Solidarity Action in Bristol, UK, Feb 23, 2010
Bristol solidarity with anti-Olympic athletes
web link includes photo:
http://bristol.indymedia.org/article/691939
Bristol demo in solidarity with anti-olympic protests in Vancouver, Coast
Salish Territories No Olympics on Stolen Native Land!
Wednesday evening a small, but rowdy group of local anti-Olympic
athletes gathered in Bristol to show their solidarity with those
resisting the Olympics in Vancouver, where there has just been several
days of action against the five ringed corporate circus on stolen
native land.
In Bristol, anti-Olympic athletes did a tour of the city center, making
the link between the invasion, colonisation and subsequent genocide of
indigenous peoples in “Canada”. They targeted the corporate propaganda
screen in Millennium Square, John Cabot and the Matthew.
The Matthew is a replica of the ship that John Cabot sailed from Bristol
to what is now called Newfoundland. This helped start the colonisation of
the Americas, which has lead to over 500 years of exploitation and
genocide in "Canada". It is a sad reminder of the legacy contained in this
city's history.
The London 2012 Games are just around the corner and there is not better
time to start your training as an anti-Olympic athlete!
For a bit of background...
The 2010 Winter Olympics are currently taking place in Vancouver &
Whistler, "Canada", on unceded Indigenous land. Over the past seven years,
there has been a groundswell of opposition to the Games. This began in
2002 when members of the St'at'imc and Secwepemc Indigenous Nations filed
a submission with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to oppose the
bid. In this spirit organising against the Olympics has largely been done
under the banner, "No Olympics on Stolen Native Land".
The Olympics are not about the human spirit & have little to do with
athletic excellence; they are a multi-billion dollar industry backed by
powerful elites, real estate, construction, hotel, tourism and television
corporations, working hand-in-hand with their partners-in-crime:
government officials & members of the International Olympic Committee
(IOC).
The destructive development, gentrification and repression that always
surrounds the Olympics reminds us that it merely another facet of
capitalism despite the latest green wash and community-friendly packaging,
another excuse to roll out infrastructure (such as new roads), widen the
surveillance state (masses of CCTV and police intelligence-gathering
operations) and crack-down on the unsightly poor (anti-vagrancy
legislation, low-cost housing being evicted) - theoretically for the
duration of a couple of weeks intensive event, but conveniently leaving
the branded nightmare in place to stay. It is also the enemy of real
community sports spirit - reducing most of us to at best spectators, while
we see in London for example actual community sports grounds amongst the
swathes razed to make way the 2012 Games.
This latest convergence against the Games has been organised in and
anti-capitalist and anti-colonial spirit. It has united 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.
.
For more information check out:
2010.mediacoop.ca
and watch: Eight Reasons to Oppose the 2010 Winter Olympics:
http://vimeo.com/4872922