Link to this page: http://www.socialistparty.org.uk/issue/728/14928
From The Socialist newspaper, 25 July 2012
Olympic Watch
Slum living
One toilet between 25, one shower between 75, overcrowding and leaking roofs - these are the conditions facing the cleaners employed at the Olympic site. Most are migrant workers who have come to Britain specifically to work at the Games.
In stark contrast to the luxury of the Olympic village, they sleep in overcrowded metal cabins on a site that's been flooded so badly they have to use pallets as stepping stones. One told the Daily Mail that the site is "like a slum inside". When they arrived they were told there was no work for two weeks but that they still had to pay £18 a day 'rent'.
Many who came from poor countries with no prospect of decent work turned straight around and went home when they saw the facilities.
Custard spill 'emergency'
Olympic organisers and the police worked hard in the press to convince us that they aren't quite crazy enough to stop someone going into the Olympics based on what t-shirt they're wearing. They'd never overreact like that!
Or would they? Six people were arrested on 20 July for suspicion of criminal damage by...spilling green custard. The six were doing a protest-performance in Trafalgar Square against the corporate sponsorship of the Games. One of the sponsors is Dow Chemical, owner of Union Carbide Corporation - the company responsible for the 1984 gas disaster in Bhopal, India, which killed 25,000 people.
25 police officers swooped on the performance when the custard was spilled to highlight the lies being told about 'sustainability' by Olympic sponsors including Dow, BP and Rio Tinto.
G4S-by-numbers
- £284m government Olympic contract
- 7 years since they won the contract
- £57m management fee
- 5,000 military personnel drafted in to plug the gap
- 8 police forces drafted in
- £830,000 salary of Nick Buckles, head of G4S
- £21m Buckles' golden goodbye if he's forced to leave
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In The Socialist 25 July 2012:
Socialist Party news and analysis
On your marks.... Get set.... Fight back!
Outsourcing fails again. For publicly owned and run services!
£13 trillion hidden from tax by super-rich
Not-guilty verdict in Ian Tomlinson case
International socialist news and analysis
Kazakhstan - Workers struggle against bloody, corrupt regime
Spain's austerity government is facing revolt from below
Miners light up Madrid and show the way to struggle!
Socialist history
1972: dockers face down the Tory government
Socialist Party reports and campaigns
Austerity Games highlights plight of young people
Save our jobs: We need a 24-hour general strike
Pre-emptive arrests: "straight out of 1984"
Stop NHS cuts & privatisation
Kick private profiteers out of the NHS
Virgin vultures swoop on vulnerable people's services
Leicester: Not one cut in the NHS
Kirkby campaigners get support
Olympic protest as South London Healthcare trust forced into administration
Socialist Party workplace news
Olympic victory for London bus workers
Solidarity with PCS members fighting to defend services
RMT demo in Portsmouth against Condor's 'sweatships'
Socialist Party review
TV review: "What have the Olympics done for me?"
Socialist Party appeal & news
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