By Robert Stevens - 15 May 2012

Tenants in east London are being evicted from their homes in the run-up to the London Olympics Games...In one case a woman told the BBC that she and her four house-mates had been evicted after being given just two weeks to leave. Another couple reported they had been given three weeks to get out...Seeking to cash in on the Olympics, some private landlords are letting their properties for 20 times the usual rental price during the games.

By Dave Zirin - May 14, 2012

It’s not just the costs or the incredible invasion into people’s privacy. It’s the powers being given to police under the 2006 “London Olympic Games Act,” which empowers not only the army and police but also private security forces to deal with “security issues” using physical force. These “security issues” have been broadly defined to include everything from “terrorism” to peaceful protesters, to labor unions, to people selling bootleg Olympic products on the streets...

By Richard Tyler - 9 May 2012

Billions of pounds are provided to the police, military and intelligence agencies to fund a mobilization of state forces on a scale never seen in London in peacetime. Once more, the “war on terror” is being used to accustom Londoners to seeing soldiers on the streets, warships on the Thames, and fighter aircraft in the skies.

By Tim Dobson - Green Left Weekly

The 30th Olympic games will begin in July in London as Britain's Conservative-Liberal Democratic government imposes savage austerity measures on the public. The excitement of watching the world's sporting best compete is mixed with fears of social and economic upheaval.

By Dave Zirin - April 30, 2012

Institutional support of police brutality against a workforce either unemployed or limited to service jobs was the flammable mix saturating the streets of Los Angeles, which caught fire when Rodney King hit the nightly news...There are lessons here, if we are willing to learn them. For cities like London and Rio, the host cities of the next two Olympic Games, attack the working poor of your country in the name of “Olympic security” at your own peril.

By Dave Zirin - February 29, 2012

If you were part of the 99 percent in the United Kingdom, you’d be forgiven for being somewhat befuddled at the moment. Deep spending cuts, austerity and privatization plans are the political agenda in Parliament, yet the country also is preparing full-blast for a little trifle called the Olympic Games...In addition, there will be at least 13,500 British troops in the UK for the Olympics, more than are stationed in Afghanistan...Welcome to “conservative” governance in the twenty-first century: a militarized, budget busting, carnival of neo-liberalism disguised as sport.

By Paul Stuart - 1 February 2012

The security operation will begin when the Olympic flame arrives in Lands End, Cornwall, and will finish after the closing ceremony of the Para-Olympic games, approximately three months later. For this period, up to 23,700 security guards (including 3,000 unpaid volunteers) will be provided by G4S [private security]. They will join 13,500 military personnel, a larger force than the 10,000 British soldiers deployed in Afghanistan, and almost 12,000 police, as many as were deployed in last August’s rioting.

By Paul Stuart - 7 December 2011

...[W]ith four years of austerity and the districts surrounding the [London] Olympic site sinking into desperate hardship, and the eruption of riots this summer, the games are being approached based on the calculation that Britain is a country on the edge of mass social conflict...Preparations have assumed the character of an orgy of luxury and ostentatious displays of wealth by the financial elite, coupled with police-state measures directed against working class districts.

By Dave Zirin - August 12, 2011

...[E]very historical precedent points to an increased crackdown in the months ahead, which will only further fan tomorrow’s flames. We have a collision coming between the Olympic Monolith and the poor, angry youth of Great Britain. Conflict is ensured if David Cameron’s ultimate response continues to be, “Let them eat beach volleyball.”

By Werner Albrecht - WSWS

Going back further into the history of the Olympics, one must conclude they have diverged far from the intent of their modern father, Pierre de Coubertin. There is not much left of his initial vision of fair play and uniting the world’s peoples. Today, it is all about national prestige and big business, with corruption, bribery and doping playing ever-increasing roles.

By Dave Zirin - May 12, 2011

In the 21st century...sporting events require more than stadiums and hotels. The host country must provide a massive security apparatus, a willingness to crush civil liberties, and the will to create the kind of "infrastructure" these games demand. That means not just stadiums, but sparkling new stadiums. That means not just security, but the latest in anti-terrorist technology. That means not just new transportation to and from venues, but hiding unsightly poverty from those traveling to and from the games.

February 21, 2011 - Vancouver Media Co-op

The affordable housing component of the Athletes Village has been reduced from a planned 66% to less than 10%. The units promised to the poor and working poor remain empty and unsellable, and the city refuses to allow anyone but the richest to call them home. On February 17th, [developer] Bob Rennie and the City shamelessly relaunched their condo sales campaign at the Olympic Village for the third time, attempting yet again to sell-out promised social housing units.

By Zig Zag - February 17, 2011

Back in November 2009, Victoria police chief Jamie Graham caused a minor controversy when he claimed that anti-Olympic protesters had rented a bus driven by an undercover cop. The occasion was the start of the Olympic torch relay, on October 30, 2009, in Victoria. Vancouver-based members of the Olympic Resistance Network (ORN) rented the bus.

February 13, 2011 - Vancouver Media Co-op

"I don't think a media centre is high on the list [of] what's going to help the poorest people down there. It seems to me that a place like that is there because when developers pitch ideas, one of the ways they make it a little more palatable is by sticking on supposedly progressive extras. But the space is an empty gesture because it only seems progressive for people who don't live there...not the poor people who live there, which makes it wonderful for developers..."

-- "John", a long time Downtown Eastside front-line worker, commenting on the W2 media centre.

By Maryann Abbs - Vancouver Media Co-op

A feisty housing rally and snake march through Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside attracted more than 150 people [on Saturday], despite the drenching rain. The housing march was called in solidarity with the “Ten Sites Campaign” and in support of the upcoming Olympic village tent city. The action coincided with the first anniversary of the opening of the Vancouver Olympic games, which accelerated gentrification and homelessness in the city.