On June 17, at an International Olympic Committee meeting in Switzerland, Mayor Richard Daley committed the city of Chicago to cover, if needed, the entire bill for the international event in the city’s bid to host the 2016 Olympics. The 2016 games are projected to cost $4.8 billion, but the real cost will likely climb to two or three times that amount.
|
From the beginning of the Chicago bid, Mayor Daley has tried his best to sell the lie that he has the people of the city of Chicago’s best interests in mind and not his own ego and the interests of big business in mind. Daley has cynically and repeatedly said in the media that he would not put the city on the hook for the cost of the Olympics.
Mayor Daley caught so much backlash for his “flip-flop” that he held a press conference to explain. In direct contradiction to his actions and statements in Switzerland, he arrogantly announced, “I just said I will sign an agreement, I didn’t say which one.”
In reply, IOC president Jacques Rogge stated, “The mayor said he will sign the host city contract. We have only one host city contract … there is no amendment to the host city contract whatsoever from the IOC.”
The people of Chicago, especially in Black and Latino communities where job losses and foreclosures have hit the hardest, have voiced loud opposition to the city’s plans. They are putting up a serious fight, starting in the streets. Multiple protests have been staged in Chicago by dozens of community organizations to fight the Olympics bid.
Cynthia Bowman told the Chicago Tribune that she is nervous “about being displaced.” Bowman is a long time Washington Park resident, one of the proposed sites for an Olympic stadium. She expressed concern about gentrification and the future makeup of her neighborhood.
The mayor is also using his powerful influence to coerce city institutions to support the bid process. Chicago Teachers Union spokeswoman Rosemaria Genova says an email from Board President Michael Scott attempts to force schools to support the city’s bid to host the Summer Olympics in 2016.
The history of the Olympics clearly shows that host cities in imperialist countries bid for the games without consideration for the residents of the city. Those who will benefit see the Olympics as a big moneymaker, and as such recruit city politicians and administrators to make it happen.
The Olympics will enrich a tiny handful of people by diverting city resources, exploiting poorer workers and displacing people through gentrification and neighborhood “cleansing.” In short, big business makes super profits while workers and the poor bear the costs.
London “won” the 2012 Olympics with a bid of nearly $2 billion. But projected costs could reach as high as $8 to $10 billion when all is said and done.
While the recession’s end is nowhere in sight, it is outrageous for Mayor Daley to put the people of Chicago on the hook for billions more dollars. Outrageous, but not surprising: Daley is a capitalist politician, a life-long administrator for the ruling class.
Daley and his entourage are pulling out all the stops when it comes to carrying out the sale of city services to private corporations. Daley sold the Chicago Skyway, and the expressway in the city. He attempted to sell Midway airport and he recently sold the downtown parking structures and the city’s parking meters to Morgan Stanley.
The Olympics is just another example of capitalist politicians doing the bidding of the rich. It is outrageous, but expected under a system that allows people to starve while throwing away food and people to go homeless when there are millions of empty homes.
The people of Chicago should not have to pay one penny for the Olympics. Together, we can stop the Olympic bid and the destruction of working-class and poor neighborhoods.
