Bondi speak-out on Olympic deceit
BY MELANIE SJOBERG
SYDNEY — Riding the wave of protest against the volleyball stadium on Bondi Beach and against the numerous evictions imposed by profiteering property owners in the area, a lively speak-out was held at Bondi Beach here on August 6 in the looming shadow of the stadium fencing. Curious tourists and community residents paused to hear about the contradictions of the "clean green Olympic Games" and its supposed boost to the local economy.
Democratic Socialist Party Eastern Sydney secretary Marina Carman pointed out that the bid for the Olympics had been won in a climate of deceit, the Australian government covering its record of indigenous and human rights abuses with a veneer of equality and justice.
Carman said the reality — abuses of refugees and ongoing deaths in custody of Aboriginal people — sharply exposed the games' ethos of harmony and democracy.
Green Left Weekly journalist Sean Healy expressed his disgust at the hype surrounding the games. He described the flag and national anthem as a hypocritical image of unity and a comfortable country.
He counterposed the bleak record of social inequality, human rights abuses and growing disparity of income and power to the corruption of the games' organisers and the opulence of spending on items like the stadium instead of public transport and housing.
Civil liberties and freedom of speech were also highlighted by speakers who pointed out that handing out leaflets or wearing a political T-shirt was enough to risk arrest or at best being told to move on by some authorised officer.
The action heard that the federal government had just passed a new amendment to the defence act that enables the military to be called in for any political disturbance and to shoot to kill. People were encouraged to spread this information and protest to senators before the amendment is debated at the end of August.
Rather than a clean green games, Daniel Jardine explained that the Olympic venue at Homebush had been developed on a toxic site that has never been given a clean bill of health.
Kevin, a Bondi resident, explained how the community had been seduced by promises of business and tourism flowing on from the stadium on the beach. He claimed that the security organisation was not planning to issue passes out, so that once people are inside the Olympic stadium, the only benefits accrue to the sponsors, not the local community.
Even the community market misses out; it is being closed down for the duration.