On The Olympic Games:
Communique from the CP of Greece (KKE)

It is only a few weeks to the official opening of the Olympic 
Games in Greece.

The New Democracy and PASOK [social democrat] party propaganda is 
already limited to finishing the Olympic works on time, in order 
to disorient the people and to focus their attention on Greece's 
"consistency" in achieving the so-called "national goal".

They have a "gentlemen's agreement" not to refer to issues such 
as: the astronomical cost of these works, the cost overruns, the 
dozens of dead and injured workers, restriction of the people's 
labour and democratic rights, the environmental damage, the 
intensified, restrictive and repressive measures and the 
surveillance measures under the Euro-Atlantic "security" 
umbrella.

They used the undertaking and preparation, they will utilise the 
hosting of the Olympic Games and the exploitation of the athletic 
facilities after the Games are over to promote their own policy, 
i.e. defending big capital's profits and other vested interests 
which take precedence over the collective interests of the 
working people.

In the name of the Olympic Games, a spirit of self-satisfaction 
and national arrogance is being cultivated in relation to 
whitewashing and accepting the policy that is being implemented, 
and to the sharper anti-popular offensive that will come when the 
Olympic Games are over.

Today there is an obvious lack of any measures to ensure the 
healthy organisation and growth of sport, to develop and support 
mass popular athletics for all, and to support our athletes.

Everything operates within the logic of window-dressing, 
commercialisation, personal promotion, and patronage.

The many-tentacled mechanisms that prevail internationally, and 
are controlled by the multinationals, guide and set their seal on 
sports in Greece, too.

They divert sport from its social mission; they transform it into 
a commodity; they dictate structures and functions, thus making 
athletes and fans alike grist for the mill of their advertising 
campaign, their profits and other ambitions.

Plans are being made to sell off or hand over projects and 
facilities to capital for exploitation. The organisation 
personnel, coaches, trainers and people in other special fields 
have an expiry date, at the end of the Olympic Games.

The so-called "national goal" is becoming a "national noose" for 
the environment and the working people's labour rights.

A great deal of open space is being destroyed, covered with 
concrete to be handed over for exploitation to private interests. 
Air, water, beaches, and green space have all become commodities 
that only a few will be able to afford.

The preparations for the Games became the focal point around 
which the working people's labour relations were further 
disorganised. Phenomena such as: violations of collective 
contracts and of working hours, uninsured and unpaid labour, 
part-time employment, the intensification of labour, and the 
rental of workers have been widespread. In addition, the total 
lack of hygiene and safety measures in the workplace have 
resulted in dozens of dead and injured workers.

These disruptions are the basis for stepping up the anti-labour 
policy in all fields after the Olympic Games, when the machinery 
of "social consensus" and labour peace will be used again to this 
end, guided by the political voice of big capital.

The "security" of the Games has been incorporated into the US and 
EU "anti-terrorist" policy. It is an enormously expensive secret 
service operation (CIA, Mossad, Intelligence Service) associated 
with powerful states.

Surveillance

Surveillance of people's movements and conversations, and the 
filming of every event will all provide basic data that will be 
gathered by ultramodern technical means and supplemented by the 
police and military forces operating in every area in which the 
Games are held.

Fear is being cultivated in order to make people accept and 
justify the involvement of NATO, the imperialist organisation 
that terrorises the peoples.

Now the government has confirmed the plan for the measures and 
equipment (e.g. cameras, etc.) to remain and to be used 
appropriately after the Games. Not to improve traffic supposedly, 
but to further limit action by the working people, to monitor and 
conduct personal surveillance of demonstrators fighting for jobs, 
peace, and against anti-popular choices; it will also be used to 
frighten the people, whose interests are in total opposition to 
the policy of the US, the EU and NATO.

The "purging" of the city of undesirable people is going ahead 
rapidly. Ghettos and camps are planned for migrants and narcotics 
users without any measure to ensure rudimentary humane treatment.

Every sign will be "purged", even with political content, because 
the sponsors, their posters and their advertisements are 
sovereign.

The city will be "dressed" in banners about the Games and the 
sponsors to look beautiful and to hide the enormous problems of 
unemployment, inflation, and the circumvention of labour 
relations and democratic rights. And above all to hide claims and 
demands, with their banners, posters and slogans. For the working 
class, the broad strata of the people and for the economy of the 
country in general, the social and financial effects of the Games 
will be enormous.

Works and services required by the working people are being 
subjugated to the Games and to multinational profits. In the name 
of expediting the works, regulations have been pushed through to 
circumvent regular procedures in order to serve big capital, 
leading to inertia, minimal accountability, and enormous cost 
overruns.

According to some estimates, the astronomical cost will exceed 
3.5 trillion drachmas (A$17.5 billion), an onerous debt that will 
take decades for our people to pay.

Already, the great cost is being used to prepare the Greek people 
mentally for a new austerity policy, for new cutbacks in social 
rights, health, education, and welfare, for new restrictions on 
labour rights, wages, and social security which, in addition to 
the rise in unemployment, will hit the working people. And on the 
other side, the policy of selling off projects and facilities to 
big capital to increase its profits will continue.

In the final analysis, such will be the Olympic Games in today's 
new world order, and they could hardly be otherwise.

The KKE believes that the only way to deal with the problems and 
to limit the adverse effects of the policy implemented by PASOK 
with the consent of New Democracy that the ND continues with the 
consent of PASOK, and by EU and US policy, is:

* To bring more people into the struggle and for the labour 
movement and the popular movement more generally to step up their 
efforts.

* To thwart every effort to violate labour, democratic, and trade 
union rights and popular freedoms, and fight to expand them.

* To ensure that all cameras and surveillance systems are 
removed.

* To stop the destruction of the environment.

* To develop mass popular sport.  To ensure that the facilities 
and works be given to the people and not to capital.

* For a new quality of life for the working people. The only way 
is for the working class to fight together with the popular 
strata for a radically different policy, for power to the people, 
that will address and solve problems based on the needs of the 
working class and the popular strata.

* * *

Polit Bureau of the Communist Party of Greece, Athens,07-07-04