Corporate Wealth, Common Poverty

Few Manchester folk can have failed to get involved in some aspect with the recent international spectacular - whether it be donning the shell suit and becoming a volunteer, watching the aerial view of our city on telly during the marathon, or whether they were one of the lucky people to be able to afford to actually be a spectator in the all new stadium. And even if sport's not your thing, there's been a pile of cultural, music and festival stuff happening to coincide with the Games. There is no doubt that the Games have brought some jobs, some investment, and a general buzz to East Manchester and the city as a whole, and Loombreaker doesn't want to be considered a spoil sport. But beneath the new glossy surface the council has painted over Manchester, the cracks are still visible if you look.

How Much?

The Games have cost us a fortune and the spending of our money has all been done
behind closed doors. Unaccountable representatives of commercial organisations held
power, and the `new money' claimed to have been generated by the Bid committee was
largely pre-existing central government funding for urban regeneration.

McJobs

And what type of jobs are being created for the people in East Manchester? Asda Walmart,
a key players and new business in the area, is notorious for putting small local shops out of
business and hindering trade union organising. It would have been interesting to see a
study on whether regeneration funding could have gone into improving local businesses,
and re-investing profits in the area, rather than supporting this US-based giant. Such a
study has not been carried out or, if it has, has not been made public or open to discussion
by East Manchester residents.

Corporate Takeover

It's no secret that the Games were used as a ploy to attract multinationals and other
powerful corporations to the city. The NorthWest Business Club which ran throughout the
period aimed to do just this, and blatantly described Manchester as some kind of
`sweatshop' using the fact that workers here are paid lower than anywhere else in the
country, as an enticement. And do the people of Manchester really want crappy jobs
working in call centres, or unethical jobs working in biotechnology?

The Games could have been a lever for more responsible corporate behaviour. However,
when such a suggestion was made _ it was met with the response that corporate social
responsibility "fits uneasily with the Business Club objectives."

Corruption

One of the stadium's funders, Sport England has put £165 million of Lottery funds towards
Games facilities, and running costs. Lottery money is not supposed to subsidise private
companies, such as Man City football club, (who has now got the stadium - for free!), but
effectively this is what is happening, as the stadium moves out of public hands and into
private. An extra £20 million needed to stop the games collapsing had to come directly from
Sport England's budget for grassroots and community-based sporting initiatives. It meant
these initiatives losing out to fund a grand spectacular. And what happened to Gorton Tub -
a prime example of local resources being cut to fund the Games spectacular.

The Corporate sponsors aren't exactly acting in the `Spirit of Friendship' either. One of the
official partners, United Utilities, has been pushing a proposal to sell off a well-used
community sporting facility _ Fairfield Golf and Sailing Club - and replace it with a business
park. People living in the area who use the land for recreational activities have strongly
opposed the development plans.

Maybelline Manchester

Police resources are being used to stop fly-posting and graffiti to make Manchester look
pretty. Council departments are being `persuaded' to spend their budgets on Games
merchandise (much of which incidentally, is made in sweatshops _ see
www.nosweat.org.uk)

The make-over of East Manchester and the rest of the city centre is also ridiculous to
anyone who lives here. Covering over abandoned buildings and unsightly building sites,
(including our beloved Free Trade Hall) with huge adverts, painting out graffiti and
flyposters, spending millions on footpaths and fencing in the poorer parts of East
Manchester, is like giving someone a facelift while ignoring the cancer inside. A council
estate in Newton Heath, which suffered years of neglect, was hidden from view with huge
hoardings. Local residents, affronted at being seen as an eyesore, took them down,
painting on them "what's the matter with us? Don't you want to see us?"

Rumour has it that problem kids in the area were given a free summer holiday, paid for by
the council, to keep them out of the way of the Games and the ripe-pickings of tourists and
posh cars.

Beggars have been cleaned off the streets with draconian policing. One street dweller,
asked a passing cop for a fag, was arrested for begging and locked up for 48 hours.
Statutory sentences of one month, for begging on the streets are being enforced, and even
worse, shops are being encouraged to display outrageous posters saying things like
"Homeless? Or just a Habit?", and "£15 will buy beggars a bag of smack".

Our old `friends' the Greater Manchester Police have bought a new spotter plane, to
complement their 2 helicopters, so they can spy on us better and for longer. Plus there's a
ton more CCTV now, complete with a new control centre with an 18 metre!!! screen which
can show up to 180 images or only 6 in extreme close up.

This is not the real Manchester. This is some corporate-controlled, heartless, empty
glossy shell, with Big Brother, Orwellian state creeping ever closer. Yes, let's have
international sporting events, but let's have some genuine common wealth, not
corporate wealth.