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Ignite A Flame of Resistance Against the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay
Ignite A Flame of Resistance Against the 2010 Olympic Torch Relay
The Olympic Torch Relay is often presented as a tradition from the ancient Greek Olympics. In reality, the Greeks never had a torch relay! Instead, it was introduced by the Nazis during the 1936 Berlin Olympics as a propaganda tool to promote fascism throughout Western Europe and within Germany.
Today, it is a major part of the Olympic industry and serves to rally public support & nationalist fervor (just as the Nazis had intended). Along with the opening day ceremony, the torch relay is one of the most significant high profile Olympic events to occur. For these reasons it has been targetted by anti-Olympics movements.
In Italy 2006, in the two months leading up to Turin Winter Olympics, the relay was disrupted several times, with protesters briefly stealing the flame, dousing it with fire extinguishers, and blockading its route. Olympic organizers were forced to bypass towns and regions due to this resistance, despite thousands of police being deployed. Anti-Olympics groups targeted Coca Cola, a main sponsor of torch relays, due to its human rights and environmental abuses. In Busselona, a radical mayor banned all Coke advertisements from the city, while other municipalities debated similiar motions.
During the torch relay for the 2008 Beijing Summer Games, protesters denouncing China’s occupation of Tibet (and other human rights abuses) succesfully disrupted the relay in San Francisco, Paris, London, and other cities during the relay’s 21 country international tour. Thousands of police were deployed to protect the torch in country after country. In Paris, the torch was extinguished 34 times by organizers as it was hustled onto a bus to drive by protesting crowds. The protests succesfully tarnished the Beijing Games as the work of an authoritarian and repressive police state, and highlighted the cause of Tibetan independence. These mobilizations showed the vulnerability of the Olympic torch relay to disruption, and the high profile nature of such disruptions.
For the 2010 Winter Games, Olympic organizers have planned an ambitious and extensive torch relay, beginning in Victoria on Oct. 30, 2009. It will spend five days on Vancouver Island before flying to the Yukon, crossing the northern region of the country to the Atlantic coast, then proceed westward across all provines, to arrive in Vancouver for the opening ceremonies on Feb. 12, 2010.
The relay will last 106 days and cover 45,000 km. It will pass through 1,000 communities, with midday and evening celebrations each day in some 200. Through collaboration with the Assembly of First Nations, the torch relay will include some 115 Native communities. Altogether there will be 12,000 torch bearers. The cost of the entire spectacle is $30 million, with two thirds of this funded by the federal government. The main corporate sponsors are the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and Coca Cola.
Join the movement: organize protests and disruptions in your area! AntiOlympic organizers in Vancouver have called for protests and disruptions of the torch relay as it crosses the country, transforming it into an opportunity to ignite anticolonial and anticapitalist
resistance.
● To learn the route of the torch relay and
if it passes through or near your location go
to: www.vancouver2010.com and find
Torch Relays, which will take you to maps and lists of towns and cities.
● Get in touch with the Olympic Resistance Network at: [email protected].
● Check out No2010.com for info and updates.
RESISTANCE 2010!
International Callout for Direct Action
International Call Out for Direct Action:
“Our struggles come from before 2010 and will reach beyond!”
This is a call out for direct action and solidarity. At the end of
October, the Olympic Torch will come from Greece to Canada.
As we've seen here in BC, the true project of the Olympics is the
enhancement of capitalism, colonization and social control. New
surveillance infrastructure and the training of police and security
forces in counter-insurgency here will be exported around the world.
The Olympics effects us all, the world over.
Direct action, disruptions or confrontations generally and against the
torch relay can be part of a strategy to discourage economic
development, exploitation and destruction of people and the land in
"British Columbia.”
Between October 29-30th, (and beyond) we welcome acts of solidarity in
the form of whatever makes the most sense for your context.
From everywhere in the world let these acts strengthen our common rebellion!
Information about the Torch Relay:
A convergence is scheduled in Victoria, British Columbia to counter
the launch of the cross-Canada torch relay.
The 2010 Olympic Flame will be lit in Greece on Oct. 22, 2009 and
handed over to a representative of Canada, in Athens on Oct. 29 before
coming to Canada - (if it makes it that far!).
The torch relay of modern times which transports the flame from Greece
to the various designated sites of the games had no ancient precedent.
The torch was introduced at the Hitler's 1936 Berlin Olympics to
spread the spirit of fascism throughout Europe. Still, the torch is a
symbol to spread the ideologies of nationalism, colonization and
economic progress.
The cross Canada Olympic torch relay begins in Victoria BC, Coast
Salish Territory, the morning of October 30. It will spend five days
on Vancouver Island before flying to the Yukon, crossing the Northern
region of the country to the Atlantic coast, then proceed westward
across all provinces, to arrive in Vancouver for the opening
ceremonies on Feb. 12, 2010. The relay will last 106 days and cover
45,000 km. It will pass through 1,000 communities.
http://victoriatorch.wordpress.combr> http://no2010.com/node/1053
For Reading and Distribution (printable pfd's):
HITTING THE WHOLE OLYMPIC TARGET (new):
http://ottawa.indymedia.ca/en/2009/09/10742.shtml
RIOT 2010? RIOT NOW!
http://www.no2010.com/Resources/riot...intversion.pdf
ANTI-2010 BOOKLET
http://no2010.com/Resources/Anti-2010%20Booklet.pdf
