« Fini de jouer ». Entretien sur la sécurité dans les cercles anti-Jeux olympiques et paralympiques Paris 2024

Abstract

Every four years, the Olympic and Paralympic Games transform the cities in which they take place. They also drive legislative change in the countries that host them. The Paris 2024 Games are no exception. Their effects are manifold: economic, political, social and environmental. These effects are analysed by some as inegalitarian and authoritarian, and so the Olympic and Paralympic Games are contested and criticised. In this interview, we delve into the contestation of the Olympic security policies, whether it be CCTV, police control or the militarisation of space, with members of four activist groups that are mobilised against the Paris 2024 Games, in Marseille and Saint-Denis. We first discuss what forms protest takes – the gathering of information, the creation of groups, actions – when it targets an event generally presented as being popular and enabling collective unification. We then discuss how critical discourses about the Games, in France and elsewhere, are developed, and more specifically how security issues are involved in this. Finally, we conclude by looking at the reception of the activists’ mobilisation, both among the general public and in the media.

Keywords

• olympic and paralympic games
• security
• surveillance
• militarisation
• protest