While the Paris Olympics have just ended and the Paralympic Games are
beginning, the whole event resembles the fiasco that activistorganizations have been denouncing for years. The opening ceremony of
the Olympics, half-heartedly assumed by the government, which
nevertheless apologized to the reactionaries outraged by the use of
classical references, was a formidable propaganda tool by allowing the
various scandals that punctuated the Games to be masked.
The Olympics were notable for the expulsion of homeless Parisians,
students from the Crous to house the athletes, the ban on French
athletes competing veiled (going against the IOC's opinion on the
matter) and the poop in the Seine, which was suspected of being the
cause of the hospitalization of athletes. The presence of Nelson
Montfort, whose retirement we are eagerly awaiting, in the commentary of
certain events, embodies the immense work of combating sexism that
remains to be done in the sports departments of the channels. The
transmission of the events itself was the embodiment of the destruction
of the public service, since some of the retransmissions were sold to
Eurosport, a private channel for which it is necessary to pay a
subscription.
A propaganda exercise
The opening ceremony was a summit of liberal communication, managing to
make us forget the political realities of the country by presenting a
progressive, even revolutionary facade. We were thus surprised to see a
golden statue representing Louise Michel emerging from the Seine.
Accompanied by a banner recalling her solidarity with the Kanak people,
without any link being made with the current situation of the
archipelago. We could also have been enthusiastic about the decapitated
figure of Marie-Antoinette intoning an "Ah! ça ira", or seeing Aya
Nakamura sing in front of the Académie française... But that would be
forgetting a little too quickly the election of 126 RN deputies less
than two months before.
For two weeks, the public information service was on a loop on the
various sporting exploits, suddenly making the national and
international political context disappear. Silence also on the political
facts that punctuated these Games, fortunately documented by the
independent press. On the field of work first, with professionals
excluded from the Olympic Games because of their activist activities[1],
and the deplorable hiring and working conditions of the workers of the
Olympic Games on which the labor inspectorate opened an
investigation[2]. But also on the ultra-security management of these
Games is repressive with the generalization of video surveillance[3]and
the arbitrary house arrest of dozens of people[4]including several
minors[5].
On October 8, 2023, on the occasion of Paralympic Day, the collectives
Les Dévalideuses and Les Dégommeuses burst into the Place de la
République in Paris to denounce France's ableism.
Les Dévalideuses
The desire to erase any sign of protest was felt in the omnipresent
police control on the sites and was marked by the placement in police
custody of eight activists from the collective Les Hijabeuses, an arrest
with clearly racist and political motives[6]. The transphobic and
intersexophobic controversy surrounding boxer Imane Khelif (see our
article Boxing: The gender police strike again) revealed the lack of
training of a large part of the media and activist scene on these issues
and was a reminder of the transphobic offensive carried out by fascists
and conservatives in France and internationally.
Those who gorge themselves
And all this for what benefit? In addition to a pretext for toughening
security policies and a general strengthening of the already stifling
nationalist atmosphere? Already that of the large groups that are part
of the "premium partners", first and foremost LVMH, omnipresent: from
the opening ceremony to the medals, designed by Chaumet, the group's
jeweler, Bernard Arnault's luxury empire will have maximized its
presence throughout these supposedly "popular" Games. But the event was
also an opportunity for others to directly fill their pockets: GL
Events, a company headed by Olivier Ginon, a close friend of Emmanuel
Macron, carried out more than 70% of the temporary developments of the
Olympic Games for an amount that the organizers refuse to disclose.
For our part, we can only hope for crumbs: if multiple platforms calling
for a real policy of development of sports practices in France were
published at the end of the Olympic Games, in reality the situation
remains at a standstill, while the situation of amateur clubs is
increasingly complicated in the face of the elimination of subsidies and
subsidized jobs, forcing them to rely on the contributions of their
members, which are increasingly costly.
The Paralympic Games, the tree that hides ableism
The Paralympic Games which started on August 28 are also not free of
systemic and organizational problems. Systemic since they involve, first
of all, a classification of disabilities to determine categories but
also because their promotion is fundamentally ableist, as indicated by
the researcher Charlotte Puiseux interviewed by Mediapart[7]: the
representations of disability oscillate between miserabilism and
minimization; it becomes "a force", especially in the representations of
athletes competing with prosthetics.
These rhetoric forces athletes to fit into a box in order to gain
visibility and thus hope for a chance of funding. Because para-sports
are expensive: in addition to the question of access to clubs to
practice (and therefore potentially significant travel times), there is
the question of financing adapted equipment, but also of working time
arrangements. In a country where the AAH (Allocation adulte handicapé,
on which some athletes live) is just above the poverty line and where
access to a job with a RQTH[8]is an obstacle course, some are forced to
give up care or meals in order to be able to practice[9].
The organization of the Paralympics also allows the city of Paris to
forget the recurring criticisms concerning the lack of accessibility of
its metro, or, in a general way, the lack of application of the laws
concerning the access for PRM of a large number of public places.
Observations that make teeth grind when Tony Estanguet, president of the
organizing committee of the Paris Olympic Games, starts to speak of a
"Paralympic revolution" in his opening speech, sprinkling a
revolutionary metaphor throughout, while specifying from the beginning
that it will be a revolution "without storming the Bastille and without
Guillotine". A cheap revolution, disarmed and without effect on the
world, an imagery of a national novel emptied of all meaning and ambition.
Faced with this void, it is up to us to invent and build a truly popular
and emancipatory sport, and why not, truly revolutionary?
Marco Pagot and N. Bartosek (UCL Alsace)
Validate
[1]Environmental activists or those for social justice, they were
excluded from the Olympic Games, August 8, 2024, Mediapart.
[2]Paris 2024: the "day package" or the distress of workers on
fixed-term contracts for the Olympic Games, August 25, 2024, l'Humanité.
[3]Video surveillance boosted by the Olympic Games: Crazy money,
questionable efficiency, August 8, 2024, Blast.
[4]As the Olympic Games approach, house arrests rain down and destroy
lives, July 17, 2024, Mediapart.
[5]At least seven teenagers are among those placed under house arrest
this summer, August 15, 2024, Mediapart.
[6]Eight women from the Hijabeuses collective were taken into custody on
the sidelines of the Olympic Games, August 16, 2024, Mediapart.
[7]Separating the Paralympic Games from the Olympics, a status quo that
raises questions, August 28, 2024, Mediapart.
[8]Recognition of the status of disabled worker
[9]Precariousness, a major obstacle for Paralympic athletes, August 26,
2024, Mediapart.
https://www.unioncommunistelibertaire.org/?Jeux-olympiques-et-paralympiques-JOP-propagande-validisme-et-grand-capital
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