After Hamburg, Budapest, Rome, and Boston dropped their bids for the 2024 Games, LA and Paris were the only two contenders left. The IOC opted to avoid an equally embarrassing selection process in four years’ time and took the unprecedented step of awarding two summer Olympics at once: 2024 to Paris and 2028 to LA.
Much of the Games’ action was concentrated in Saint-Denis, a working-class neighborhood in Paris’ northern suburbs. New infrastructure including the Olympic Village and a swimming complex was built in Saint-Denis, with the athletes’ village to be turned into residential units after 2024. New transit links and a new station, already planned as part of Paris’ existing Grand Paris project, were supposed to be completed by the Olympics but the line connecting Saint-Denis was delayed, expected to be completed by 2026. Critics of the Olympics argued that developments planned for Saint-Denis would increase real-estate speculation and displace current low-income residents. Some have criticized the Grand Paris project for privatizing public space and misusing public funds, expressing fears that the Olympics — with its initial $8 billion budget — would just extend these trends. The construction of a new media village and a training pool in Aubervilliers both entailed the destruction of park space or community gardens.
Other major concerns included the militarization of the city that tends to precede the massive security operation of the Olympics itself, and the potential negative effects on the environment. In 2021, France passed a new security law that expands the police’s surveillance powers and places restrictions on media coverage of police. In 2023, France passed a law to temporarily allow the use of Artificial Intelligence video surveillance (for the first time anywhere in the European Union) through 2025 for Olympic security. This law provoked an outcry from civil rights and privacy advocates. Amnesty International wrote: “Such draconian technologies of mass surveillance violate the rights to privacy and can lead to violations of the rights to freedom of expression and peaceful assembly. This could result into dystopian levels of surveillance in the future.” In the year leading up to the 2024 Olympics, Le Revers de la Médaille (The Other Side of the Medal) coalition documented the displacement of 12,000 people through sweeps and clearances of homeless encampments and squats, a notable increase from previous years’ figures.
Unlike residents of several European cities in recent years, residents of Paris and Saint-Denis were not given the option to vote on hosting the Olympics in a referendum. As of mid-2019, some 32,000 people had signed a petition demanding a referendum. In Paris’ mayoral election in 2020, at least two political parties expressed opposition to the Olympics: the leftist La France Insoumise party, and the Green Party (EELV).
The resistance
Association NON Aux JO2024 à Paris (No to the 2024 Paris Olympics Association) is a collective of people opposed to the Games on the basis they will be a “fiscal, economic, and ecological disaster.” When Paris was bidding for the Olympics, the group launched a petition demanding the public be able to weigh in on the decision to host via a referendum.
Not opposed to the Olympics per se, the Comité de Vigilance JO 2024 à Saint-Denis (The Saint-Denis Vigilance Committee for the 2024 Olympic Games) is concerned about the effects of hosting on the Saint-Denis neighborhood and broader Seine-Saint-Denis department, which is one of the poorest counties in France.
Saccage 2024 opposes the ecological and social devastation caused by the Olympic Games in Paris in 2024. Composed of residents of Seine-Saint-Denis and its surroundings, as well as additional collectives and associations, the coalition defends the spaces where participants live, meet, forge links, help each other and have fun. [Instagram | Twitter]
Jardins à Defendre (JAD) is an occupation of the Aubervilliers Workers Gardens that aims to protect these community green spaces from plans to replace some garden plots with an Olympic-standard training pool and solarium.
Le Revers de la Médaille (The Other Side of the Medal) is a collective of organizations working to center the “most excluded” in planning for and discussion of the Paris Olympics. In June 2024, the collective published a report titled, “1 year of social cleansing before the 2024 Olympic Games.”
Critical art & graphics
Resistance archives
2024 | Saccage 2024 | Bilan des Saccages 2024 (The Cost of the 2024 Pillaging) [Report] [French]
2024 | Saccage 2024 | The Paris Olympics are over. The struggle continues [Statement] [English translation, French original]
2024 | Le Revers de la Medaille | One Year of Social Cleansing Before the 2024 Olympic Games [Report] [French original, English AI translation]
2022 | NOlympics LA | The Paris Olympics are Toxic: Notes from Our Visit, May 2022 [Article] [English]
2022 | Saccage 2024 | Press release: International Anti-Olympic Meeting on May 21-22 in Seine-Saint-Denis (France) [Article] [English]
2021 | Saccage 2024 | Petite encyclopédie de l’héritage à venir en Seine-Saint-Denis (Small Encyclopedia of Seine-Saint-Denis’ Future Heritage) [Report] [French]
Saccage 2024 | C’est quoi les jeux Olympiques et pourquoi on est contre? (What are the Olympic Games and why do people oppose them?) [Statement] [French]
2021 | Saccage 2024 | Ni en 2024, ni jamais — NON au Big Brother Olympique (Not in 2024, not ever — NO to the Big Brother Olympics) [Statement] [French]
2021 | Olympics Watch | The Fight to Defend the Aubervilliers Workers’ Gardens from Paris 2024 [INTERVIEW] [Article] [English]
2021 | Saccage 2024 | Saccage d’Or — Qui sont les élus qui ont le plus saccagé? (Gold pillage — who are the elected officials who have pillaged the most?) [Report] [French]
2020 | Ouest-France original / Olympics Watch translation | In Paris, ‘Toxic Tour’ Denounces Olympics Development Projects [Article] [English] [French]
2018 | Frédéric Viale (editor) | Paris JO 2024 – Miracle ou mirage? [Book] [French]
2018 | Comité de Vigilance JO 2024 à Saint-Denis | Our popular plan for 2024 [Article] [French]
2017 | Collectif Non aux JO 2024 à Paris | Call for a referendum on Paris’ candidature for the 2024 Games [Referendum] [French]
2017 | Collectif Non aux JO 2024 à Paris | Arguments [Article] [French]
Other media resources
General
2024 | Jade Lindgaard | Paris 2024: Une ville face à la violence olympique [Book] [French]
2019 | Daniel Etchells – Inside The Games | Paris Councillor calls for referendum on whether to cancel 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games [Article] [English]
2017 | Marie Doezma – CityLab |What can the Paris Olympics do for Saint-Denis? [Article] [English]
Destruction of public/green space
2024 | Flaminia Paddeu – Metropolitics | Working-class ecology versus Olympic urbanism [Article] [English] [French]
2021 | Olympics Watch | The Fight to Defend the Aubervilliers Workers’ Gardens from Paris 2024 [Interview]
Housing and homelessness
2024 | The Dial | The Displacement Machine [Article] [English]
2024 | Global Reporting Centre | Unwelcome in Paris (State of Play: Summer Games) [Podcast] [English]
2024 | Sarah Hurtes, Ségolène le Stradic – The New York Times | France Is Busing Homeless Immigrants Out of Paris Before the Olympics [Article] [English]
2024 | AFP – France 24 English | French charities decry ‘social cleansing’ of migrants, sex workers ahead of Paris Olympics [Article] [English]
2019 | AFP – France 24 English | In Paris suburb, residents brace for Olympic village upheaval [Article] [English]
2019 | France 24 English | Olympic-sized row: Paris fury at Airbnb for 2024 games [Video] [English]
2019 | Rob Harris & Samuel Petrequin – AP | Paris mayor troubled by new Olympic sponsor Airbnb [Article] [English]
Policing
2020 | Romain Brunet – France 24 | French bill banning images of police sparks concern over media freedom, civil rights [Article & video]
Resistance
2019 | Yslande Bossé – JSD | The citizens’ view matters [Article] [French]
2017 | Brenna Daldorph – France 24 | The quiet voices saying ‘no’ to Paris’s Olympic bid [Article] [English]