April 8, 2008

Fanning The Flame Of Protest

Posted by Suemedha Sood at 3:00PM

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San Francisco is preparing for the Olympic torch relay to pass through the city in its only U.S. stop. Already, seven people have been arrested as protesters climbed up the cables of the Golden Gate Bridge to unfurl banners calling for a free Tibet, blogs Wiretap's Adrienne Maree Brown.

Thousands of protesters are expected to line the waterfront route to greet the torch with outrage, following scenes in London and Paris. Activists demonstrating for a free Tibet join those protesting China’s policies in Darfur and Burma.

But not everyone thinks the Olympics is the place for protest. According to a poll by the L.A.-based Kelton Research firm, many Americans think sports and politics should not intersect. Of 1,000 people surveyed, 90 percent said they agree with the statement that the Olympics and politics should be kept separate; 70 percent said they strongly agree with that statement.

By contrast, 21 percent of those polled said they support boycotting the Beijing Olympics. Slate’s Anne Applebaum gives a couple good reasons for why the Olympics are the perfect place for a protest.

For one thing, everyone is watching. Media from all over the world will be in Beijing to capture demonstrations. The Games haven’t even started and those demonstrations are at the center of pre-Olympic coverage.

For another, she argues, history has shown that boycotting sporting events can make a difference:

The boycott of South African athletes from international competitions was probably the single most effective weapon the international community ever deployed against the apartheid state. ("They didn't mind about the business sanctions," a South African friend once told me, "but they minded—they really, really minded—about the cricket.") The boycott of the 1980 Moscow Olympics helped undermine Soviet propaganda about the invasion of Afghanistan and unify the Western world against it. I don't know for certain, but I'm guessing that from the Soviet perspective, the Soviet bloc boycott of the Los Angeles Olympics four years later was successful, too. Presumably, it was intended to solidify Soviet elite opposition to the United States in the Reagan years, and presumably, it helped.

The modern Olympics were founded with the goal of promoting international peace. Having the games in China turns that idea on its head by supporting a government that hasn’t supported peace. The hypocrisy of it all also makes Beijing ripe for protest.