Presented as an exceptional global event (Paris, Saint-Denis and other cities in France… or Polynesia from July 24 to September 8, 2024), the JOP are the pretext to accelerate the implementation of antisocial, ultra-liberal, harmful policies for the vast majority of the population.
The JOP but also the Grand Paris Express are part of and accelerate a global project for the development and restructuring of the Paris region and in particular the north-east of Paris. The objective is to monitor more or to send the working classes of this territory as far away as possible. Aubervilliers, Saint-Denis, Saint-Ouen, L’Île-Saint-Denis, La Courneuve but also other towns in Seine-Saint-Denis are largely impacted.
The JOP is an event that gives pride of place to multinationals and profit. The decision for the host city is made by the International Olympic Committee based in Lausanne, an opaque institution which imposes its criteria which have nothing to do with the needs of the inhabitants. Let us also remember that with regard to the 2024 Games, Paris remained alone in the running. Cities like Hamburg and Munich withdrew after the organization of referendums, Boston thanks to popular mobilizations, and Rome following the election of a new mayor. Nothing comparable could have taken place in France. Event managed, with the complicity of local elected officials, by the COJO, SOLIDEO, the Ministry of Sports, an interministerial delegation and under the direct aegis of Matignon and the Élysée.
It is also an anti-democratic demonstration, without consideration for local populations and with disregard for human rights. The participation in the Games of a genocidal state like Israel bears witness to this…
An anti-social project
Increase in rents, evictions of residents from squats and hostels (at least 700 from L’Île-Saint-Denis), destruction of Roma camps, requisition of student hostels, removal of the homeless, migrants es and other precarious populations, these are the first impacts of JOPs in terms of housing. As for the construction of the Olympic Village, we are asking to see how it will be used afterwards. Given the advertising made by the developers, these homes are not intended for racialized and working-class residents of the area. The generalization of the AirBnB system increases prices and reduces rental possibilities for local populations.
The anti-social aspect of the JOP also involves the use of thousands of volunteers who will work for free during this period. Instead of creating jobs, this event will contribute to further breaking labor laws. However, the creation of salaried jobs would have cost only a tiny part of the JOP budget (see the Anticapitalist No. 707 of May 9, 2024).
As part of this event, employers, particularly in the public sector, are seriously restricting their employees’ right to go on vacation during the period. The case of railway workers, health personnel, employees of Plaine Commune or the Judicial Protection of Youth constitute only a few examples. Those who will work during the Olympics should therefore accept poor working and transport conditions because “Seine-Saint-Denis is preparing to welcome the world! »as the Departmental Council boasts.
A security, repressive, liberticidal project
The implementation of the JOP law allows the development and application of a global citizen surveillance policy which risks becoming permanent. Surveillance which is accompanied by increasingly widespread repressive and security practices.
With the Rugby Cup, the population of Saint-Denis experienced a dress rehearsal of what awaits them during the JOPs. The law of May 19, 2023 relating to the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games has everything planned. Not only does it authorize an even wider opening of stores on Sundays, further breaking the labor code, but it also adds a package of security measures.
The law of May 19, 2023 relating to the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games authorizes an even wider opening of stores on Sundays, further breaking the labor code but it also adds a package of security measures
Taking the JOP as a pretext, this law authorizes, upon its promulgation, on May 20, 2023 and until March 31, 2025, the experimentation with intelligent video surveillance of sporting, recreational or cultural events, body scanners at the entrance to stadiums. It also provides for the coordination of security forces, including on public transport. It extends the powers of the Paris police prefect during the Games period, who will be solely responsible for public order in Ile-de-France. It extends the screening procedure (administrative security investigations) to fan zones as well as participants in major events. It makes it possible to use body scanners at the entrance to stadiums and other venues welcoming more than 300 people. The palpation control system is also maintained. The law also allows the systematization of judicial bans on stadiums.
It is clear that this law adds a series of repressive measures to those that already existed. The fact that it is applicable from its promulgation until March 2025 is revealing. This is not a law which aims at the safety of athletes and supporters but a law which seeks to subdue citizens even more, to normalize and perpetuate repressive and security methods.
The population of Saint-Denis is already paying the price. The municipality is proud to announce the recruitment of 120 additional police officers and the installation of 400 additional video surveillance cameras, in 2024. In addition to the violence of the national police and the BAC, omnipresent everywhere and every day, is added that armed and particularly zealous municipal police.
Saturated public transport, restricted mobility
Residents, employees, students of Seine-Saint-Denis are used to public transport problems. Metro line 13, permanently overloaded, is a symbol of difficulties and poor transport conditions. Everyone is wondering how things will happen during the JOP period. Even the authorities must be faced with the same questions. Otherwise, how can we explain their messages, everywhere, concerning the need to anticipate travel during this period or the various and varied suggestions for departure during this period.
Other disadvantages are added to saturation during this period. For example, the Champs-Élysées Clemenceau metro station which connects Saint-Denis and Saint-Ouen to the center of Paris by connecting with line 1 will be closed from July 1 to September 21, 2024. Many other stations will be closed during this period. However, the RATP is talking about an additional offer of 15% for this period…
Furthermore, the increase in the price of a metro ticket to 4 euros each, between July 20 and September 8, does not only concern visitors. Anyone without a Navigo subscription would have to pay more.
Ecological project: a bad joke
The organizers of the Games have committed to emitting half as much CO2 as the London Olympics in 2012. However, twelve years later, given the acceleration and severity of the climate crisis, such an objective is not up to par. issues. How can an event that will move 13 million people, the majority of them by plane, be ecological? Let us recall, for example, also that in the name of the JOP we began to destroy the allotment gardens in Aubervilliers, we used part of the Georges-Valbon Park in Dugny to build the media village. There is also the dramatic example of the construction of a motorway interchange in the immediate vicinity of the Anatole-France school in the Pleyel district of Saint-Denis…
How can an event that will move 13 million people, the majority of them by plane, be ecological?
Contempt for residents and their needs
Unemployment, insecurity, poor housing, lack of quality public services, it is certain that the inhabitants of Seine-Saint-Denis have other concerns than the JOP. However, in an increasingly secure and repressive climate, they are discovering the negative impact of the Games on their living and working conditions, their environment, their possibilities of access to housing, transport, sports and culture.
Throughout the 2023-2024 school year, while the population was bombarded with soothing speeches about the benefits of sport and the future legacy of the facilities, students and members of sports associations were banned from access to installations under construction. So – sad observation! – 60% of children in the department do not know how to swim when they enter middle school (and 50% when they leave, national record), due to lack of a swimming pool, the cost of the Olympic aquatic center would have made it possible to build 15 swimming pools! As for access to this center after the Olympics, promised to be privately managed, there is little chance that students from the pool will use it much! This will be the same for the Marville swimming pool, the management of which is also privatized after its renovation for the JOP.
Furthermore, in a department where the needs for public services such as health and education are not met, the billions spent on the Games constitute a real scandal. Parents and teachers who have been mobilizing for months for an Emergency Plan in 93, without being taken into account and without the solidarity of municipalities like that of Saint-Denis, are particularly angry. They find themselves faced with elected officials who try to sell a project at all costs “ecological of economic and territorial development”.
The absence of a real consultation of the local population allowed neither debate nor the construction of a strong opposition to this project. However, mobilizations exist around the Olympics. In October 2023, undocumented workers mobilized on construction sites linked to the Olympic Games with the slogan “No papers, no Olympics” to request their regularization. In addition, a JOP monitoring committee was formed and certain projects such as the motorway interchange in Pleyel, the destruction of gardens in Aubervilliers, the bowling alley of La Courneuve have seen the birth of collectives of residents who are fighting to defend their neighborhood against the harmful effects of JOP. Saccage 2024 has also been trying, for several years, to mobilize around the negative effects of the Games on a social, economic, ecological and democratic level.
The Olympics are a financial windfall for construction companies and communities, so that they can carry out their major infrastructure projects which do not always suit residents. Let’s not wait for money from the big capitalist festivals to renovate our homes and our streets. Major projects must be done for residents, in consultation with them, with public money that does not go into the pockets of capitalists. And it depends on our mobilizations. o
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