World Cup in threshold countries

[Rosa Partizan]

problably anyone having followed media coverage of the World Cup in Brazil even to the tiniest amount has read articles like (http://www.news.com.au/sport/football/brazil-sports-minister-compares-2014-fifa-world-cup-to-iraq-war-zone/story-fndkzvnd-1226917561276) these (http://afootballreport.com/post/9070670518/the-2014-world-cup-and-its-price-on-brazil). The same goes with the World Cup in Qatar (http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/feb/18/qatar-world-cup-india-migrant-worker-deaths). And we know that the people in South Africa still suffer from the 2010 World Cup social consequences. Stadiums stand there, completely unneeded, unemployment rate is even higher in some areas, schools had to be closed and so on. We all know that FIFA doesn't give a flying fuck about it. What do you see as a solution to that? Having the World Cup taking place only in well-developed (presumably European) countries? Sustainable economic help for threshold countries organizing the World Cup (less realistic for the greedy FIFA)? Please no anti soccer folks in this thread that goes like "fuck soccer anyway".

[exeexe]

You take control of the streets and hold your own independent football turney where money is spent with respect to the local community
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CAGB0MouERo

[Anglo-Saxon Philistine]

What sort of solution are you looking for? Obviously from the perspective of the local workers, the best solution is to stop the construction projects, "clean-up" operations by the police etc., through strikes, protests and hot-cargoing (here international solidarity is crucial). As for what bourgeois states and bourgeois organisations like FIFA should do, I have no idea, and I think that's secondary at best.

[bricolage]

I'm just watching a short documentary about pacification of the favelas in Rio and what struck me was how similar it was to South Africa. In Brazil government units are demolishing unofficial housing in the favelas and while they claim they are offering alternative locations to live they are in other favelas across the city and a long way from jobs, friends etc. In South Africa effective transit camps were set up on the edges of cities like Durban where people were meant to move from informal settlements: likewise they were too far from jobs to be of any use. Evidently there is a real link (aside from other things such as developing economics and 'left' leaning governments) in that both have been holding the World Cup in these places. However while it's obvious that the event is a catalyst to speed up these processes they don't solely exist because of them. I don't know as much about Brazil, but in South Africa groups like Abahlali baseMjondolo and the Western Cape Anti-Eviction Campaign have been fighting forced removals long before the tournament and evictions have been taking place for even longer.

There's a lot to be said about large sporting events facilitating mass gentrification/pacification, they don't always take the most naked form of the massacres that happened in Mexico in the 60s with the Olympics but I find it hard to think of an event that isn't built on some kind of blood. You mention an alternative as only holding the tournaments in well developed European countries but for the London Olympics there were evictions, increased police controls, increased surveillance controls and so forth and I'm pretty sure that for the Winter Olympics in Vancouver there were large encroachments onto native land (but someone will have to clarify that for me).

I agree with Vincent West that we are not in the position to give alternatives to FIFA or that we'd even want to. The inevitable side effects of large sporting events should are are opposed when they happen (and much more effectively when they are pre-existing social movements) but short of calling for the eradication of the World Cup and the Olympics (which won't happen and most people wouldn't want to happen anyway) I'm not sure what else we could propose.

[motion denied]

Very good post, bricolage.

As extra info, movements such as the MTST (Homeless Workers' Movement, not to be confused with MST) exist long before the World Cup or Olympics. However, as you rightly put it, these sorts of problems have been boosted because of the events.

[Bala Perdida]

If the competition has to exist, or can't be closed, why isn't it just an international event? They're having a crap load of friendly matches to prepare for the WC, so why could that not be an option? Just using the good stadiums in each country. Although I'm opposed to the idea of national sports at this time, I still like to watch the sport. Today it's just a marketable scheme to increase nationalism in the participating countries.
Also here in the U.S. on Spanish language television they call the U.S. national team "el equipo de todos" or "everyone's team" it pisses me off.

[Bala Perdida]

Geiseric over here!
Also this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58aLRl_eG7Y

[The Intransigent Faction]

John Oliver did a pretty solid rant on it, too:

DlJEt2KU33I

A friend of mine shared this on Facebook. I'm hoping that it stays viral. If nothing concrete is going to be done to express solidarity with the protests and strikes in international sympathy strikes (leaving aside the issue of consumer boycotts which, though I'm not without sympathy for them, are a strange thing for communists to advocate as a means of change), then statements acknowledging these problems are at least a bare minimum.

[Geiseric]

Give an alternative to FIFA? Are you serious? There needs to be a boycott campaign or else you are objectively supporting capitalism by legitimizing this horrible bull shit in any way.

[Bala Perdida]

I mean, yes I grew up watching the sport. The games are on in the break room at work, my family and friends talk to me about the games and results. This much I don't see anything wrong with. It's been a custom too long to forget for many of us. Just watching the games and not funding the organizations doesn't seem to do much harm. The business exists to profit, and I think boycotting events and products it sells would be enough to bring a business down.
I watch the games. I love the sport. I hate FIFA. I hate capitalism. I would love to see the protesters burst onto the fields of the stadium and force the evacuation of the teams. These seem like very contradictory positions. I can see how being a fan seems to legitimize the establishment, but this sport has become a drug. We have been addicts for years and we cannot stop being fans, regardless of the harm it seems to do. I know many in Brazil are cheering for Brazil to be eliminated because they still love the sport.
I have found myself becoming more apathetic to the sport as I see the crimes unfold, but I can't help staring. I would not like to attend or purchase anything with FIFA plastered on it because I feel that will truly legitimize the massacre, but how can I resist watching with everyone talking about it?
I keep repeating myself and I don't know where I'm going with this. My position is basically that I won't mind If the world cup comes to an early end, with the stadiums on fire and protesters fighting off police. Until that happens I'm just going to see how the match is going. I guess I can say I'm hoping it ends early, but I can't help watching until it does.
I guess a more militant intervention would be completely justified in this case for me. I hope my comrades going black bloc scare the tourists out of Brazil and the world cup is played in empty stadiums, or not at all. That might not seem realistic, but it's already happening so one can only hope.

[bricolage]

Give an alternative to FIFA? Are you serious? There needs to be a boycott campaign or else you are objectively supporting capitalism by legitimizing this horrible bull shit in any way.
And how many people died to make your laptop and your phone and your clothes and your food? Because with your logic by doing *anything* means you are objectively supporting capitalism.

Sure, there is an argument to made about boycotts of the World Cup, but doing it along your starting point ends up not in a discussion of boycotts as political strategy but boycotts as a means of boycotting everything single thing that exists so as not to legitimise capitalism.

[bricolage]

I watch the games. I love the sport. I hate FIFA. I hate capitalism. I would love to see the protesters burst onto the fields of the stadium and force the evacuation of the teams. These seem like very contradictory positions.
I think a lot of people - including myself - share your opinions.

This argument would of course be different if a majority of us were Brazilian - or maybe even in neighbouring South American countries - but we are not. If you watch or don't watch the game it is going to have zero impact on how the demonstrations against FIFA proceed. Maybe there are some groups you can donate money to but other than that there is nothing you can do from where you are.

[bricolage]

And actually, out of interest, I know that there were a lot of 'don't come to the world cup' leaflets going around Brazil and a call for people to not visit for the games, but have any of the demonstrators made a call for people (Brazilian or not) to not watch the games on tv?

[The Intransigent Faction]

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2014/jun/18/world-cup-2014-chile-fans-maracana-spain

:grin:

[The Intransigent Faction]

So this is incredibly fucked up (just popped up on when I opened my browser). I know Geiseric has been saying a lot about it, but reading an actual interview of one of these victims is just gut-wrenching:

http://t.news.ca.msn.com/top-stories/world-cup-sexy-brazil-sees-explosion-in-teen-prostitutes-1