, civil libertarian, and anti-colonial activists to come together to confront this two week circus and the oppression it represents."
Organizers marched on the opening ceremonies of the Winter Games on Friday, February 12 to "Take Back Our City." Then on February 13, there was a "Heart Attack: Street March to Clog the Arteries of Capitalism." A tent city for the homeless and other actions are also planned.
The Olympics protests are exposing as a lie Canada's claims of "color blindness" and "lack of colonial history." One poster from ORN says, "The Olympics are supposed to be about 'peace and cooperation.' Canada is occupying, at war with, and allowing torture in Afghanistan." The central organizing slogan of the protests is "No Olympics on Stolen Native Land." Organizers and native groups point out that according to Canadian law, treaties were required before any trade of indigenous peoples' land or settlement on that land could occur. In British Columbia, virtually no treaties were ever signed, so this land still legally belongs to the native peoples. There are struggles across British Columbia by indigenous groups opposing building and expansion of ski resorts. And in the Vancouver area, there have been protests against a new four-lane highway linking Vancouver to the ski areas of Whistler that wiped out trees and hillsides, logging of mountain areas, and other infrastructure development for the games.
Protesters are also targeting the homelessness and recent attacks on the homeless by authorities. British Columbia has the highest poverty rates in Canada. Estimates are 3,000 homeless sleep on Vancouver's streets. 32 percent are indigenous people. Since Vancouver's bid for the Olympics in 2003, the homeless population has tripled. Leading up to the games, authorities have been trying to sweep homeless people off the streets, especially in the downtown area near where the opening ceremonies were held. Police have given out 2,000 tickets to homeless people for petty infractions and put up 1,000 surveillance cameras.
Canada sees the Olympics as an opportunity to promote "national pride." The New York Times reported that the Canadian government has put $118 million toward the "Top Secret Project" run by an organization called "Own the Podium" to enhance the performance of Canadian athletes and fund scientists studying ways for the Canadian team to gain technological advantages. For the first time, Canadian athletes are going to be paid for every medal they win—a gold brings you $20,000.
Canada is also using the Olympics to build its economic investments and power. Olympics infrastructure development for the building of highways, port development, etc. is linked to expansion of mining, logging, oil and gas extraction, and tourism, as well as international trade. Billions have been spent for this, and there is broad opposition to money being spent for capitalist and corporate profiteering instead of for things ordinary people need. Major corporate sponsors of the Vancouver Organizing Committee (VANOC) include large investors in the environmentally destructive extraction of dirty oil in Alberta's tar sand, like Royal Bank of Canada, and other major capitalist conglomerates like Petro-Canada, GE, Dow Chemical and Coca Cola.
While the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) has claimed they will be "measured" in response to protests, Canada and BC have actually put major efforts into confining and suppressing protest, exposing the reality of the dictatorship at the heart of "Western democracy." Canada has spent $1 billion for security, including mobilizing 16,000 police under the direction of the "Vancouver Integrated Security Unit." This unit has "visited" dozens of anti-Olympics activists in an effort to intimidate them. The BC Civil Liberties Association (BCCLA) has spoken out to expose police plans to corral protesters into protest pens which police call "free speech zones." In the days before the games, downtown Vancouver resembled a militarized zone with police everywhere, chain link fences blocking off parts of the city, and helicopters and jets buzzing overhead.
Government authorities have tried to stifle any voices that might be critical of the Olympics. It took a legal challenge from the BCCLA to make Vancouver authorities change by-laws they had adopted that would have prevented anti-Olympics signs from being shown or carried. Canadian border authorities have in recent days prevented two U.S. activists from entering Canada. Border police also stopped Amy Goodman of Democracy Now!, who was going into Canada on a book tour, questioning her about whether she intended to speak critically about the Olympics or VANOC and demanding to examine her computer and notes to find out her plans. Brad Cran, a noted poet in Vancouver, dropped out of participating in cultural events in connection with the games, in part because VANOC is trying to impose a "muzzle clause" that tells artists involved in the events to refrain from making "negative or derogatory remarks" about VANOC or the Olympics.
What's shaping up in Vancouver is a confrontation between powerful capitalist interests and those who hate the oppression in this world and don't benefit from it. These protests deserve broad support.
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