We will celebrate in December of this year 2022 the centenary of the founding of the IWA/AIT (International Workers’ Association), the international organization of anarchosyndicalists.
This creation is contemporary with the rise of major international sports competitions and particularly the Football World Cup. Indeed, the idea of organizing this competition came to Jules Rimet, the FIFA president at the time, following the 1924 Paris Olympic Games.
Also it is interesting to see that from this time, and while the » spectacle -sport » had not yet reached the invasive place in society that it has today, the delegates of the second congress of the AIT held in Amsterdam in 1925, almost all of whom were proletarians, took a resolution to encourage “the fight against sports madness, in order to drive away the youth it might attract.
»Sport is today an instrument in the hands of the capitalists to keep the youth away from class struggle and higher spiritual development, making them mechanical, non-conscious beings, instead of creating men able to think and act
2nd Congress of the AIT-IWA in Amsterdam in 1925
Already at that time, the anarchosyndicalists had understood the political and ideological stakes behind these sports competitions intended to “entertain” the youth – and in particular the working youth. As the dictionary reminds us, « entertain » can have two meanings: « To entertain by having fun » but also « To distract someone from a concern, for example: To distract the attention of someone from his troubles ». As Fabien Ollier, philosopher and director of the magazine “Quel sport?“ : “the mass mobilization of minds around the national football teams induces the establishment of an obligatory collective hysteria. All of this is an obvious political diversion, an ideological control of a population. In times of economic crisis, the only subject that should concern us is the health of our little footballers. It’s pitiful. »
“Football competitions heighten nationalist tensions and arouse patriotic emotions of vivid vulgarity and absurdity. Sport provokes a different form of violence, less obvious than a bomb but absolutely does not contribute to a decline in violence. » [1]
Sport is undeniably political. As such, it generates political values. The current dominant sports model, which is shared by both the left and the right, is that of the most liberal capitalism, based on the principle of performance, hierarchy and competition, and widespread corruption.
For the hundred years of its creation, the AIT through its sections has never ceased to fight against sports hysteria and to carry out boycott campaigns against successive World Cups[2]. This is why in 2022 again, the anarchosyndicalists continue more than ever their struggle for the emancipation of workers, and call for a boycott of the disgusting spectacle of the Qatar World Cup, where more than 6500 workers died for 5760 minutes of football, or more than one death per minute of play!
members of the CNT-AIT
contact@cnt-ait.info
[1] Le Monde, “The World Cup, planetary alienation”, June 10, 2010 [2] On the site http://coupedumondefricimmonde, one will find for example various examples of posters and actions, carried out by the anarchosyndicalists on the occasion of the football world cups of Argentina 78, Spain 82, France 98 , South Africa 2010, Brazil 2014, Women’s World Cup France 2019, Football Euro Poland Ukraine 2012, France 2016,Related
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Source: Coupedumondefricimmonde