• Individuals, some of whom are members of the Saccage 2024 collective, have applied to become volunteers at the 2024 Paris Olympic and Paralympic Games in an attempt to defeat them.
  • As the recruitment campaign ended on Wednesday, how many of the 300,000 people registered are "fake volunteers"?
  • Concealed work, "ecological looting", gentrification and militarization of the territory... Four of these activists give 20 Minutes the reasons they have for wanting to hack the Olympics.

The volunteer recruitment campaign for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (JOP) has just come to an end. 300,000 people have registered, the organizing committee announced on Thursday. But of these, how many are "fake volunteers" trying to derail the Games? And what are their motivations?

Because the anti-JOP, led by the collective Saccage 2024 and other ecological groups, have mounted a campaign of sabotage. It aims to encourage anyone who has a tooth against the event to apply, then choose, to "not go", "strike by asking to be paid", make the "strike of zeal", "express themselves, and show the true face of the JOP" or collect evidence to go to the prud'hommes, as proposed by a Basta Media tribune , entitled "No volunteers for the 2024 JOP: tutorial to spoil their hidden work campaign", and signed by these same collectives.

'Hidden work'

The first thing the anti-JOP criticize the competition for is seeking to employ 45,000 unpaid volunteers, while promising economic benefits that they say are illusory. "I find it indecent that such a lucrative mega event gives itself the opportunity to operate with so many volunteers, when there is a very profitable organization behind it. It's like a big company using a lot of volunteers. For me it's hidden work," argues Nora*, 25, a student, who registered at the end of April on the JOP volunteer platform, which she intends to hack. "They arrive in the 93, one of the poorest departments in France. They will not make any economic impact, the jobs created are precarious jobs, "adds Yun*, also in the collective Sacking 2024.

Several personalities have given their support to these infiltrators, including Gérard Filoche, trade unionist and politician, and especially former labour inspector, for whom the job descriptions of JOP volunteers have all the employment contract. "They work 10 hours a day and 48 hours a week, have to follow orders, have prior training... It's an employment contract! " says the trade unionist, for whom "any specialist in labour law" would claim that this is concealed work. "What characterizes an employment contract is subordination. Volunteers are dependent on department heads, so there is a subordination, so it is an employment contract. They call it a volunteer charter, but it's a pipe, the contract is requalifiable. We pigeon them, "says Gérard Filoche, who finds this "shameful" while according to the calculations of the anti-JOP, salaried at the Smic the volunteers would represent only 1% of the budget of the JOP. "We promised a lot of beautiful things to the kids of the 93 and in the end we only offer them a meal and volunteering," abounds the regional councillor ecologist Annie Lahmer.

"If someone wants to work, the solution exists"

Contacted by 20 Minutes, Alexandre Morenon-Condé, deputy director in charge of the volunteer program, refutes these arguments "The charter of Olympic and Paralympic volunteering is a document enshrined in the 2018 law. A lot of ministries were involved in defining all the missions. We consulted the 2024 ethics committee, we wanted to define missions that do not expose us to a risk of requalification, and we wanted to limit the number of hours when normally, there is no limit on volunteer hours. For the manager, if volunteer missions last 48 hours, it is because "volunteers do not want to miss a crumb".

Could the organization not, in this case, have provided, for example, a swing of volunteer hours and free show hours per week, to thank these people who are not paid? "When you volunteer, it's because you want to be behind the scenes of the event. We have not studied other models," the official replied dryly, who believes that "volunteering is part of the DNA of French sports". And adds: "We have more than a thousand jobs to fill, with a lot of jobs on private security, if someone wants to work, the solution exists. "

Pollution and destruction of trees

The anti-JOP have other motivations to derail the Games. They believe that the latter will be an "ecological disaster", like Anna*, 18, a student and member of Youth for Climate Île-de-France, who applied "with the idea of making things malfunction" and points to the destruction of the workers' gardens of Aubervilliers, to build an Olympic swimming pool. Arthur* also cites the construction of the media village, which led, according to the very detailed argument of Saccage 2024, to the felling of trees and the destruction of "part of Georges Valbon Park", with a "deficit of 14 hectares". The construction of the motorway interchange in the Pleyel district should also bring more pollution to the 700 children of the Pleyel - Anatole France school group. "It's an ecological rampage," says Yun*, who also points to the thousands of mascots, 80% of which are made in China.

The anti-JOP have many other reasons to be angry with the JOP. Arthur* points out that modern games were created by an admirer of Hitler and that the slogan of the Games, "Faster - Highest - Stronger", is "a perfect slogan for capitalism". Anna points to the "gentrification of working-class neighborhoods" around the Olympic site, where the price per square meter is increasing, and Yun the "militarization of space", since the package has been put on security.



A thousand fake volunteers?

How many will these infiltrators be? According to Nora*, about 1,000 people gravitating in the Sacking 2024 network have registered; Anna* estimates that "fifteen people" from Youth for Climate have taken the plunge.

But not sure that this is enough to really sabotage the plans of the Cojo (Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games). With 300,000 registered, the JOP will have a very large waiting list of people ready to enlist. "We plan to have volunteers who can be mobilized in case of withdrawal of other volunteers," explains Alexandre Morenon-Condé. Especially since, like any person in the organization of the Olympics, the volunteers will be the subject of an administrative investigation, according to the deputy director, an investigation that could filter a lot of infiltrators... "We're not worried at all," says the volunteer program manager.

The anti-JOP do not give up. For Arthur*, this tutorial to spoil the Olympics has already achieved one of its main objectives: "To talk about anti-Olympism".

  • Local
  • Paris
  • Ile
  • Olympic Games
  • Paris 2024 Olympics
  • Paralympic Games
  • Olympism
  • Volunteering
  • Ecology
  • Militancy