London protest against ‘corporate takeover’ of Olympics

Not everyone in London has been swept up in Olympic fever.

A few hundred people marched through part of the east of the capital to protest against what they call the “corporate takeover” of the Games.

Euronews’ correspondent in London Ali Sheikhholeslami reported from the scene:
“Demonstrators here in East London say they have nothing against the Olympic Games. However, they are worried about the level of corporate sponsorship. And the type of companies that are sponsoring the Games.”

Representing more than two dozen organisations, the Counter Olympics Network is critical of many aspects of the London Olympics.

“If the Olympics is going to be anything then obviously it should be a sporting festival, and it should deliver on ethical commitments, which it doesn’t,” said Julian Cheyne, spokesman for the network.

“You have the corporate connection whereby companies use the Olympics in order to present themselves as clean corporations, when in fact they commit all kinds of abuses.”

While events elsewhere in Britain celebrated the Olympics, the protesters claimed multinational sponsors had harmed communities around the world, and that ordinary Londoners had lost out.

There have also been complaints about security and policing, spending on temporary facilities – as well as alleged nationalism, gender discrimination and body fascism in elite sport.

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