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  Issue No 72 Official Organ of LaborNet 06 October 2000  

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Letters to the Editor

End the Olympics?


John Howard would be mad to call an early election, although the euphoria of Australia holding the Olympics and winning medals must be tempting him.

Politically the Olympics are fool's gold. There's no guarantee the Australian electorate would link Howard to sporting wins, or what appears at this stage to be the success in holding the Games.

Anyway, the Coalition doesn't have a double dissolution trigger. That's only likely to happen in October when the Senate again rejects Peter Reith's industrial relations legislation. At the earliest we would be voting in December and by then the Games will be forgotten.

Once the Olympic brouhaha has died down, the same old economic problems will re-emerge to dominate the thinking of ordinary Australians. Winning at the Olympics doesn't change any of the realities of life under market capitalism.

The dollar will still be below value. Wages will remain inadequate. Petrol prices will stay at over $1 a litre. The threat of higher interest rates will not go away. The long-term unemployed will still be unemployed. Hospitals and schools will continue to be under-funded.

The problem for Howard is that the Australian voter is sophisticated enough to ignore sporting prowess and nationalistic fervour when it comes to selecting who will govern us for the next few years. If Howard does go early it can only be because he thinks so little of the Australian voter and their ability to analyse issues.

The opening ceremony should give Howard cause to pause. The symbolism of Cathy Freeman lighting the cauldron, and the empathy it provoked, show that Australians have not allowed the emotion of the Olympics to cloud their judgement on issues like Aboriginal reconciliation.

Symbols are important. They reflect an underlying truth. Thus the Queen as Australia's head of State is a product of the country's recent past. (Of course symbols outgrow their usefulness and the Queen is an historical anachronism for most Australians.)

Cathy Freeman, torch in hand, represented our hope for reconciliation. But lighting a fire doesn't address the real issues facing our first inhabitants - their dispossession and alienation. The Olympic flame is not a magic wand. It won't improve the physical or economic well-being of Aborigines.

So while Cathy Freeman took a step forward for her people, it will become a backward one if concrete actions - such as establishing a comprehensive land rights and compensation program - are not forthcoming. John Howard is not the man for that job. And most of us know that. So if the Prime Minister tries to ride on Ian Thorpe's back, the image of Cathy Freeman at the cauldron is a powerful one to remind us of the Prime Minister's inadequacies.

The Olympics has its own symbolism, the best being Juan Antonio Samaranch as its leader. Dear Juan Antonio - a former Minister in Franco's fascist Government. And the Olympic torch wending its way through enthusiastic crowds? What a great idea. Hitler's Government pioneered it.

Of course, fascist connections do not make the Olympics fascist. But the Nazis were all about eliminating working class ideas of community - trade unions and social democratic and socialist parties - and replacing them with nationalistic and racially based alternatives. Not that there would be nationalism or racism at the Sydney Games, would there?

Winning gold can only be understood in the context of Australian society and our place in the world. We are a rich nation. Only such nations (or those aspiring to be rich) have the wherewithal to stage the Olympics. When for example will the Games be held in Dili?

And the list of winners in the Olympics will by and large be a list of the rich nations of the world. The medal winners will be an elite within those rich nations. They will not, in general, be ordinary working people. They will be professionals, supported by the taxes of salary and wage earners.

Since capitalism is a system which puts a dollar value on everything, how economically productive are our elite sportspeople? Let an economist analyse them all - the swimming program, the cricket institute, the runners, the lot.

The results of our sporting largesse - quickly forgotten victories and a bit of shallow vicarious pride - are not worth the $200 million wepump into elite sport each year. Let's re-distribute this money into local sport so that more Australians exercise. Better to be participants than voyeurs.

Many of the individuals who do win medals are, or become, very rich. What would Michael Johnson, with 24 carat gold droplets on his runners, know or care about poorly paid Nike workers? This obscenity is what the S11 protesters railed against in Melbourne recently.

Sport has become a global business. Elite athletes compete all around the world against other elite athletes. They train under the best coaches where the conditions are best. Countries try to poach good athletes and great coaches.

The Russian swimmer Popov trains at the AIS in Canberra and most of our equestrians apparently live and train overseas. Elite athletes are members of an exclusive club, not members of a nation. What meaning can it have to describe someone like that as an Australian?

The new world economy is one in which national borders are becoming irrelevant. Yet this internationalism is not reflected in the Olympics. Individuals compete under national banners. And the economic globalists cheer on "their" athletes. They know that our circus protects their bread.

Politics. Globalisation. Business. Nationalism.

Isn't it time this Olympic anachronism ended?

John Passant


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*   View entire issue - print all of the articles!

*   Issue 72 contents

In this issue
Features
*  Interview: Taking It To The Union Busters
ACTU Assistant Secretary Richard Marles talks to Workers Online about turning back the anti-union sentiment growing in the business community, responsible unionism and the sense of fun to be found at the ACTU.
*
*  International: The White Knights
The International Labour Organisation has become the great hope for those fighting to give globalisation a human face. Australian Bob Kyloh is one of those working with trade unions within the ILO to make it happen.
*
*  Politics: Industrial Democracy for Australia
Glenn Patmore argues we need new forms of employee representation in the workplace to broaden employee participation.
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*  Unions: Behind The Scenes
In a small office at Homebush Bay, as the world focused on all that was positive about our games, Unions 2000 and SOCOG officials worked tirelessly to ensure that no worker was ripped off. Chris Christoudoulou reports.
*
*  Satire: Parade of Icons �Could Have Included Even More Ex-Aussies� Say Critics
The selection of Greg Norman, Paul Hogan and Elle Macpherson to represent Australia in the �Parade of Icons� during the Closing Ceremony of the Sydney Games last night has prompted a storm of complaints from other famous former Australians.
*
*  Review: Elliott Smiths Figure 8
Smith is basically the secret love child of the fab four and it�s so blatantly obvious. That�s not a bad thing because one thing Lennon and McCartney were reknown for was there ability to pen catchy tunes.
*

News
»  Interstate Rail Workers Rebel Against AWAs
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»  Australia Post Exposes Staff to Bomb Danger
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»  Alliance Builds Against Commonwealth Bank
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»  Carr Lauds Union Movement For Golden Olympics
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»  Big Brother Unwelcome In Child Care Centres
*
»  Council Workers Win Community Language Allowance
*
»  Fiji Facing Dictatorship
*
»  Home Care Win Recognises Community Contribution
*
»  Pressures Mount on Truckies
*
»  Industrial Action Looms At IBM Global
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»  In Your Face Provocateurs
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»  Putting A Stop To Workplace Intimidation
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»  Australian History To Be Buried Alive
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Columns
»  Away For The Games
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»  Sport
*
»  Trades Hall
*
»  Tool Shed
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Letters to the editor
»  Brits Look To Cuba For Health Solutions
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»  Looking For Donnelly
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»  Union Official Nominates For Telstra Board
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»  End the Olympics?
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