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.
cabot_boat.jpg
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:
www.no2010.com
www.olympicresistance.net
2010.mediacoop.ca
and watch: Eight Reasons to Oppose the 2010 Winter Olympics:
http://vimeo.com/4872922
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.
cabot_boat.jpg
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:
www.no2010.com
www.olympicresistance.net
2010.mediacoop.ca
and watch: Eight Reasons to Oppose the 2010 Winter Olympics:
http://vimeo.com/4872922
About 30 anarchists with helmets and hoods went into the supermarketnear the university of Saloniki and destroyed the security system! They took the foodstuff from the shelves and also took the moneyfrom the cash desk and burnt it outside the supermarket!nobody arrested!!
No comments:
Post a Comment