File spoon-archives/marxism.archive/marxism_1996/96-06-marxism/96-06-26.161, message 303


From: Zeynep Tufekcioglu <zeynept-AT-turk.net>
Subject: Sports
Date: Tue, 25 Jun 1996 20:26:41 +0300


>Actually sports is politics Kevin. Unfortunately you just don,t see it. I,m 
>rooting for the Checks (the underdogs). But Look at the Olympics both today 
>in Geogia and in Berlin under Hitler..

Heya people, Malecki I agree. *Must* be full-moon.

Sports *is* politics. I did a paper about "Sports" for a Sociology Students'
Congress once. I thought I'm not going to another "Dependency Theory and
Implications for Turkey", or "Gurvitch and Post-Modernism." The Congress was
an independent student initiative, and was in another city. Was spring too.
So, I thought, I'm not gonna do sharp politics. I'm not gonna spend three
days arguing over statistics. Want my fun and sun.

So, I start learning about it. Politics, politics, politics. Ranging from
the "fascism, fado and football" recipe of Latin American dictators, to the
examples such rivalry between Barcelona (my favorite European team!) and
Madrid in the field - which clearly fluctuated along with the Franko fascist
centralism and Barcelona anarchist/federalism, to the fact that in Turkey
most teams had clear class connotations, and found out how much politics was
always involved and the the overlap of lumpen hooliganism and fascist gangs,
and ....

It was probably the paper around which most political discussion revolved.
Was a good widespread discussion too. It was a short while before the first
May Day rally in which the student movement managed to unite around a
coalition called "coordination", and I met most of the organisers from other
cities, who were inaccessible before, defending/discussing my "sports" paper.

It is good to discuss subjects which clearly play a role in the lives of
many, are discussable by many since a lot of people know the subject, which
are clearly political.

Zeynep



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