July 22, 2024 editorial of the New Anticapitalist Party-Revolutionaries (NPA-R) in France, translated from French
[French President] Macron is counting on the Olympic and Paralympic Games to make people forget his two successive electoral setbacks, and the continuation of his government in office. But the celebrations aren’t for everyone.
A flame to hide poverty
From July 16 to 18, almost 500 people were evicted from [unhoused] camps in Paris and Seine-Saint-Denis, along the routes of the Olympic flame, the opening ceremony and the marathons. According to the “Le Revers de la Médaille” (The Other Side of the Coin) collective, which brings together a hundred or so associations such as Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World), all the camps with at least 100 people have been evacuated over the past year, as have a large number of hotels providing emergency accommodation – a total of 12,500 people. A veritable social cleansing, often without rehousing or with offers elsewhere in France, even though many have jobs in the Paris region.
The unaccompanied minors and families who had been occupying the Maison des Métallos (historical union headquarters and museum} since March fought hard to obtain the opening of gymnasiums and a former high school for them and the families who found themselves on the streets. But these solutions from Paris City Hall remain precarious.
It’s true that the Olympic Village will be converted into housing after the Games, but at prices unaffordable for a working-class community. “They spent 1.4 billion to clean up the Seine. We asked for 10 million euros ($10.9 million) for the [those with insecure housing], and we didn’t get it,” explains the coordinator of Médecins du Monde to the newspaper Le Monde (The World).
The authorities clearly have their priorities!
No podium for workers
As for the workers who have made the organization of the Games possible, even at the cost of a worker’s life on a construction site in June 2023 for lack of sufficient safety measures, they are in no way rewarded: a ban on vacations in transport, logistics, catering or hospitality, indecent housing and no bonuses for those who have to travel to Paris for the event… Nor is there anything for undocumented workers, essential to the Games’ construction sites and catering.
Even the 45,000 volunteers mobilized eight hours a day, without always having a schedule, will not, for the most part, have the possibility of attending events free of charge!
They are not the ones who will see the 10 billion budget for the Olympics and its financial spin-offs, but the big construction, hotel and catering companies, or the equipment manufacturers and multinationals sponsoring the event.
No social truce!
Of course, the Olympic Games are a major event for sports fans. But appreciating the exploits of athletes from all over the world does not prevent us from criticizing the organization and spirit of these Games.
Ever since they were recreated by Pierre de Coubertin at the end of the 19th Century, a racist and misogynistic aristocrat who reserved sport for men and the wealthiest, the Olympics have promoted a spirit of competition and nationalism perfectly representative of the values of the bourgeoisie.
So, for the duration of the events, we should forget the divisions in society, unite behind the same national flag, whatever our social class, and above all not “politicize” sport?
Yet exploiters, billionaires and the politicians who serve them never observe the slightest truce in the wars they wage against the oppressed and exploited, here or elsewhere in the world.
It’s with all those who share the same conditions of life, work and exploitation, whatever their nationality, that we want to resonate!
