On October 2, 1968, in Tlatelolco, Mexico City, the Mexican government shot and murdered hundreds of unarmed students protesting the 1968 Summer Olympics in Mexico City. The students, who were part of the global labor movement of 1968, opposed the authoritarianism of then Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz. 12 days later, the Olympics would open according to schedule.
To many, this is not surprising. After all, when have the masters of the world not sought to augment their prestige based on the backs of workers? Had the Pharaohs not built the pyramids on the backs of enslaved people? Had the Caesars not ushered modernity into the world, constructing coliseums, roads and bridges to conquered lands? And have we not looked upon them with awe and admiration?
It was found that for the 2016 Olympics in Rio, the Brazilian government constructed walls to hide the immense poverty of Rio’s neighborhoods. These walls hid an increased police presence and the eviction of over 300 families. In the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, it was reported that the government evicted an elderly man for the second time in 50 years in order to construct another stadium, displacing him from his community once again. As for the 2024 Olympics, the French government, in the midst of widespread protests against pension reform and the police murder of Nahel Merzouk, has chosen to continue with hosting the Olympics. The event is dependent on the exploitation of migrant workers and simultaneously promotes an anthropomorphized Phrygian cap as the Mascot.
The Olympics likes to portray itself as merely a friendly competition between nations. This is a lie. Rather, the Olympics have been consistently shown to be a site of domestic and international intrigue. The Olympics would have you believe that it is a symbol of peace as the world’s nations fight to seize the honor of hosting, which provides the opportunity to have their pawns bring prestige to the fatherland. States continue to evict the poor, homeless and undesirable from their cities in the name of the Olympics. Rather than promoting peace to the world, the Olympics proves itself to be no more than an extension of murky international politics at the expense of those on the ground who must host and live with it.
It may be a farce, but it is an expensive farce, nonetheless. The current cost estimate for the upcoming 2024 games is seven billion euros, and the 2028 Olympics held in Los Angeles is estimated to be around a comparable seven billion dollars. It should be outrageous that even a single cent will be redirected to such an absurdity when it could be used to build houses for homeless people. Instead, it was and will be used to build hotels for tourists and enormous complexes for the Olympic athletes and their entourages as they train to battle in a pointless spectacle for the egos of nations, which will inevitably abandon them when they fall into poverty.
I refuse to accept the Olympics as a symbol of peace while it violently deprives people of their homes and livelihoods in order to line the pockets of governments. It continues to act as an arena for nation-states to splurge on and perpetuate the concept of friendly national competition. Fortunately, we may one day see the end of the Olympics within our lifetimes. Anti-Olympic sentiment is growing, and recently, pension reform protesters stormed the headquarters of the Paris Olympic Games. Activists across the world, recognizing their shared experience, have gone global, forming relationships and networks in transnational solidarity against exploitation.
Benjamin Zhou can be reached at [email protected].
