The Games Have Already Begun: Resistance to the 2010 Olympics

From Earth First Journal

Resistance to the 2010 Olympic games in British Columbia, Canada, began with last year’s string of direct actions and protests (see EF!J July-August 2007). As it becomes clearer that the Olympics are already causing evictions, homelessness, industrial development and environmental destruction, the resistance continues to grow. In the first few months of 2008, a wide variety of militant actions and public demonstrations have already taken place. As most groups engaged in the resistance have vowed, things are sure to escalate in the coming months. Here is a quick roundup of what’s been happening recently.

On February 11, the eve of the two-year countdown mark for the Olympics, about 150 mostly native protesters (including the Wolverine, the Secwepemc Nation and veterans of the 1995 Gustafsen Lake standoff) rallied in downtown Vancouver. Led by elders from the Downtown Eastside Women’s Center, a march went from the Countdown Clock to the Hyatt hotel, where British Columbia Premier Gordon Campbell was hosting a luncheon for Olympic sponsors, government officials and members of the Vancouver Organizing Committee for the Olympics. The protest was held to draw attention to native lands already being destroyed by Olympic construction and to protest attempts by the Olympics organizers to downplay native resistance to the games.

About a week later, a large anti-poverty rally of 50 protesters—with members of the Anti-Poverty Committee (APC), the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users and Students Against War (Victoria), as well as indigenous and poor people—was held at Victory Square in downtown Vancouver, on February 17. The rally was held on the eve of the provincial government’s release of its new budget, and addressed the issues of poverty, stolen indigenous land, lack of affordable housing, homelessness and evictions related to the coming Olympics.

Activists denounced the British Columbia government’s use of its budget surplus on massive Olympic spending and tax cuts for the wealthy. As the APC’s Jill Chettiar said to the crowd, “People on the Downtown Eastside are paying for the surplus with their lives, and what are they getting? Tax cuts for the rich. They’re spending money on tax cuts for people who already have homes, who already have cars.”

From the rally, about 40 protesters marched across the city to the Countdown Clock, yelling slogans such as, “No Homes, No Peace,” and, “Homes, Not Olympics.” There, they met up with about 30 more protesters. With no cops guarding the clock, the protesters hurled yellow paintballs at its face, making its continuous countdown to the coming 2010 Olympics difficult to read. Protesters chanted, “Homes Not Games,” “Stop the War on the Poor, Make the Rich Pay,” and, “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land.” No one was arrested.

“This isn’t the end of resistance,” said Thomas Malenfant, of the Downtown Eastside Residents Association, while pasting a poster onto the clock. “This is only the beginning.”

The Countdown Clock has previously been the site of anti-Olympics demonstrations, beginning in February 2007, when the clock’s unveiling ceremony turned into a melee of protesters throwing eggs and paintballs on live network television.

The next day in Vancouver, a Four Host First Nations (FHFN) and Assembly of First Nations (AFN) photo-op was held to announce “First Nations participation and volunteer opportunities with the 2010 Olympics.” It was interrupted when women from Native 2010 Resistance dumped bags of apples onto the stage, yelling, “No Olympics on Stolen Native Land!” and admonishing those present, saying, “You should all be ashamed of yourselves for contributing to the rape and destruction of Mother Earth!” The apples were meant to symbolize the way the FHFN and AFN, in their bargaining with the Olympics organizers, are similarly red on the outside and white inside.

On February 22, Premier Campbell’s office was attacked by four members of the APC wearing paint suits and paint masks. The front door and window were left splattered in paint of three of the five colors from the Olympic rings and were covered in posters demanding that the budget surplus be directed toward tuition, community centers, rent reparations and social housing. The APC has vowed to up the ante on its campaign against the 2010 Olympics organizers and that more actions are soon to come.

A few days later, three welcome signs at the southern entrance to Vancouver were hit with paintballs. The attack was reported on the No 2010 website, which expressed the sentiment, “We hope that the International Olympic Committee (IOC) president feels unwelcome and the resistance to the Olympics continues to spread.”

On February 27, a small demonstration of about 20 people was held to protest the visit of the president of the IOC, Dr. Jacques Rogge. Before the protest, a poster had been hung up around town. It’s headline read, “Dead IOC Prez,” and it continued with, “It is elementary to the Art of War: Cut off the head and the body will die!” This was considered so threatening that the city allotted 40 riot cops to patrol the demonstration.

In late February, warriors from the Native Youth Network completed a No 2010 East Coast speaking tour with more than 20 stops. The tour brought them through Mohawk, Annishinabe, Algonquin, Seneca, Cayuga, Penobscott and Wampanoag territories, 11 major cities and many other native communities. On the tour, they spread the story of 2010 resistance, listened to the stories of others’ resistance, and worked to unite native struggles for land, freedom, life and survival.

Throughout all this, more underground tactics have also been employed. On February 12, bricks were thrown through the windows of the Bank Street and First Avenue Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) branch location in Ottawa. The RBC has been named as the target of a campaign by Ottawa anarchists since late 2007, when the windows of one of its branch locations was smashed by “some exceptionally large pieces of pavement.”

As the 2007 communiqué stated, “RBC is targeted for sponsoring and profiting off of the gentrification, environmental destruction and colonialism that characterize—indeed, are—the entirety of the 2010 Winter Games.” The communiqué also included a call to participate in anarchist games against the RBC. Participants are reminded, “Don’t forget, a gold medal will be given for the most damage at a single location.”

Indeed, the games seem to have begun, as March 1 saw the windows of the Elgin Street RBC branch smashed in, and by March 5, the Bank Street and First Avenue RBC branch was targeted again, this time with large blocks of ice mixed with street salts.

The resistance doesn’t end there! Actions will be ongoing, culminating in an anti-colonial and anti-capitalist convergence in February 2010 at the Olympics.

For more information, visit www.no2010.com.

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No to 2010!
2008
05/16
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