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London 2012 - The enemy of democracy

category ireland / britain | repression / prisoners | other libertarian press author Monday December 19, 2011 07:22author by nosekaï Report this post to the editors

2012 is rapidly approaching and with it comes the Olympic Games in Britain. Many people might be wondering what issue anarchists could possibly have with the idea of teams of young people who have trained for years and poured their hearts and souls into the chance to show off the athletic achievements of humanity and their local communities. If we fail to explain our reasons behind our opposition then we risk being misrepresented as an enemy to sports, or to the achievements of young people, or even as just the mythical rent-a-mob which just hates everything.


London 2012 - The enemy of democracy


2012 is rapidly approaching and with it comes the Olympic Games in Britain. Many people might be wondering what issue anarchists could possibly have with the idea of teams of young people who have trained for years and poured their hearts and souls into the chance to show off the athletic achievements of humanity and their local communities. If we fail to explain our reasons behind our opposition then we risk being misrepresented as an enemy to sports, or to the achievements of young people, or even as just the mythical rent-a-mob which just hates everything.

Now, there are plenty of perfectly legitimate reasons to oppose the Olympic Games on face value, such as:
  • Reinforcing nationalism and division
  • Dodgy sponsors using the games to make profits
  • Deadly working conditions on the sites
  • Parents hijacking their kids' lives to live out their own aspirations.
  • The diversion from the class war
  • Forced eviction and relocation
  • The expense of building the sites and its generally poor value for money for us at the bottom.
  • Harassment of the homeless
I'm sure there's more that I've missed, but you would be forgiven for thinking that all these things are relatively minor issues compared to, for example, the cuts, the bailouts, the greed of corporations and banks, total policing, corruption in parliament and aggressive foreign policy. I agree! And these big issues are NOT going to be resolved by this summer, and, here lies the problem...

The Olympic Games are not just going to be shown to audiences in Britain. In fact, a good proportion of the developed world will have their eyes focussed on our little Atlantic island and that creates a problem for our rulers. We're still angry about how we're being treated. We yearn for democracy and equality and we're not getting it. Our response is easily predictable. We're going to want to keep fighting against all these injustices and use whatever actions we think will win us victories against the dictators who micromanage our lives for their own benefit.

This is not supposed to be a problem. We have all been sold this fantasy the only legitimate forms of opposition to our rulers is either through elections, protests, or lawful industrial action. While people are waking up to the idea that elections are a sham and lawful industrial action can only take you so far, more decide to make their voices heard through protest. People turning up by the millions to say "NO!" to all this bollocks being done in our names.

So, while company directors, corrupt politicians and bankers are comfortably seated together to supervise and reap profits from the labour of others (how capitalist!) we'll still be on the streets showing that we're strong, we're angry and that these bastards are losing their control over us. Now, there is something that our rulers absolutely do not want broadcasting around the world. There'll be no shortage of cameras about, as pretty much every news agency in the world will be operating here in Britain this summer.

It's not hard to see why the rich are so worried. Protests, direct action, strikes and the like are set to undo every bit of material gain they're hoping to raid from the Olympic Games. How can the rich push the sponsors if the TV cameras are showing pictures of people angry at those exact same sorts of mega-corporations? How can the rich get their billionaire buddies to travel to Britain to spend their cash in London's fancy hotels and restaurants, if these places are under threat of being attacked by black bloc tactics? How can the British government continue to dictate to Greece and other countries through the IMF and EU about their economic policies when the people riot against British economic policy? How can foreign policy be enforced when TV screens from Hong Kong to Houston are showing pictures of people critical to these policies?

The answer is, they can't. So, prepare to kiss your fantasy of legitimate protest goodbye.

To ensure that the corporate, not people's, voices are heard this summer, there will be a number of measures undertaken in the name of the Olympic Games:
  • Protests near to the Olympic sites are to be banned. We've already seen bans on protests enforced in parts of London, under the façade of anti-fascism. It's also looking like the legislation is being expanded to include new powers to the police to attack protesters wherever they may be, with encampments such as that at St Paul's or Parliament Square targeted in particular.
  • Display, production, or even possession of posters, leaflets, which critises the government, Olympics, or sponsors has been criminalised. Just printing this article authorises the police to break in, seize your computer, search your home and arrest you for it. Sorry about that.
  • 13,500 soldiers to be deployed to "maintain order", including drones, the Royal navy's biggest aircraft carrier, a dozen Eurofighter Typhoons and several attack helicopters mounting tank killing missiles. Oh and a cute jingoistic Nuremberg Rally style military parade too.
  • Total control of the media. Reporters or networks that report anything that does not fit into the corporate plan, are threatened with being shut down and having their license (yes, license) to write, or broadcast, what's going on, revoked.
  • The push to further militarise the police, by giving them new powers to disperse protest quicker and new weapons such as tasers, water cannons, rubber bullets and chemical warfare agents.
Is it starting to hit home, yet? We've been had! All this time while we were out ranting about ineffective, evil, little bastards like the BNP and EDL shipping in totalitarian fascism. Meanwhile, the Tories, in coalition with the Lib-Dems have been pushing 2006 Nu-Labour laws and policy to create the nightmare that the overt fascists never could. Make no mistakes - you are witnessing the total suppression of democracy in the name of the Olympics.

"Security" measures like this have been pinned onto sporting competitions across the world. Everything from anti-hooligan laws being used to intern anarchists, to the Chinese government's widely criticised human rights violations on the path to their hosting of the games. The most extreme example is surely the murderous exploits of Mossad rampaging around the globe in "Operation Wrath of God", which was nothing more than convenient excuse to murder political opponents while blaming the tragedy of the Munich Massacre.

Even more worrying is that there's absolutly no gauruntees that any legislation or policies brought in for the Olympics will not be kept on to continue the suppression of all political opposition. We've all heard the bollocks excuse of "emergency powers".

If we want a voice in 2012 then we will have to fight for it. I don't mean waving placards around and chanting slogans. I mean being prepared to face down the threat of mass arrest, water cannons, rubber bullets and even live fire. This is the reality. You have already been identified as a threat that warrants these actions and weapons and that means they are prepared to use them.

There is only one way to stop these laws being enforced and becoming yet another tool in the arsenal of the state and those who control it, to stamp out democracy and to make us accept cuts and poverty and abuse at the end of a barrel of a gun. The thing we must do is to show that we will not tolerate it! The worst thing that we could do is nothing, as that's all the green light that the rich need to see to make these threats of extreme violence and repression mainstream and will only encourage them to expand these ideas further.

This is why we need to carry on our protests through the Olympics and to be honest, with such threats being pointed at us, the people would be entirely justified and perhaps even duty-bound to drop the peaceful part of peaceful protest. Now it's too fucking late to hide behind token laws that no longer exist. If potentially deadly weapons are used to suppress our speech, then this is likely to provoke people into choosing between their speech, facing those weapons, or fighting back with their own. It's a situation that nobody wants, but when faced with this kind of attack, there really is not one hell of a lot of ways to respond to it.

I will leave you all with an ominous warning.

How the people in Britain resist in 2012 will, without a doubt, determine whether we live under the boot of totalitarianism, or whether we can start taking back ground. It's all, or nothing, people. Failure to resist, the display of fear, ignorance, or inability to organise, is all the rich need to turn Britain into Orwell's Airstrip One. History will hold you accountable for what happens. There is no escape. Resist, or enjoy the hell that you helped endorse.

And THAT is why I will be protesting during the Olympics.

Related Link: http://rebelcleaners.blogspot.com/2011/12/london-2012-enemy-of-democracy.html
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