IOC creates spectre of 'terrorism' at Olympics
By Stuart Russell
Aboriginal leaders have reacted angrily to remarks suggesting that they intend to "hijack" the Sydney Olympic Games. After visiting last month, the chairman of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) warned that Aboriginal groups and "other ethnic minorities" might "hijack" and take "hostage" the games.
Charles Perkins accused the Sydney Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (SOCOG) of orchestrating the remarks in order to threaten Aboriginal people, and denounced the committee's lack of proper consultation with Aboriginal people.
Lyle Munro, a former chairperson of the Aboriginal Legal Service, stated that Aboriginal groups might lobby black nations to boycott the games. In 1976, 22 African nations boycotted the Montreal Games, to protest the New Zealand rugby team's tour of South Africa.
The NSW minister for the Olympics has denied Perkins' claim that SOCOG encouraged the IOC to make the remarks, but this is not credible. Only a week before the IOC's visit, the chief executive officer of SOCOG publicly warned that Aboriginal people would use the games to highlight their grievances.
At the same time, the coordinator of the Carpentaria Land Council stated that Aboriginal people should call on South Africa and other countries with indigenous-controlled governments to boycott the 2000 Olympics, as an act of solidarity with Aboriginal people in Australia. The games are a profit-making enterprise, and a boycott would further tarnish the Olympics image and reduce the profit margin of businesses.
Aboriginal people have not"hijacked" the 2000 Olympics. Rather, the IOC is engaging in hijacking, by transforming a threat of peaceful protest into a criminal act of terrorism. It is obvious that the IOC was briefed by SOCOG about the threat of protests by Aboriginal people.
The IOC was extremely embarrassed by the gigantic security failure at the Atlanta Games, and is going out of its way to ensure that it is not repeated in four years. Attempting to whip up racist hysteria about Aboriginal people engaging in violent acts against the 2000 Games, is intended to turn public opinion against the Aboriginal community, in the hope that such pressure will force Aboriginal people, and every other sector of Australian society with a grievance, to keep quiet during the games.
The IOC did not meet with Aboriginal people during its most recent visit. Rather it prefers to unleash a confrontational dynamic directed against one of Australia's most powerless communities. Such threats will increase the level of racism in Australia. John Howard's supposed support for "free speech" would not seem to extend to the right of Aboriginal people to protest peacefully at the Sydney Games, for he failed to speak out against the IOC's utterances.
Aboriginal people have a legitimate right to use the Olympics as a forum in which to pursue their struggle for land rights and survival. And they have good reason to be angry about the Olympics. Their land claims have not been settled, and accordingly the many Olympic installations are housed on stolen land. There has been nothing more than tokenistic and minimal involvement of Aboriginal people in SOCOG.
Statements like those by the IOC are designed to create a climate of fear, which could provide the basis for anti-democratic emergency legislation against the right to protest during the games. Following the fiasco in Atlanta, it is clear that Sydney will be transformed into an armed encampment during the games to ensure that no security violations occur. Therefore the trade unions, the left and all movements for social change have a stake in strongly defending the right of Aboriginal people and every other community to protest during the games.
The added danger is that ASIO and other security and police services will use the IOC's hysteria to step up surveillance of Aboriginal and ethnic groups. This may lead to invasions of privacy and other civil liberties violations. It may also include the use of agents provocateurs and informants, designed to discredit and destabilise the work of these communities.
Following the Atlanta security scandal, security plans for the Sydney Games have been seriously upgraded, and ASIO will be asking the federal government for increased funds in connection with the Games. According to SOCOG, this security plan "will provide the highest level of security to all Olympics participants and visitors in an unobtrusive hospitable manner and will ensure that there are no disruptions to the Olympic Games".
Sydney is already shaping up as the "Fortress Games", with new plans for a giant chain-mail fence around the games site severely hampering crowd movement and limiting access points. Recent security technology like optic, voice and fingerprint technology, will be used to accredit officials, staff and athletes.
The IOC's warnings also explode the myth of the "non-political" nature of sport. The sheer hypocrisy of the Olympic tradition is that it is fine for Coca-Cola and other multinationals to parade their corporate consumerist messages before the world at the Olympic Games, but it is unacceptable for Aboriginal people and other oppressed groups to mobilise around the fundamental right of survival.
Similarly, it was fine for the US team to refuse to go to the Moscow Games in 1980 and the Russians to Los Angeles in 1984, but it is an outrage for Aboriginal people to call for a boycott of the Sydney Games.
SOCOG, ASIO and the other arms of government are well organised for the 2000 Games. It would be naive and dangerous to wait until the year 2000 before countering the anti-democratic Olympics hysteria, when the pressure on public protest will be intense. Now is the time to take action, to ensure that our civil liberties are not trampled on during the Sydney Games.