RIOT 2012? RIOT NOW!
Attacking the Olympics
and its project:
Canada, Greece ,Italy, London
The Olympics is not just a worldwide event, it is a project used to accelerate what the bosses are already doing: expanding capitalism, colonization, social control and industrial/technological civilization. The project is the subjugation of our lives to the plans of the bosses, the hyper-expansion of security forces and the exploitation of the earth, destroying our possibilities to live free. The Olympic project is the encouragement of false nationalism, attempting to unify people the world over within borders and behind state power undermining true indigenous nations.
RESISTANCE TO THE OLYMPIC PROJECT IN GREECE
The Olympics were set to take place in Athens, Greece in the summer of 2004. However, Greek anarchists put out a call that resounded in the voices of many others: “Let the Olympic Games die in the land they were born!”
In November 2003, anarchists attacked three Athens banks with homemade gas bombs in solidarity with seven imprisoned anarchists and against the arrival of FBI Chief Robert Mueller, coming to inspect security measures for the Olympics. The seven anarchists were being held in jail for their participation in demonstrations at the EU summit in Thessaloniki in June 2003, during which damage was done to businesses, banks and cars.
In solidarity with the prisoners, dozens of other actions were made including hunger strikes in other prisons, commandeering corporate radio stations, arsons against state infrastructure, sabotage of 70 metro station entrances in Barcelona and unfurling banners at an Olympic event. By extending the actions beyond just responding to repression, solidarity becomes an attack, reinforcing other aspects of struggle. The actions echoed one another:
“Solidarity is our weapon!”
In February 2004, two government trucks were burned using homemade gas canisters during International Olympic Committee meetings in Athens. The claim for responsibility was signed by the Olympic mascots. To complete the Olympics infrastructure in time, work went on non-stop and many foreign temporary workers were hired. In the rush, dozens of workers died. There is no official number; some say up to 150 workers died on Olympics-related work sites in Greece.
On February 25, 2004, outside Greece’s Labour Ministry, an anti-Olympics demonstration took place that was also in opposition to the working conditions at the Olympic village site where five workers had already died. At the demonstration, people hurled rocks and red paint and clashed with the police.
The Olympic security apparatus involved the construction of new prisons, NATO security systems, US, British, Israeli, and Australian secret service
and the installation of hundreds of police surveillance cameras.
Exactly 100 days before the games, three gas bombs went off damaging a police station. On July 22, 2004, firebombs were thrown at the Cultural Ministry building and the nearby headquarters of the Cultural Olympiad, causing structural damage. During an anti-Olympics demonstration later that night, anarchists threw a firebomb at the Interior Ministry building and spray-painted surveillance cameras set up for the Olympics.
On August 27, people rioted in Athens against the coming visit of US Secretary Colin Powell to the Olympics, smashing and pulling down surveillance cameras, breaking bank windows, attacking the offices of the Association of Greek Industrialists and spray-painting “Against the Olympics of Repression” on a billboard. Colin Powell cancelled his visit to Greece.
The Olympics are over in Greece but attacks on surveillance cameras continue. Dozens of cameras have been destroyed during daytime demonstrations, night attacks or in simultaneous sabotage at different locations.
In Athens, November 2005, traffic was held up by a banner reading “Sabotage the Systems of Social Control”, while at the same time comrades were setting the camera control boxes on fire. This was the second time these cameras were destroyed.
and the installation of hundreds of police surveillance cameras.
Exactly 100 days before the games, three gas bombs went off damaging a police station. On July 22, 2004, firebombs were thrown at the Cultural Ministry building and the nearby headquarters of the Cultural Olympiad, causing structural damage. During an anti-Olympics demonstration later that night, anarchists threw a firebomb at the Interior Ministry building and spray-painted surveillance cameras set up for the Olympics.
On August 27, people rioted in Athens against the coming visit of US Secretary Colin Powell to the Olympics, smashing and pulling down surveillance cameras, breaking bank windows, attacking the offices of the Association of Greek Industrialists and spray-painting “Against the Olympics of Repression” on a billboard. Colin Powell cancelled his visit to Greece.
The Olympics are over in Greece but attacks on surveillance cameras continue. Dozens of cameras have been destroyed during daytime demonstrations, night attacks or in simultaneous sabotage at different locations.
In Athens, November 2005, traffic was held up by a banner reading “Sabotage the Systems of Social Control”, while at the same time comrades were setting the camera control boxes on fire. This was the second time these cameras were destroyed
The next Olympic games after Athens, was the 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy. The bosses decided to push through construction of a high-speed train line (TAV) between France and Italy, to be finished in time for the games, despite active resistance to the TAV construction since the late 1990’s. An anarchist from Carrara understood the “No TAV” movement as “...an obstacle to the restructuring process which has as its result the destruction of the environment of the area, the sacking of thousands of workers (and) the super-exploitation of railway workers to benefit a clique of businessmen and speculators.”
In March 1998, the Italian police arrested 3 anarchists on serious charges of “subversive association for the purpose of constituting an armed gang”. They were accused of
various direct actions linked to the popular struggle against the construction of the high-speed railway through the Val di Susa in the Piemonte region.
Two of the arrested anarchists, Edoardo Massari, a 38-year old from Ivrea, and Maria Soledad Rosas, a 22-year old from Argentina, committed suicide during their persecution. Italian anarchists called it murder. The evening after Maria’s death more than a hundred people gathered in the centre of Turin. A barricade of old furniture, wood and mattresses blocked the road. A barrage of smoke bombs and flares transformed the scene. Spray-painted messages appeared on walls: “This is the first response to the death of Soledad.”
Solidarity actions in Athens, Greece saw 10 cars go up in flames at the Italian embassy and at agencies belonging to Italian companies Fiat and Alfa Romeo.
In 2005, construction for the TAV was underway at the mountain sports Olympic venue, Val di Susa. In the winter of 2005, residents of Val di Susa and supporters from many places came together to prevent the
TAV by occupying a construction site. Residents of the valley had been demonstrating, blocking roads, and launching strikes against the railway project for weeks. Graffiti messages against the railway line and the police occupation of Val di Susa spread throughout the area.
In December 2005, the camp was violently evicted by paramilitary police. To try to keep the police out, residents blockaded the major highway that runs through Val di Susa and barricaded streets in the valley town of Bussoleno. Workers also went on strike in Turin, in solidarity with the struggle.
The day after the eviction, a mass demonstration in Val di Susa was held, including blockades, a battle with the cops, and the sabotage of equipment at the TAV development site. Mayors from the region attempted to stop anarchists and autonomous anti-capitalists from charging a police line, but failed.
At a solidarity demonstration against the TAV in Turin people blockaded a railway depot, attacked two police cars and the car of the President of the Piemonte region, smashed up a bank and an Olympics store and set a bonfire in the streets. Graffiti on the streets denounced the Olympics and the high-speed train line.
The planned route of the Olympic torch was diverted throughout Italy again and again. In Genoa, on December 18, 2005, a blockade forced the flame procession to stop and the flame to be transported in acar. In Trento, on January 23, 2006 the torch was snatched by anarchists who ran with it for sixty metres. In Bergamo, on January 29, clashes caused the flame to bypass the town. In Cuneo, on February 3, the route was delayed for forty minutes due to a cable strung across the road by anarchists. In Val di Susa, on February 5, people overwhelmed the procession and tried to put out the torch with a “NO TAV” flag.
For intervening in the torch run and snatching the torch in Trento on January 13, Juan Sorroche and another anarchist received jail sentences, later commuted to fines. One of the other arrested anarchists, Massimo, claimed that the disruption in court was related to the exploitation of immigrant workers on the Olympic-related construction project of the TAV high-speed railway.
In June 2006, in Rovereto, Italy, after the Olympic events ended, Juan Sorroche and three anarchist companions refused to present their identity
papers to the cops. They resisted the attempt to drag them to a police station and when the cops called in reinforcements they fought back, damaging a cop car and causing six cops to seek first aid. While in prison for these actions, Juan and another companion, Mike, put out a statement expressing their actions as an act of solidarity with immigrants and other illegals “...who, unlike (them), don’t have the possibility to choose but are compelled to run away in order to escape imprisonment.” They encouraged the spread of resistance to identity checks calling it “active solidarity.” Affirming their actions as a reflection of their hearts they refused to repent.
After serving part of his nine month sentence in jail, a Judge released Juan on the condition that he remain in a certain town and not return to Rovereto. He left anyway and was arrested in Spain on numerous charges including the burning of three train cars belonging to Trentalia, an action claimed because of the company’s involvement in the deportation of immigrants.
Again Juan is in prison, this time sentenced to seven months for doing solidarity graffiti for anarchist companions arrested while intervening in the arrest and institutionalization of a woman sleeping on the street.
By interacting with social struggles in other places we see that the project of social domination is global. All over the world capital
aims to advance, restricting access to the means of survival, channeling populations into production and consumption, and refining methods of social control.
Internationally, social control (i.e.: immigration systems, police, social welfare, labour, technology, prison) is experimented with and implemented differently. What is yesterday’s surveillance technology in London becomes today’s in Vancouver.
Beginning by truly engaging our own struggles and deepening our relationships locally, our struggles can intensify by extending outwards to others who share our aspirations. Solidarity can be a weapon and a catalyst for subversive social relationships.
Although we can learn from the methods and analysis in rebellion in Italy, Greece and so many other places, our methods should be born from our surroundings and the contexts that we generate. Let us experiment and push our selves beyond pre-conceived limitations.
The systems of social control are growing, cultivated through projects like the Olympics, but they are breakable. They depend on our ongoing submission. We refuse them this necessity through our ongoing rebellion.
These words go out to those yet unknown companions whose hearts rebel, propelling them towards conflict, joy and dignity.
http://lettheolympicgamesdieintheland.blogspot.com/
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