2010 Olympic Winter Games, Vancouver BC Canada.

[JonnyNothings]

!Reposted! Feb 2010 Anti Olympics Convergence

(THIS IS A REPOST!)

ALL OUT AGAINST THE 2010 WINTER OLYMPIC GAMES!

The 2010 Winter Olympics will take place in Vancouver & Whistler, on unceded Indigenous land, from February 12-28 2010. We call on all anti-capitalist, Indigenous, housing rights, labour, migrant justice, environmental, anti-war, community-loving, anti-poverty, civil libertarian, and anti colonial activists to come together to confront this two-week circus and the oppression it represents. We are organizing towards a global anti-capitalist and anti-colonial convergence against the 2010 Olympic Games.

* BASIC SCHEDULE:

The basic plan thus far is:

- Conference and People's Summit on Wed Feb 10- Thurs Feb 11

- Fri Feb 12: Take Back Our City! “Welcome” the 2010 Olympic Torch with Free Games, Free Speech, and Free Food! Beginning with a festival at the Vancouver Art Gallery at 3 pm, followed by a parade and protest to BC Place Stadium. Details, including childcare, at: http://2010welcoming.wordpress.com/

- Autonomous days of action on Sat Feb 13 and Mon Feb 15 including anti-corporate actions, rallies to oppose militarization, and more.

- On Sun Feb 14th, we will be standing with the 19th Annual Women's Memorial March to honour all the missing and murdered and women in the DTES (this is not an anti-Olympic protest).
Details at: http://womensmemorialmarch.wordpress.com/

We will also be updating this description and our website with additional anti-Olympic events occurring during the entire month of February: http://olympicresistance.net or http://no2010.com


* LOGISTICAL INFORMATION:

We are working to coordinate the logistics to host this convergence. For information on billeting (whether you are in need of billeting or can provide billeting), travel and border information, legal updates, food and childcare arrangements, community spaces, welcome package, and more, please check http://olympicresistance.net frequently for updates.


* SUPPORT THE CONVERGENCE AND GET INVOLVED!

1) Sign-up for our low-traffic list (1-2 emails per week) to stay updated on upcoming events, meetings, and actions. Please email http://olympicresistance@riseup.net and ask to be added to our announcement list.

2) If you are part of another group (artist, activist, community, union, campus etc) and are planning any kind of activity or event to oppose the Games during Feb 2010, please do let us know and stay in touch.

3) Host an anti-Olympic educational on your campus or at your next conference. Or invite a speaker to your next meeting to discuss what your group can do. We are able to provide educational materials including films, tshirts, comics, buttons, stickers and more!

4) Get involved in the Olympic Resistance Network or other anti-Olympic groups in your neighbourhood or campus. The ORN has regular General Meetings on Sundays as well as many committees.

5) Spread the word about the convergence! Forward this notice to your contacts, download posters and flyers about the convergence from our website and pass them on!

6) Please donate! Hosting this convergence requires significant funds, including legal defence funds. You can donate securely through PayPal on our website: http://olympicresistance.net/content/send-us-money or cheques can be made out to Olympic Resistance Network and mailed to ORN, 6 - 1857 Kitchener St, Vancouver, BC, V5L 2W5. Email http://ornfundraise@riseup.ne to arrange direct deposits or other queries.


* WHY OPPOSE THE GAMES:

The 2010 Winter Olympics will take place on unceded Indigenous land. Far from being simply about sport, the history of the Olympics is one rooted in displacement, corporate greed, and repression. As Olympic promoters and sponsors seek to present their sanitized corporate brand image to the world, the real impacts of the Games are apparent to everyone:

* Expansion of sport tourism on Indigenous lands
* Increasing homelessness across the province and especially in Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside
* Misdirected public spending and debt totaling $6 billion while funding for the arts, educations, and health care are suffering cutbacks
* Corporate bailouts and profits for companies with some of the worst social and environmental records.
* Threats to basic civil liberties and free speech
* Union-busting and vulnerable working conditions for migrant labour
* Unprecedented destruction of the environment
* Unparalleled $1 billion police and security spending that is turning our city into a militarized zone.




* ABOUT US:

The ORN supports the international resolution passed by over 1500 Indigenous delegates at the Intercontinental Indigenous Peoples Gathering in Sonora, Mexico to “boycott the 2010 Olympic Games” based on Resolution #2 of the Gathering which states “We reject the 2010 Winter Olympics on sacred and stolen territory of Turtle Island–Vancouver, Canada”. Based on this call, our organizing as natives and non-natives alike is largely being done under the slogan of "No Olympics on Stolen Native Land".

----------------

WEBSITE: http://olympicresistance.net
EMAIL: http://olympicresistance@riseup.net

 

[dirtyfacedan]

!Reposted! Feb 2010 Anti Olympics Convergence

Glad to see other supporters out there. just over one month to go.

 

[dirty_rotten_squatter]

!Reposted! Feb 2010 Anti Olympics Convergence

I'll get wasted and scream political slurs at the top of my lungs!!!Then again thats my daily routine any how.

 

[IBRRHOBO]

!Reposted! Feb 2010 Anti Olympics Convergence

hmnn, i read thru a lot of the literature and am still rather confused. the 'unceded' part mainly. i always find if humorous when tribes war amongst themselves; and let's not bullshit here and try to paint the pretty picture of all the natives sitting around singing kumbaya, they take over other tribes land and it's cool, but G-d forbid someone else does it and it's all of the sudden bad.

that's really not even my point. ORN wants to preach their slogans so what makes them any different than the corporate assholes? and really i can think of shit a HELL of a lot worse than track and field events. my bad: some kid in indonesia made the high jump pole or whatever.

instead of trying to put out the torch why not run along side it and spout the opposite in propaganda? i'll tell ya why, 'cause none of these fucks could maintain that long. might make it a couple of blocks and that's it. and since when does the olympics have to allow equal access for a PR campaign? that's one of the gripes i read: oh poor us can't make our statements but the corporations can. well, pony up the money and you can make any PR statement you want. i'm not pro corporations or anti corporations, but this is just yet another nail in the coffin of 21st century quasi-revolutionaries. let's all get high, gobble down some vegan porrage (and here i always state that i didn't climb to the top of the food chain to starve) and sway to the music of swami so and so.

this kind of bullshit ranks up there with the religion of global warming.

 

[st1tch]

!Reposted! Feb 2010 Anti Olympics Convergence

I understand some of the reasons to protest, (i.e wasting a lot of money, a lot of homeless people getting free train tickets to anywhere far away from the olympics- with threats behind it of course, and Vancouver becoming a police state).

I think that it would be beneficial to the cause if they left out some of their protests, such as "women are being kidnapped when they're in the sex trade! This has something to do with the olympics!". If ANYTHING, these women will get more work- the ratio of prostitutes working vs. them being beat/abducted/murdered I'm unsure of, but I don't see why people who want to see the olympics and get a whore on the side are more likely to beat/abduct/murder them then any other fuckwad.

It also seems a bit much to even bring up the fact that the Nazis also held the olympics, because Canada is NOT a fascist dictatorship, in fact- we don't even have Parliament right now!!

As far as native land goes- they've been fucked over for the past 150 years, and it wasn't until the olympics came that people really said anything about it. All of a sudden people are up in arms over this, when during the Ipperwash crisis (or countless other nameless native protests) there weren't half the people that there are now (not saying that they shouldn't say anything now, it just seems odd that people choose the world-unity games -or what are SUPPOSED to be- to start bitching!)

I also find it extremely funny that the no2010 website sells their patches for 5$ each, while bitching about capitalism on the side.

Overall, I think that the countries of the world should somehow put aside there "Ohhh- I want to hold the olympics!" and just set up a place for winter olympics, and a place for summer olympics, and hold them there all the time. It was save a lot of money, a lot of indegenous land, and overall it would save a fuckload of hassle.

 

[dirtyfacedan]

!Reposted! Feb 2010 Anti Olympics Convergence

I think that it would be beneficial to the cause if they left out some of their protests, such as "women are being kidnapped when they're in the sex trade! This has something to do with the olympics!". If ANYTHING, these women will get more work- the ratio of prostitutes working vs. them being beat/abducted/murdered I'm unsure of, but I don't see why people who want to see the olympics and get a whore on the side are more likely to beat/abduct/murder them then any other fuckwad.

The games have worldwide media coverage. Willy Pickton, and his pig farm prostitute murders (right across the street from the CPR Coquitlam yard) were also in the world wide media circus. "Whores" (as you put it) in Vancouver are, for the most part, not likely to be picked up by athlete's anytime soon, as most are addicts, and not the high stroll girls you see on glamourized TV shows. While there are many that will benefit from the "tourism", most will not. In fact, most will be worse off. Harsher enforcement, and heavy handed tactics to "clean up the streets", along with skyrocketing rents, and MASSIVE cuts to social programs that help working women have been fatally cut, to pay for the games (around 6 BILLION). Most prostitutes are doing it for survival, not to get rich. These women have been marginalized their whole fucking lives, and this 2 week party for the elite is only making it worse.

TO ALL THE REST OF YOU ASSHOLES who doubt the "worthiness" of our protest, and civil disobedience.

Is this part of the "cause" you speak of? Most protests in Vancouver are not about Globalization, or whatever flavour of the fucking month protest anyone has. They are local real issues, like poverty, working poor, corporate greed, destruction of fish stocks, depletion of forests (to the point even loggers, and mill workers are in the poor house), tar sands development, gentrification of Vancouver's Downtown East side, the further criminalization, and harsh treatment of the poor and addicts....a big list. These are real issues, here, now. Do you stand for these issues? Many people stand with us, and have the same, and similar issues. It's a worldwide problem. But don't go fucking making up your own fucking reasons for OUR protests, and what will help whatever your "cause" is. Don't tell me what is worthy of protest, and what should and shouldn't be on the agenda. Globalization protesters can stay where the fuck they are, don't come to Vancouver for all I care. If this is the attitude of people who claim to stand in solidarity, then Fuck you, and fuck your cause. I have my own reasons to protest. It involves real people, here, now. :thebird:

 

[steelcitybrew]

!Reposted! Feb 2010 Anti Olympics Convergence

s far as native land goes- they've been fucked over for the past 150 years, and it wasn't until the olympics came that people really said anything about it.

Speak for yourself, Just because you didnt see or hear about any of the supporters for the Native solidarity protests doesnt mean they wernt happening. There's alot happenin in Caledonia and Brantford, and groups organizing in Hamilton.

 

[Skankin Jerry]

!Reposted! Feb 2010 Anti Olympics Convergence

http://www.crimethinc.com/blog/2010/01/18/all-out-against-the-2010-winter-olympics/

 

[st1tch]

!Reposted! Feb 2010 Anti Olympics Convergence

Speak for yourself, Just because you didnt see or hear about any of the supporters for the Native solidarity protests doesnt mean they wernt happening. There's alot happenin in Caledonia and Brantford, and groups organizing in Hamilton.

Fair enough, and I'm GLAD that there is stuff going on in support, don't get the wrong idea.

 

[bote]

all else aside, who can honestly say that in this time and place it´s a good idea for Canada to invest 6 billion in a couple weeks of pageantry?

Anyone who wants to tell me it is a good investment should take a look at the historic losses suffered by host cities. Montreal is STILL paying for the ´76 Olympics!

 

[bote]

btw, it´s going to be a headache crossing into BC until after the games, unless you are going to cheer and already have tickets. anybody with any kind of ¨innapropriate¨ affiliation or history is going to be given an even harder time than usual and I suspect if you don´t look downright normal you´ll be unequivocally turned back.

We have no parliament! Thou shalt not disrupt our pageantry!

example

 

[kai]

2 days till the convergence begins...don't let the rain stop yah!

no2010 convergence schedule of events.

http://www.no2010.com/event/2010/02/10

 

[steelcitybrew]

Wish I could be out there to show my support. Doesnt have the same affect being where I am now. Good luck everyone.

 

[JungleBoots]

on a lighter note, even with my boy Crosby I dont know if Canada is gonna take hockey this year. I mean Russia is gonna be one tuff nut to crack with Malkin (go pens) and Ovechkin

crosby... bah! CROSBY!!! CROOOOOOOOSSSSSSBBBBYYYYYYY!!!!!!!!!!

stanley... he stole stanley!

maybe next year well get it back.... again! this year detroit aint doing too good at all...

 

[SpaceCadet]

maybe next year well get it back.... again! this year detroit aint doing too good at all...

Detroit definitely won't be taking it this year, especially with Chicago kicking ass like they are.

And Russia has Malkin, as well as Ovechkin, and Gonchar on defense. Plus much more talent. Russia will be hard to beat.

 

[bote]

that would be sick though, if Detroit won the Olympics

 

[JungleBoots]

some day bote some day... the underdogs will rise up.

 

[coldsteelrail]

!Reposted! Feb 2010 Anti Olympics Convergence

Now is the time to tear down walls.
The olympics are two things; $corporate$ exploitation of the global public, and a celebration of international human physical achievement.
The olympics have the important opportunity to highlight the world's dedication to improve energy and water management technologies, and to implement positive social change and peace in the world.

The olympics are fun for many people, as demonstrated by comments on this board, including the activists using the olympics as a catalyst for social uprisal. The olympics inspire young athletes and active people all over the world to push themselves to go beyond their best. Sports in general are positive for youth, especially in places where there is little else to do in our processed society, and where many people are empowered through their commitment to sports, to clean up their bodies, or volunteer in their communities.

Unfortunately without action, a dream is just a dream, and the history of the olympic games is more of a social and fiscal nightmare for the communities who sponsor them, and all involved in the production.

It reads like propaghanda to acknowledge that the 2010 winter olympic games in vancouver are investing in some energy efficient technologies. However, in our world, where at this time, a little bit of investment towards a more sustainable event seems so minor, because really, what needs to happen is a fuel efficient, non-fossil (or food fuel) overhaul of every single electronic and energy consuming device, and that one little step seems more like a PR move, rather than a radical positive change. But actually, that one little step, though many more are needed, is acting as momentum to social change, and shows where our collective consciousness is growing.

That is why, when there are huge international demonstrations and actions calling attention to the injustice in our world, and the destruction of our social and natural environments, and you agree that the world needs to be changed, you join those demonstrating. You feel empowered. Strengthened. Moved by the numbers. You are not alone. And a group of people can create a tremendous amount of force and knowledge. Force creates movement. Movement creates change.

Those participating in any anti-olympic movement must seem like a giant group of antisocial people dragging around soggy blankets at the world's funnest party. It's hard to say what the protesters are collectively protesting, because the agenda involves so many issues that all seem so overwhelming, and don't really have anything to do with what a lot of people associate as the olympic games.
It's difficult for people to grasp. What? No olympics? Either directly, or through friends of friends of friends, most of us know an athlete who is an olympic competitor, and probably the happiest, excited, and most dedicated person they've ever been.
This is why the olympics has the opportunity to create such huge structural change. This is why involvement in Anti-Olympic movements is important. The people are saying they want a human olympics, and not a corporate stage decorated with giant bison-skinned cocoa cola bottles.

this kind of bullshit ranks up there with the religion of global warming.[/QUOTE]

And Global warming is happening now, I am not going to get into the science of it right now, because this post is already way too long...but I am going to use this opportunity to note that these are the WINTER olympics, and without the cold, snow and ice, these winter games would not have been invented. I say, celebrate them while you can, protest anything that gets in your way of them, including the corporation of the Olympic games, and get out on your fucking ice skates while nature still makes ice thick enough.

:eatit:

 

[dirtyfacedan]

If anyone wants to meet In VAncouver, let me know here. I'm heading over on the ferry around Wed, or Thurs. I may decide to camp out along the train tracks towards Squamish around Monday for several days, and hiking the line along the way.. possibly staying at Porteau cove for a night or two. Or ...something else, So many choices. Getting to VAncity for the convergence is the main goal, afterwards....winter outdoor adventure time!

 

[coldsteelrail]

!Reposted! Feb 2010 Anti Olympics Convergence

With a porogued parliament, the conservative government has-with permission by the queen of england's representative, is the chance to run the closest thing to fascism a democracy can legally? dictate.
While our local MPs and governments are hushed, the conservative gov't is still representing canada, behind closed doors, in private meetings.
Bringing up all the different, complicated issues that unfortunately are connected to the olympics-The Nazis, aboriginal land rights and treaties and exploitation, murders and massacres, public 'security' , and militarized lock downs, financial failure, environmental destruction, corporate power, and consumer greed, and nationalistic fascism(oh my goodness i could go and on and include sprained ankles, drug use, and public brawling), are all good examples to give as reasons to support the no2010olympics. To share knowledge about how the world is really operating, to open up the can of worms raises discussion and questions.
The olympics corporation know that these games, which are emotional to millions of people, is an important opportunity to infiltrate the mass public. The people who support no2010olympics, understand the same thing.

Holding the olympic games in the same spot each year, is a more positive alternative, and would be a step in the right direction. One giant Olympic Whistler. They would have to be held in the antarctic. Making them free, and low budget, resource sustainable and self sufficient would be other positive alternatives. Some would argue, completely abolishing the olympics all together, the most simple and sustainable alternative.
:borg:

"It also seems a bit much to even bring up the fact that the Nazis also held the olympics, because Canada is NOT a fascist dictatorship, in fact- we don't even have Parliament right now!!

As far as native land goes- they've been fucked over for the past 150 years, and it wasn't until the olympics came that people really said anything about it. All of a sudden people are up in arms over this, when during the Ipperwash crisis (or countless other nameless native protests) there weren't half the people that there are now (not saying that they shouldn't say anything now, it just seems odd that people choose the world-unity games -or what are SUPPOSED to be- to start bitching!)

I also find it extremely funny that the no2010 website sells their patches for 5$ each, while bitching about capitalism on the side.

Overall, I think that the countries of the world should somehow put aside there "Ohhh- I want to hold the olympics!" and just set up a place for winter olympics, and a place for summer olympics, and hold them there all the time. It was save a lot of money, a lot of indegenous land, and overall it would save a fuckload of hassle."[/QUOTE]