(The following article is from the March 16-31, 2010 issue of People's Voice, Canada's leading communist newspaper. Articles can be reprinted free if the source is credited. Subscription rates in Canada: $30/year, or $15 low income rate; for U.S. readers - $45 US per year; other overseas readers - $45 US or $50 CDN per year. Send to: People's Voice, c/o PV Business Manager, 706 Clark Drive, Vancouver, BC, V5L 3J1.)

By Kimball Cariou

     The Paralympics are still coming to Vancouver, but the dust is starting to settle after the much bigger Winter Olympics. It's time for a preliminary look at the impact of the Games on the people of Vancouver.

     Despite claims that the Olympics would "pay for themselves," taxpayers had to shell out most of the $8 billion to host this corporate festival. That includes assets like the Canada Line, but it also leaves taxpayers with a debt burden which will last for many years.

     Even critics did enjoy the superb level of competition and the spirit of most of the athletes. Sports like speed skating, snowboarding, and hockey offer an incredible dramatic spectacle.

     For every elite athlete from a privileged background, there is a Clara Hughes, who emerged from the hard streets of Winnipeg to win medals in both summer and winter Olympics. Hughes donated the $10,000 cash bonus for her 5,000 meter speed-skating bronze medal to the "Take A Hike" program at John Oliver Secondary, an east Vancouver school which suffers from low rankings by the right-wing Fraser Institute. This program helps students with addictions and other problems to take part in "adventure-based" learning.

     And for every athlete who parrots the "family values" line, there's a Johnny Weir, courageously taking on bigots who sneered at his figure skating costumes. Jon Montgomery, the Calgary car salesman and auctioneer, shattered Alberta stereotypes by celebrating at the LGBT Pride House in Whistler after winning his gold medal in the men's skeleton event.

     On the downside, politicians took full advantage of all the flag-waving. Stephen Harper turned up everywhere during the final days of the Games. (At some east Vancouver restaurants and pubs, the PM was booed when his face appeared on TV.)

     Both the B.C. and federal governments tabled 2010 budgets just after the closing ceremonies. The same politicians who broke open the piggy bank for a 17-day Olympic party are now giving the finger to working people stuck in a lingering economic meltdown.

     That reality is on the minds of groups such as anti-poverty activists, and Vancouver teachers and students.

     As the Games began, housing advocates and homeless people established a "Red Tent" village on property owned by Concord Pacific, one of western Canada's biggest developers. But on Feb. 28, the final day of the Games, police removed this visible evidence of a massive housing crisis. Civic authorities found places to live for about 35 tent village campers, but denied that any political efforts had been necessary to achieve this outcome.

     That's news to the Pivot Legal Society and Streams of Justice, groups which helped organize the tent village. Despite this minor victory, over 2,000 residents of Vancouver remain without a place to call home.

     The real success was showing the world that poverty is a burning problem in the wealthy city which hosted the 2010 Games. That message was driven home on Feb. 27, when activists wrapped the entire block around Canada's Olympic Pavilion with giant red tarps calling for action on housing.

     On March 1, just 24 hours after Sidney Crosby's "golden goal" set off celebrations across the country, elementary and secondary teachers rallied at the office of provincial education minister Margaret Macdiarmid, demanding that the Campbell Liberals tackle the staggering funding shortfalls faced by B.C. school boards. In Vancouver alone, funding for the 2010-11 school year will be $17 million less than costs, out of a $450 million budget. Just before the Olympics, 800 teachers were sent notices of potential layoffs, as required by their collective agreement. Vital programs are in danger, and school closures are possible. Until now, progressive Vancouver trustees have found ways to keep the main impact of Liberal cuts out of the classroom, trimming administration and fighting for better funding. But there's no fat left to trim.

     On another front, Olympic organizers and politicians claimed credit for moving huge crowds with relatively few problems. It's true that widely expected chaos did not materialize. But far from proving that the region's public transportation is a success story, the Games showed just how inadequate the system really is. Olympic organizers did manage to keep thousands of private vehicles out of the downtown for three weeks, by operating the transit system well beyond normal capacity for that entire period. Today, traffic counts are back up, and the region remains about 500 buses short of what's needed to function adequately. Just as bad, fares are going up again on April 1, making public transit even less affordable.

     Then there's the matter of the billion-dollar security crackdown before, during and after the Games. The cops generally avoided attacking protesters during the Olympics. However, it took months of hard work by civil rights defenders to beat back initial threats to block any critical actions. Since the global media left town, several opposition organizers has been the targets of police harassment, a tactic which was also used before the Games. Questions also remain around the "Black Bloc" action on Feb. 13; it seems likely that some of the "masked anarchists" may have been police provocateurs.

     The closure of the Tent Village, while media attention was focused on the men's hockey final and the closing ceremonies, shows that the police continue to enforce the rules established by the ruling class. From this perspective, the Games were a golden opportunity for the capitalist state to rehearse the massive security operations which may be required when popular mobilizations against the corporate attack become much larger.

     And the "Olympic boom" predicted by Premier Campbell? As expected, many downtown hotels and restaurants did a roaring business during the Games. But others even a couple of blocks from the action missed out, and sales slumped badly in many neighbourhoods during February.

     To paraphrase a famous Tom Paxton song: "Wasn't that a party? But look at the mess I'm in."