The daily worker. [volume] (Chicago, Ill.) 1924-1958, 1932-07-16
Labor Sports
By ST GERSoN

Two campaigns are going on today
among athletes in the United States
one is the campaign conducted by the
American Olympics Committee, the
other is the campaign led by the Ma
tional Counter olympic Committee
The honorary chairman of the AM
erican Olympics Committee is Her
bert Hoover, starvation president OF
the United States; the honorary
chairman of the National Counter
Olympic Committee is the imprisoned
worker, Tom Mooney. This alone
should be sufficient to show to all
clasS-conscious workers what the
character of the two campaigns are.
The Boss OIympics
! The Olympics games in this year of
, crisis can be seen as a boss class
Olympics by even the most skeptical.
The Olympics Committee in makeup
is composed of out-and-out reaction
airy elements: General Douglas Nc
Arthur, head of the War Policies
Commissimon and Chief of Staff of
the United States Army is one of
the leaders of the American Olympics
/ Committee. General Macarthur, 1t
may be said in passing, only recently
completed a tour of inspection of the
Notifications and the military forces
of the Baltic States bordering the
Soviet Union. Colonies Ely and
Roosevelt are among the army Of
ficers in the leadership of the Olym-
pics Committee. Avery Brundage, rich
Chicago building contractor and
president of the Amateur Athletic
Union, is another guiding spirit, as is
the wealthy New York lawyer, Gus
tayus t. Kirby. In short, the Or
ganizers of the Olympics are drawn
from the top ranks of the capitalist
class.
The work of the Olympics Com
mittee reflects faithfully the policies
of the American capitalist class. First
and foremost-and most significantly
the Olympics Committee is carrying
out a boycott of the Soviet Union.
The Olympics does not recognize"
! the existence Of ~one-siXth of the
worlds surface which is in the hands
OF the working-class. The tremen-
dous growth of physical culture is the
Soviet Union. one of the fruits of the
revolution, remains "unnoticed by the
Olympics Committee.
Olympics Jim Grow Policy
The implacable hostility of the
Olympics Committee towards the
Soviet Union, which they failed" to
invite to the Olympic Games, can
only be approached to their hatred of
: the Negro masses. Negro athletes are
not given a chance to compete in the
South with white sportsmen. "A spe-
cial meet is held for Negro athletes
! in the South, at Tuskegee, held with
the groveling aid of the Negro middle
class refornists. In the North ath-
lates are Disseminated against in
somewhat more subtle fashion. This
/ is what Leroy Atkinson, a sport writer
OF the Boston Transcript wrote on
April 9Th of this year concerning the
boxing tryouts for the Olympics held
! in Boston under the auspices of the
Amateur Athletic Union.
"If the Amateur Athletic Union
cannot see its way clear to giving
Negro boxers the championships
! they win, then the A. A. U. ought
to go out Of the boxing business, or
else bar these colored boys.'
international Workers Athletic Meet
The American worker sportsmen
have organized Counter Olympic
campaign, initiated by the Labor
Sports Union. In October of last year
Tom Mooney issued a call for a boy
colt of the Los Angeles Olympic
Games as a protest against his con-
tinued imprisonment. The Labor
Sports Union Immediately wired him.
endorsing his appeal for boycott and,
going further, suggested that he ac-
cept the honorary Craftsmanship of
the National Counter Olympic Com
mittee that was then being built
| Mooney wired his acceptance of this
and the entire movement was spurred
on by his endorsement. A number of
Tom Mooney Street runs were held in
New York, Pittsburgh, Cleveland,
Chicago. Youngstown, Milwaukee, San
Francisco, Paterson and number of
smaller cities in the country. In all
these runs the athletes run through
the major streets of the city with
slogans on their backs Free Tom
Mooney, Free the Scotssboro Boys"
Boycott the Olympics," etc. In a
number of cities united front con-
ference were held where the athletes
/ from various boss controlled and in
dependent organizations were brought
into the movement. Competition was
organized in basketball, soccer, and
swimming, track and field. The en-
tire campaign is to wind up in the
International Workers Athletic Meet.