Post date: Jul 28, 2012 5:52:18 PM
Those marching claimed they were protesting against an Olympics apparently serving to help improve the reputations of the event's sponsors through association.
Disabled protesters from Islington lead part of the march through London's Mile End Park, just a stones throw from the Olympic Village, towards the location of one of the buildings where anti-aircraft batteries have been stationed for the duration of the Olympics and Paralympics.
Dozens of anti-corporate protesters lambast the London 2012 Olympic Games, claiming the format is designed to serve the interests of sponsors' images, rather than those of the general public.
LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (JULY 28, 2012) (REUTERS) - Dozens took to the streets of east London on Saturday (July 28) in protest against what they called the "corporate" London 2012 Olympic Games.
Explaining the rationalisation behind the march, one of the protests organisers and spokesman for the "Counter Olympics", Julian Cheyne, said the march against the event covered several aspects.
"There is a very substantial body of opinion in Britain which is not happy about the Olympics. The Olympics does not deliver what it claims, and we're protesting about a number of different issues," he said.
"We've called it the the march against, demonstration against the corporate Olympics, because what is happening here is that this is an opportunity for corporations to advertise themselves to the world, and, you might say, cover up their misdeeds," Cheyne added, before listing the precise companies he was specifically talking about.
"We're talking about serious, seriously unpleasant organisations: BP (British Petroleum), which has just wrecked the Gulf of Mexico; Rio Tinto, which is polluting the area around Salt Lake City, for example, where the metal for the medals has come from. Dow (Chemicals), which refuses to take responsibility for cleaning up the Bhopal site, where thousands of people still dying because of the pollution; Adidas who does not pay it's workers properly," he said.
Ronan McNern, a member of the protest group 'Occupy', told Reuters the Olympics highlighted the continued gap between those at the higher end of the economic scale -- namely larger multinational corporations and the local communities in London and the UK.
"With 'Occupy' it's looking a social and economic inequalities; with the Olympic Games you've got sports -- great -- you've got massive corporates, who are the sponsors of these games, and for a lot of people in Occupy and myself, we really feel that this has been used as an opportunity to 'Greenwash' their reputations, or to whitewash," he said.
Protesters marched towards the Lexington Building in the London borough of Tower Hamlets, where an anti-aircraft missile battery has been installed to help protect the skies around the Olympic sites.
The London 2012 Olympic Games kicked off in the capital on Friday (July 27) and continues until August 12.