The start of the Summer Olympics has put Paris in the spotlight as athletes and fans from around the world converge for the international games. But as the city rolls out the red carpet for tourists and athletes, it is also accelerating a process of “social cleansing” targeting migrants and the homeless, advocates say. TRNN’s Dave Zirin reports from the streets of Paris at a press conference held at a former encampment for unhoused people that was cleared out by French authorities.
Speakers include: Paul Alauzy, a project manager at Médecins du Monde (Doctors of the World) and an organizer of Le Revers de la Médaille (The Other Side of the Medal) campaign; Jules Boykoff, Professor of Politics & Government at Pacific University, a former professional and Olympic soccer player, and author of numerous books, including Power Games: A Political History of the Olympics; Francesca Morassut, a coordinator at the humanitarian aid organization Utopia 56; Aurélia Huot, a human rights lawyer with the Barreau de Paris Solidarité (Paris Solidarity Bar association).
Studio Production: Jules Boykoff
Post-Production: Cameron Granadino
Transcript
The following is a rushed transcript and may contain errors. A proofread version will be made available as soon as possible.
Dave Zirin:
Hey, this is Dave Zirin from Edge of Sports TV, only on the Real News Network coming to you from Paris, where we are showing the Olympics that the networks are not showing you, namely the things happening not inside the lines, but outside the lines. And I’m here in Saint-Denis, where there is going to be a press conference by an organization called The Other Side of the Medal, where they’re going to be speaking about the attacks on unhoused people, as well as all the ways that the Olympics are hurting marginalized communities here in Paris, and believe me, it is happening a lot.
They’re doing the press conference from this location precisely because it’s an example of what they’re talking about. If you look behind me, you see this tunnel here, and under this tunnel was an unhoused encampment, rather large one. Now, the unhoused people were moved out of here at the tip of a gun by French authorities and in their place are these 24 Lego blocks that are precisely here, so unhoused people have nowhere to sleep. Now, this is just the beginning of anti-Olympic protests today. They’re also going to be announcing at this press conference a large demonstration taking place tonight. So we’re going to have footage for you from the press conference and from the demonstration. For Edge of Sports TV and the Real News Network, I’m Dave Zirin.
Paul Alauzy:
So this is Olympic grounds, and when the flame goes by, the poor people has to go away, apparently. So they put this, it’s obviously done in a way that the human body cannot lie on it, stay on it, and sleep here, and they added this horrendous thing. If you don’t like poor people, you can enjoy the dolphins because they have beautiful dolphins and Olympic colors on it. I think this really represents social cleansing in a nutshell, blocks that you cannot remove in order to replace the body and the tents, coverup of the misery, and everything clean with Olympic flags, and symbolism in order to have the clean of the [inaudible 00:02:34], and a clean Paris to welcome the passage of the flame, and all the cameras of the CIO.
Speaker 4:
So he says that him, if he can dream of everything, he would love to be a footballer, professional footballer, but he would also have to be a plumber to learn that job. And then, to just have a regular, normal life here in Paris, have a family, and just be [inaudible 00:02:57] this.
Speaker 5:
This displacement is very much a Paris problem. But it’s important to remember that what you’re also witnessing here is an Olympic problem that was imported into the city, and it is exacerbating the displacement that was already happening. When I say that this is an Olympic problem, what I mean is it happens in city, after city, after city.
Speaker 6:
There are thousands of people who live in the streets, migrant people who live in the streets of Paris. And even though maybe they don’t see them, they exist, and as much as them, as these people that have come here to see the Olympic Games, want and have right to identified life. And these people are here and are just like anyone. People who have children, who have parents, who have a family who are here too. Because either they were obliged to come here and because of war, because of climate catastrophes, or to find just identified life. So there are solutions for these people. The problem is political choice is to hide them because we don’t want migrant people from some social status. We don’t want people who are in an irregular position, but this is just a political choice. And immigration all over the world is not an emergency. It’s a phenomenon, and it’s a right.
So these people are here and they live in the streets, and we try to help them as associations with exclusions and in trying to put them in content with institutions to have the rights, but it’s not working because the state doesn’t want them. They are evicted on a regular basis. Right now, there are families, there are hundreds of family that are in front of the municipalities of the 18th around this month asking for a place where to stay, a place where to sleep with their babies, with their children, but no solution are right now being found. We hope that a solution will be arriving during the day from institutions, but it’s been 48 hours. They are there with no water, no food, just the help of volunteers. But the state is not doing anything, and they are there. What’s the response? And we cannot find just temporary solution. We need to find solutions for these people. And there is the capacity of doing that.
Dave Zirin:
If you could say anything to President Macron, what would it be?
Speaker 6:
I would ask him to take in consideration of the proposal that we made to make the Olympics better and to have a better social inheritance, because he’s saying that it’s the best Olympics that has been organized because of the social inheritance it’ll leave behind. And I would tell him that it’s not true that the 200 housing that they proposed is not enough, that the sort of cleansing doesn’t represent what France should be like. It’s not dignified. So I would ask him to put a little more money on housing, on social inheritance that this has been talking about.
Dave Zirin:
One more question. What would you say to the world watching these Olympic Games and to the thousands of people coming into Paris for the games? What do you want them to know?
Speaker 6:
I want them to know that we’re not against the Olympics. We share the same values of friendships, [inaudible 00:06:59] between the people, the sports values also. But we want to say that we want these games to be organized differently in the future. And we all have a social responsibility to make these games better for the ecology, for the social inheritance that they leave behind. And we all have this responsibility as citizens. It’s not only NGOs, lawyers, or social workers that have the responsibility, but each one of us, we can do something. So if a game or a big, big sport event is organized in your city, organize yourself to have a social mobility to denounce and to ask for real social inheritance.
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