Last Thursday the mayor of Athens, Dora Bakoyannis, gave a talk at the London School of Economics under the title "What makes a good olympic city? lessons and legacies from the Athens experience". Ms Bakoyannis was invited by the London Hellenic (Greek) Society and the Hellenic Observatory, based at the LSE. LSE is perhaps one of the most reactionist institutions around; this, together with the fact that the -mostly greek- audience comprised bussinesmen, journalists and Greek embassy employees, possibly made Ms Bakoyannis think that she would have a pleasant evening and another good opportunity to spread more lies on the impacts of the games on Athens. She only forgot to take one thing into account: That we are everywhere!


Only seconds after she was introduced by Howard Davies (LSE vice chancellor and ex- Chairman of the Financial Services Authority) she was interrupted by a number of us that took the stage, holding a banner-answer to her lecture's question. The banner read: “18 Dead Workers Make a Good Olympic City”. At the same time, one of us told the audience what was happening and the rest of us distributed a text highlighting the real impacts of the games on Athens.

After a while we left, knowing that we had made our contribution in informing some people about the real impacts of the games. This will hopefully make some think what the real impacts of the games on London will be! As for the hosts of the events (who got very nervous and aggresive when they saw the banner about the dead workers) need we only say that London's Hellenic Society was founded by the city's shipowners (!) while the Hellenic Observatory is a unique case of a not-for-profit organization: it recently acquired a lectureship position in the School (Lecturer in the Political Economy of Greece and South East Europe) thanks to the generous donations of corporations such as Greek Oil, Coca-Cola HBC, Eurobank, Grecotel SA and Athens Medical Group, amongst others. Looks like non-profitable organizations can be big bussiness!!

Here is the flyer distributed on the night


18 dead workers make a good Olympic city

Dora Bakoyannis, mayor of Athens, is here today to tell us about the experience of hosting the Olympic games. We are here to remind her what she has decided to forget, just like all greek state officials do: that it took 18 dead workers for these games to happen. And this is not all that Mrs Bakoyannis doesn't want you to know. Below are some highlights of Athens' Olympic experience and the true legacy that the games have brought to the city.



Before the games international media were too busy wondering if the stadiums that would host the global spectacle would be ready on time. At the same time the greek state used the Olympics as the perfect excuse to attack all unwanted social groups and detain them, so that they wouldn’t ruin the country's image. Immigrants, junkies, political activists and gypsy populations were amongst those who experienced the true face of the “Olympic city”.



Knowing that demand for prison space would hit the roof during the games, the greek authorities constructed a brand new “Olympic” prison in Aspropirgos, a few kilometers outside Athens. This prison is now part of the city's legacy of the Games- and sadly there is more. Thanks to the Olympics Athens has now got an extra 1,283 CCTV cameras- an extraordinary number for a country where CCTV was only introduced a few years ago. During the Games security personnel was 40-80,000 strong. It is estimated that the only other times that a greek city saw such a concentration of security forces in modern history was during the junta (1967-74) and the WW2 occupation.



Finally, why not ask Mrs Bakoyannis about the legacy of the games to Athens' environment? She might want to tell you about the Olympic Village and how it was constructed on the slope of the mountain of Parnitha, eliminating part of forest in one of the city’s last green resorts. Or she might even tell you all about the canoeing venue which was built in Marathon, a site of global cultural and historical heritage. The list is endless: cutting down 8,500 trees to allow for the expansion of roads, the construction of an ultra-high voltage centre (400/150 K.Vat, 1120 M.V.A.) at the mount of Immitos, 125 meters away from the local school... The lesson from Athens' experience is that simply, the Olympic Games are a huge spectacle promoting commercialism, surveillance and state repression. All that the people of Athens have been left with after the Games is yet more cops, cameras and useless athletic venues that rot away: a ping-pong stadium in the place of a metropolitan park, anyone?



To learn more  http://athens.indymedia.org/?lang=en
 http://www.anti2004.net/english.htm