Rio Organizer Explains How 2016 Is Displacing the Poor

Theresa Williamson is a community organizer based in Rio. Her organization, Catalytic Communities, is invovled in protecting and developing the favelas there. She is also organizing RioOnWatch.org, which is monitoring the work around the 2106 games. Theresa was in Chicago recently to deliver an update on how the preperation for the 2016 games is affecting the poor of Rio de Janeiro.

Mike Volpe covered her appearance for CounterPunch. Read his article here.

Thank Your Stars (and No Games) That This is NOT Us

From The Mail of London, “Every day, the organisers of the 2012 Olympics must thank their lucky stars for unending global economic disaster. ‘Pheweee,’ they mutter as another basket-case economy in the Eurozone  demands another trillion on pain of implosion. Because if times were normal and stable, there would not just be an outcry about the handling of the London Games. Heads would roll. Ministers would be apologising to the House every week. Instead, we just shrug. Another billion or three chucked down the pan by another bunch of unsackable incompetents? Never mind. It’s only a few billion. That’ll barely cover their pensions anyway.” The London Games were originally budgeted at 2.4 billion pounds ($3.7 billion) and is now at 9.4 billion pounds ($14.6 billion).

Rio’s Olympic Reality – Talk December 6

Chicago Indy Media Tells The No Games Story

Thanks to Mitch Szczeppanczyk and the folks at Chicago Indy Media for this eight minute re-cap of the Folly for the 2016 Olympic Bid and the role of No Games Chicago.

Public Beware – The Privatizers Are Coming

No Games organizer Tom Tresser is working with a group of concerned citizens to fight privatization and to defend and extend the commons. His new effort is called Protect Our Public Assets and you can sign up to get updates here. Here is a brief (about seven minutes) speech laying out the situation.

New Book Tells Inside Story of No Games Chicago

Just in time for the one year mark before the start of the London 2012 games, “Dear Members of the International Olympic Committee” tells the inside story of the No Games Chicago campaign!

Click here or on the image to go to the online store for this FREE publication.

Chicago Tribune Joins No Games Chicago Coalition (Belatedly)

Should Chicago bid on the 2020 Olympics. No way, says the Chicago Tribune in a June 20 editorial. Here’s what they said:

An Olympic bid is an all-consuming exercise not only for a mayor but for corporate leaders and philanthropists. We backed the bid two years ago, but a lengthy bidding process now would hinder, not help, new mayor Rahm Emanuel‘s focus on reinventing government and promoting economic development. And let’s face it, there’s an Olympic-size sense in these parts of, “Fool me once, shame on you, fool me twice…” Anyway, it seemed like Chicagoans cooled to the Olympics as time went on. A bid from a U.S. city remains unlikely…A spokeswoman for Emanuel would not categorically rule out a bid, but said he is focused on short-term challenges, such as education and public safety. Good enough. Good luck, Rio. We’ve moved on.

What a riot! The Tribune was a huge supporter of the 2016 bid. The owner of the Tribune, Sam Zell, was listed as a contributor to the bid in the cash contributions of “$100,00 and over” and a unit of the Tribune empire, Chicago Magazine, was a pro bono contributor of services in the “Up to $100,000″ category. The paper and its staff had access to the same mountain of research that we had access to – the evidence that showed the games lost host cities billions of dollars. So can we now add the Tribune Editorial Board to the small list of allies for No Games Chicago? Your old friends at No Games have moved on. Some of us are fighting TIF abuse at The TIF Report – http://tifreports.com and some are fighting the privatization of our public infrastructure, including the ever more likely sale of our water supply! See http://www.protectourpublicwater.net. Some are supporting the parents at The Whittier School in Pilsen - see http://www.saveourcenter.com.

Citizens Oppose Russia’s 2014 Games

An international group of citizens has emerged to oppose the 2014 Winter Games to be held in Sochi Russia. NoSochi2014 lists 14 reasons for opposing the games.

The Sochi Olympics of 2014 will be the 150^th commemorative year of the Circassian Genocide. Choosing Sochi as the site of the Winter Olympics, in such an auspicious year for the Russians, represents the perpetual celebration of Imperial Russia’s oppression and systematic murder of the Circassian People. Building the Olympic Village over the mass graves of the victims symbolizes the virtual erasing of this atrocity! Read the rest of the declaration.

No Games Honored As “Protrector of the Environment”

On April 30, 2011 No Games Chicago was honored by the Chicago Audubon Society as a Protector of the Environment for our work on stopping the 2016 Olympics from coming here.

“Congratulations! The Chicago Audubon Society has just selected the recipients of its Biennial Environmental Awards. I am very pleased to tell you that “No Games Chicago’ was chosen to receive the award for “Protector of the Environment” This reflects the fact that our Board of Directors was very thankful for your work against bringing the 2016 Olympic games to Chicago, since an Olympics here would have created a number of difficulties for both parkland and other area open space, and the wildlife and birds using those habitats, for many years.”

Tom Tresser  accepted the award on behalf of all the volunteers who worked to make No Games Chicago effective and successful.

Vancouver Taxpayers On Hook for “Hundreds of Millions”

From The New York Times, February 23, 2011, a story headlined “In Vancouver, a new Effort to Sell Olympic Condos.”

A year after the winter games, fewer than half of the 737 condos have been sold — almost all as preconstruction sales in 2007 — and the city’s taxpayers now owe about 750 million Canadian dollars for a project that was never intended to be a public sector development.

A local developer has the last word in the article and says “Olympic Village is going to be a financial failure,” and predicts losses in the “hundreds of millions.”

No Games Chicago said as much from the beginning. As a new Mayor takes over here, we can all be thankful that a multi-billion dollar sinkhole is NOT on his agenda.