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The Olympics – “They don’t listen to the living, so we will make the deceased speak,” explains Paul Alauzy, spokesperson for the collective Le revers de la médaille. Behind him, activists are hanging a sign on the famous Passe-Muraille in Montmartre, as shown in our report above. The sign reads: “Paris 2024 Olympics: Open borders for the rich, social cleansing for the poor.”
On Sunday, March 24, several iconic statues in the capital were redecorated in this way. This was the work of the collective Le revers de la médaille, which brought together over 80 associations and NGOs to call on the authorities regarding the social consequences of the Paris Olympics. All the signs shared a common expression: that of “social cleansing.”
“For us, social cleansing is all the operations to evacuate the homeless that are taking place right now,” explains Antoine de Clerck, coordinator of the collective. “These evacuations sometimes take place without any rehousing or accommodation solutions,” he adds. This is what happened a few days earlier, according to associations and Parisian officials, during the evacuation of an unaccompanied minors’ camp under a tunnel in the 12th arrondissement.
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The words and woes of the Olympics
For Le revers de la médaille, there is no doubt: these evictions near the Seine banks, the location of the opening parade, are linked to the Olympics. “We want a beautiful opening ceremony for the Games, so we send the police to clear them out,” describes Paul Alauzy bitterly. He carries colorful buoys under his arm, painted to resemble the famous Olympic rings.
After redecorating statues in Montmartre, the Tuileries, and in front of the Musée d’Orsay, the collective members gathered in front of the Senate to organize the symbolic “first event” of the Olympics. On buoys, they wrote “the words and woes of the Olympics.” “Eviction,” “Harassment,” “Penalization”… Each person threw their “Olympic ring” into the Luxembourg garden pool amidst smoke bombs and collective applause, before garden guards asked them to disperse.
“If you don’t want us to tarnish the image of the Games, set up a plan to care for the most vulnerable people!” concludes Paul Alauzy. The collective is asking, among other things, for the establishment of a first reception center during the Games, a “humanitarian base” for people living on the street and the associations that support them.
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