Coming alternative Olympic events for your diary

2 June CHANGE OF PLANS 10.30am Wood Street – 12pm St John’s Church
SAVE LEYTON MARSH PROTEST .
Protest against the corruption, incompetence, and loss of this precious open space. http://saveleytonmarsh.wordpress.com/

7 June 10-3pm
NO TO G4S: Stop G4S!
Protest at G4S Annual General Meeting -London Stock Exchange, Paternoster Square EC4M 7LS. Bring banners, drums, pans, and anything else you can make noise with! G4campaign.blogspot.org

9 June 2-5pm
ANTI-MISSILE PROTEST WALK from Oxleas Wood to Whitfield Mount on Blackheath www.stoptheolympicmissiles.org

10 June 2pm
WANSTEAD FLATS PICNIC
Save Wanstead Flats invites everyone to a community picnic on the planned site of the operations base. http://savewansteadflats.org.uk/

30 June 12 noon
STOP THE MISSILES DEMO
www.stoptheolympicmissiles.org

7 July 12-5pm
FATTYLIMPICS
Accessible to people with all kinds of bodies and abilities
fattylimpics.blogspot.co.uk

8 July 3.30pm
EAST END FILM FESTIVAL – Films on the Olympics
Including Olympicpisstake by Jonathan Brind and Gold Dust by Mike Wells at Stratford PictureHouse http://www.eastendfilmfestival.com/programme/2113/olympics

28 July 12 noon
Mass Mobilisation – NO LIMOS NO LOGOS
Counter Olympics Network demonstration, location to be announced

Filed under: events

Official protesters 2012

See the website of the official protesters for 2012 with:

10 Reasons why the olympics is something worth protesting against

and

Apply for official protest tickets!

Filed under: campaigns, the problem with the Olympics

‘Do we want missiles in our communities?’

Public Forum on the Missiles

With Councillor Rania Khan, Journalist and Bow Quarter Resident Brian Whelan, Alex Kenny from Tower Hamlets NUT and Chris Nineham from Stop the War.

Rushanara Ali MP, Mayor Lutfur Rahman and the MOD have all been invited.

7pm, Thursday, May 31st
Bow Road Methodist Church
1 Merchant Street
London E3 4LY (corner of Bow Road)

See Stop the Olympics Missiles

Filed under: events, militarisation

The Olympic branding game

From Red Pepper April 2012

The corporate commercial bonanza provided by sponsorship opportunities for London 2012

The London 2012 Olympics are upon us. Already our media and public spaces are filling up with images of Olympian and Paralympian athletes striving to attain sporting greatness. The London organising committee (LOCOG) has publicly embraced the Olympic principles of social responsibility and fair play, promising us an ethical Games whose ‘lasting legacy’ will be lived out for years to come.

In reality, any public benefit from the Olympics will come in a distant second to private profit. Today’s Games have degenerated into a multi-billion dollar scramble by multinational corporations to associate their brands with the Olympic spirit, and companies are prepared to pay handsomely for the privilege. No other sporting event offers such a positive image of capitalist enterprise in the service of a higher cause.

Exclusive monopoly rights are an essential part of the sponsorship deals signed with Olympic partners. Visa will be the only credit card accepted at any Olympic venue, just as it was for those trying to buy tickets for the Games last year. McDonald’s will be the only branded food that can be sold at the events and Coca-Cola the only drinks provider. Logos and adverts for competing brands will be covered up to avoid ‘contamination’ during the Games.

This privatisation of the spoils goes hand in hand with the exclusion of local communities. Businesses face prosecution if they use Olympics branding in their own commercial activities, and residents of the Lower Lea Valley will enjoy few real benefits from the legacy of the Games.

Read the full article here and see details of organisations campaigning on these issues

Filed under: campaigns, corporate gain

London 2012 Olympic’s shameful corporate sponsors

From Occupy News Network, April 2012

Sponsors of the 2012 London Olympics profit from peoples’ deaths and destroying the planet, whilst creating a vastly unequal economic system; this smears the Olympic ethos of people coming together to celebrate sporting excellence. Desecrating the games integrity will be advertisements from companies that profit directly from and cause peoples’ death, not least BP, Dow and Rio Tinto. Nevertheless, David Cameron has come out in support of DOW’s sponsorship.i More broadly, it has been argued that elites within the system are attempting to suppress peoples’ rights to express their discontent against injustices in Britain and abroad.

The athletes, that have trained so hard, will also be in front of advertisements and commercials for further corporate powers that are responsible for many varied injustices. An overview, although not exclusive, discussion will follow within this article after a consideration of the aforementioned three corporations. It seems that the Olympics are a golden opportunity for corporations that are guilty of violations to cleanse their image at a far cheaper cost than addressing their impacts; furthermore, it supports the idea that if corporate actions were analysed by a clinical pychiatrist, they would be deemed sociopathic.ii

Allegations against BP include that they fund human rights abuses and death squads in Columbia; one community leader described their impact as creating poverty, militarization and environmental disaster.iii The New Internationalist last year reported that since oil exploitation began 20 years ago in Casanare, over 3 percent of the population has been killed or displaced.iv Similarly, last year a BP led consortium was found guilty by the British Government of breaching human concerning the security on a pipeline that stretches over Azerbaijan, Georgia and Turkey.v

Read the full article here

Filed under: corporate gain

Race to the bottom

Race to the bottom exposes the exploitation of Bangladeshi workers producing goods for Olympic sportswear companies; Adidas, Nike and Puma.

Adidas, Nike and Puma have all invested heavily in their associations with the London 2012 Olympic Games, either through official partnerships with London 2012 or sponsoring national teams and high profile athletes. As well as gaining access to worldwide audiences to promote their products they also aim to associate themselves with the Olympic values of fair play and respect.

Our research finds that for the workers making goods for Adidas, Nike and Puma in Bangladesh, there is little sign of fair play or respect. Five of the six factories covered by our research did not even pay their workers the Bangladeshi minimum wage, let alone a living wage that allow them to meet their basic needs.

On average workers were paid just 16p an hour, with two thirds of the workers work over 60 hours a week, in clear breach of Bangladeshi law.

See more here

Filed under: campaigns, labour issues