- please forward widely -

RESIST THE 2010 OLYMPIC GAMES!

Communique by Olympic Resistance Network

November 2009 - The 2010 Winter Olympics, taking place on unceded Indigenous land, are only three short months away. This city is becoming a militarized zone, attacks on the poor are continuing with the proposed Assistance to Shelter Act, draconian bylaws are suppressing basic freedom of speech, and public funds continue to bailout Olympic projects and corporate sponsors while workers are being forced...back-to-work [by] legislation.

If you hate the Olympics for all those reasons and more, we encourage you to get involved!

===> 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 olympicresistance@riseup.net and ask to be added to our announcement list.

2) Check out the No 2010 Olympics on Stolen Native Land site for your daily dose of Olympic related news.

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, speakers, as well as resistance art, t-shirts, 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 alternating Sundays as well as many committees and projects you can get involved in such as Outreach, Alternative Media, Legal Support, Youth Resistance, and more.

5) If you are located outside the Lower Mainland and are interested in or already organizing against the Olympics, we strongly encourage you to get in touch (olympicresistance@riseup.net) with your location and basic public contact information (email/phone). We get lots of requests from people looking to connect with other Olympic dissidents in their town/community especially to take action against the Torch.

6) All out for for the Feb 10-15 Anti-Olympic Convergence! Building on the call by Indigenous defenders at the Indigenous Peoples Gathering in Sonora, Mexico in October 2007, we will be working to coordinate the logistics to host an anti-Olympic convergence. The basic plan thus far is a Conference and People's Summit on Feb 10-11, a large family-friendly public mobilization on Feb 12, and autonomous days of action on Feb 13 and Feb 15. On Feb 14th, we will be standing with the 19th Annual Women's Memorial March to honour all the missing and murdered women in the Downtown Eastside (this is not an anti-Olympic protest).

===> CONTACT INFORMATION <===

Email: olympicresistance@riseup.net
Web: http://olympicresistance.net/

==> ABOUT US <===

Far from being simply about ‘sport’, the history of the Olympics is one rooted in displacement, corporate greed, fascism, repression, and violence. Only the political and corporate elite – from real estate developers to Olympic sponsors - have anything to gain from the Olympics industry. The negative effects of the upcoming Winter Games are clear: expansion of sport tourism and resource extraction on unceded Indigenous lands; homelessness and gentrification of poor neighborhoods; increasing privatization of public services; union busting through imposed contracts and exploitative conditions for migrant labour; a ballooning $1 billion security apparatus with an attack on basic civil liberties; misdirected $7 billion public spending and public debt; and unprecedented destruction of the environment.

In light of this, the Olympic Resistance Network exists as a space to coordinate anti-2010 Olympics efforts. In doing so, we act in solidarity with other communities across 'British Columbia' - particularly indigenous communities who have been defending their land against the onslaught of the Olympics since the bid itself. Our organizing is largely being done under the slogan of "No Olympics on Stolen Native Land", while creating an opportunity for all anti-capitalist, Indigenous, anti-poverty, labour, migrant justice, housing rights, environmental justice, anti-war, civil libertarians, and anti colonial activists to come together to confront this two-week circus and the oppression it represents.

We look forward to working together across our diverse experiences and movements, while sharing a common understanding including an anti-colonial and anti-capitalist analysis; respect for diversity of tactics and strategies; an anti-oppression understanding and solidarity with those most directly affected; and an organizational philosophy based on decentralization and autonomy within a coordinated and accountable structure.

We support 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, we are working towards a global anti-capitalist and anti-colonial convergence from February 10th-15th 2010, while undertaking additional actions and educational efforts on an ongoing basis.

No Olympics on Stolen Native Land!