Convergence repertoires: anti-capitalist protest at the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics

Abstract

This article introduces the term ‘convergence’ in order to explain a distinctive repertoire of protest events in which the following are present: (1) activists with an ideologically anti-capitalist orientation; (2) engage in property destruction; (3) travel from outside of the site of the protest event; and (4) solicit a determinable police response. Convergences have emerged as a subset of the alter-globalization movement since the ‘Battle in Seattle’ in 1999. Convergences have since emerged in resistance to meetings of global financial institutions, political primaries, and recently, the Olympic Games. We examine the logic that activists use to weave resistance to these disparate targets together. In this article, we arrive at this finding inductively, paying particular attention to convergence events at the 2010 Vancouver Olympic Games. Narratives around convergence repertoires allow activists to link seemingly disparate actors with similar and predictable performances.

Keywords:

• convergence
• repertoires
• protest
• movements
• sports

Notes

1. Not all participants, or even organizations, at these events are anti-capitalist in orientation. But as we explain later, we feel that the presence of anti-capitalist ideology does typify these convergences.

2. Protests of Olympic games are not new. See for instance, protests surrounding the 1968 summer games. (Hartmann, 1996) While the Vancouver protests may be placed within an emergent anti-Olympic Games repertoire, we contend that the Vancouver protests are, historically, better understood as part of an anti-capitalist convergence repertoire.

3. It should be evident that we are not arguing that all actors participate in aggression toward authorities or property destruction. But these are present at convergences.

4. Here, we use ‘repertoires’ as borrowed from Tilly. Tilly and Wood (2012). Social movements, 1768–2012. Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.

5. The Olympics are a unique target in that the institution enjoys broad public support as compared to global finance institutions. According to an International Olympic Committee (IOC) report, ‘A public opinion survey commissioned by the Bid Committee shows that 80% of the Canadian population and 62% of Vancouver residents support the bid.’ International Olympic Committee, 2003. ‘Report of the IOC Evaluation Commission for the XXI Olympic Winter Games in 2010.’ International Olympic Committee, Lausanne.

6. While the particular combination of ideologies and tactics varies, they all contain the particular ones identified in the following section.

7. There are national or supra-national protest issues that are centralized, as with marches on the capital city within countries. But these do not contain the same repertoires, or four themes described here. Too many national protest issues tend to be decentralized, with events in many cities.

8. We understand that this is an imprecise characterization and that ‘anti-capitalism’ may not constitute an ideology to some, but rather a category of ideologies. This imprecision is intentional, since not all anti-capitalist actors can be characterized by one more specific political orientation. One cannot characterize all participants in a convergence event as sharing the same ideology. However, all convergence events contain an anti-capitalist orientation.

9. The only available monograph on the topic.

10. Sanko, John. ‘Colorado only state ever to turn down Olympics.’ Denver Rocky Mountain News. 12 October 1999. http://denver.rockymountainnews.com/millennium/1012stone.shtml.