Ten years in the past on July twenty seventh 2012, because the London 2012 Olympics had been getting underway in Stratford, folks, primarily from the native space, marched to name for an finish to the company takeover of the Olympics and the draconian policing and army presence largely aimed on the safety of manufacturers and for the video games to satisfy its legacy guarantees.
The authorities had completed their damnedest to cease the protest going down – first they’d tried to ban it altogether, then Transport for London had refused permission for them to march alongside any roads which had been emergency backup Video games routes. However protesters agreed with police that they would go away the street if there was any emergency. Tower Hamlets council tried to ban any speeches or different occasions on Wennington Inexperienced the place the march ended, and protesters had been threatened they’d be arrested in the event that they carried banners, placards or t-shirts with political messages – although it was laborious to see any authorized foundation for doing so.
The ‘Whose Video games? Whose Metropolis?’ protest went forward regardless of the threats, with just one small incident when police seized and searched a person who had lower a chunk of police tape. A crowd of marchers supported them and shouted for his launch and after a couple of minutes he was let out with out cost and the march continued.
The threats and public controversy had probably persuaded many to not come to the occasion, the place round 500 marchers mingled with press and TV from all over the world at the place to begin in Mile Finish Park at noon. The organisers, the Counter Olympics Community (CON) had made clear that they weren’t in opposition to the Olympics as a sporting occasion however in opposition to the best way it had been taken over by company pursuits. In my lengthy account of the occasion on My London Diary I quoted from a number of of their statements, together with:
"the shut ties between the Olympic model and its company sponsors who, regardless of IOC claims of vetting on moral grounds, embody serial polluters, firms which severely harm the setting and which wreck or take lives, Coca Cola, Rio Tinto, BP, Dow Chemical. G4S, Cisco, and Atos deny folks their human rights in quite a lot of conditions whereas Macdonalds helps to gasoline the weight problems epidemic. London2012 gives advantages at taxpayers’ expense whereas receiving little in return."
CON additionally identified the numerous damaged guarantees made in regards to the video games and the very uncertain legacy the video games will depart, notably in East London.
"the dearth of advantages for native folks and companies, the unbelievable growth of safety into our each day lives, the deployment of missiles and enormous numbers of troops, the unwarranted seizure of public land at Wanstead Flats, Leyton Marsh and Greenwich Park."
Later in his speech on Wennington Inexperienced, Chris Nineham of the Cease The Olympic Missiles Marketing campaign declared that the London Olympics had already set a variety of data, together with the most important ever variety of arrests on the primary day, the very best ticket costs, probably the most intensive software of branding guidelines and the very best degree of militarisation of any Olympic video games, with way more being spent on safety that even in China. There have been now extra troops in London than at any time since World Struggle 2, and greater than at any time in Afghanistan, the place our army actions had been now making us a terrorist goal in London. Among the many different audio system was Melanie Strickland, one of many 182 ‘Important Mass’ cyclists arrested the earlier evening for using close to the Olympic stadium.
I had recognized and photographed the Olympic space for the reason that early Eighties till the general public had been all excluded from the huge web site in 2007 and after after we had been solely capable of peer over the blue fence. In 2010 I introduced out a guide ‘Earlier than The Olympics’ which included many photos of the realm within the thirty years or so earlier than they happened, in addition to wanting extra extensively alongside the size of the River Lea and the Navigation. Most individuals miss that components of the realm had been previously thriving industrial and industrial websites, others a verdant wilderness – and naturally some thriving allotments. After all there have been some advantages following 2012 – extra housing is one thing London desperately wants, however a lot was already being deliberate earlier than the bid succeeded. However the park stays to me deeply disappointing.
The guide remains to be obtainable and it’s best to be capable of view a preview at ‘Earlier than the Olympics‘ although Blurb seems to be having some issues for the time being; it’s a ridiculously extremely priced softback, however there’s a extra cheap PDF model. The guide consists of lots of my photos of the realm that are additionally on my The Lea Valley site together with primarily black and white photographs from the Eighties and 90s and color from the 2000s. Later photographs from earlier than and after 2012 are on numerous pages of My London Diary. There’s a massive assortment of the black and white photographs in my Flickr album River Lea – Lea Navigation 1981-1992 together with many from what grew to become the Olympic web site.
Tags: allotments, ATOS, Earlier than the Olympics, Bethnal Inexperienced, Bow, BP, damaged guarantees, Coca Cola, CON, company takeover, Dow, draconian policing, legacy, London, London 2012, London Olympics, London Photographs, Manor Gardens, march, March for a Individuals’s Olympics, Mile Finish, Newham, Olympics, peter Marshall, police, protest, Stratford, Stratford Marsh, threats, Tower Hamlets, poisonous manufacturers, Wennington Inexperienced, Whose Metropolis, Whose Video games
You possibly can depart a response, or trackback from your individual web site.
