By the time the Munich games had finished the Olympic myth of international unity and peaceful competition was in ruins. Most of the British athletes were even too scared to enter the arena for the closing ceremony!
The Olympic Committee had opened the games with the slogan "Keep politics out of sport". At best this phrase is utopian; at worst it is a deception. Four years ago in Mexico, they had got away with it: Brundage was able to hob-nob with the dictator Diaz at the very moment the latter was organising the cold-blooded massacre of students and workers in the Plaza del Tlatelolco a couple of miles from the Olympic stadium. In that context, 'politics out of sport' meant an Olympic halo for a bloody dictator.
CHALLENGE What was new about the Munich games was the fact that the Olympic slogan was well and truly challenged. The first battle was over white supremacy in Zimbabwe. For the Olympic Committee, acceptance of the oppression and exploitation of the ENOCH IS RIGH black people of Zimbabwe was good for sport, while the move to exclude the Rhodesia team was blatant political blackmail'. The African states forced an ignominious defeat on Brundage, whose attempt to keep politics out of sport was exposed as nothing but support for imperialism in Southern Africa. Later in the games some Irish cyclists sensibly decided to use the opportunity of this international jamboree, to leaflet the crowds watching the road race on the struggle for self-determination in Then finally, the Olympic Committee gave themselves away in a really grotesque fashion by banning the black American runners, Matthews and Collett, for refusing to bring the politics of nationalism and of support for imperialism into the sports arena: they were banned for disrespect towards the American flag and anthem during the medal presentation!
EFFECTIVE AGITATION But on one question the Olympic Committee and the imperialist powers were able to make effective political agitation during the OlymSTOP immigration ENOCH Is RIGHT Collett, Matthews • no respect for imperialism pics. They tried to turn the games into a symbol of the struggle against international "terrorism', using the action of the Palestinian commandos as a pretext. Once again the whole affair was riddled with hypocrisy. They appeal to the world in the name of humanity and peace against the brutalities of the class struggle, without mentioning the crimes committed over fifty years against the Palestinian masses by the imperialist powers in the Middle East. Where was the Palestinian flag at the Olympic games? Tens of thousands of Palestinians were butchered by Hussein of Jordan in •Black September', 1970, in their fight for national self-determination. Even their so-called humanitarian concern for the Israeli hostages was hypocritical: if their main aim was really to save lives they would have accepted the just demands of the Palestinian commando group. By allowing the police shoot-out they said quite clearly: the lives of the Israelis are less important than the struggle to defeat the