Opposed to the 1932 Summer Olympics in Los Angeles, the Labor Sports Union held their own Workers’ International Sport Meet in Chicago.

‘Workers’ Counter Olympics in Chicago’ by B.K. Gebert from Daily Worker. Vol. 9 No. 178. July 27, 1932.

Sportsmen to Struggle Against Imperialist War

ON July 28, 29, 30 and 31st the Workers’ International Sport Meet will take place in Chicago, which is organized in opposition to the bosses’ sport meet, known as the Olympics in Los Angeles.

The sport movement, as a whole, is minimized and underestimated by the working-class revolutionary movement in the United States. This is the last thing always considered. And it is one of the very important factors in the lives of the working class of the U.S. The bosses very effectively use sports against the working class. In the call of the American Olympics Committee (of which President Hoover is honorary president and Henry Stimson, secretary of state, is honorary vice-president and Patrick H. Hurley, secretary of war, and Charles F. Adams, secretary of the Navy, are active members, and on the Chicago Executive Committee we find the names of Democratic Mayor Cermak, Col. Frank Knox, General A. Davis and a number of other generals, industrial magnates and bankers, including Melvin Traylor, of the First National Bank) this fact is fully recognized and stated very openly. They very definitely declare:

“In recent years there has been a surprising lack of social unrest in the U.S. Probably the most important factor in preventing general disturbances of any kind is the nationwide interest and participation in athletic sports and games. The ideals of sport have left a definite impression on the character of the people of this country. For this reason, if for no other, our program merits the support of every patriotic citizen.”

“The Baseball Magazine” carries a leading article with headline: “Baseball as a cure for industrial unrest,” points out that “managers of huge corporations have adopted baseball as an important factor in maintaining plant and efficiency and employes’ loyalty and avoiding vexatious and costly wage disputes.”

This open admission of the purpose of the bosses’ sports must be seriously considered by the working class. We fully realize the importance of building the L.S.U. to counteract bosses’ sports. The bosses realize the importance of the Olympics so much that according to figures given to the press, as to the cost of the Olympics, that the preparations for the Olympics alone will cost $6,041,000. This, of course, does not include traveling expenses, etc. This is just organizational expenses for the Olympics. And the bosses are doing their damndest to bring sportsmen from all over the world and to mobilize the masses to watch the developments of the sports in Los Angeles and bring as many as they only can to the Olympics proper. They estimate that 105,000 people will attend the Olympics.

The Workers’ Sports Meet.

And now as to our Counter Olympics. The preparations for our Sports Meet were not broad enough. They did not involve the masses. However, in spite of the many shortcomings, and weaknesses, a large number of workers’ sport organizations have been won to participate. In the Chicago Stagg Field. Many workers give their full endorsement and Cooperation.

While the Olympics in Los Angeles will be held in the atmosphere of imperialist war preparations, the Chicago Workers’ Sports Meet will be held with a determination to struggle against imperialist war, and for the defense of the Soviet Union. Worker sportsmen of the Soviet Union were not invited to the Olympics. The Committee of the Counter Olympics invited the Soviet Union sportsmen to come to Chicago. They were denied admission by Secretary of State Stimson, who is honorary vice-president of the Olympics. The officialdom of the Chicago Federation of Labor, as the A.F. of L. leaders everywhere, support the bosses’ Olympics and refuse to give any support whatsoever to the Workers’ Sport Meet in Chicago.

But the masses of workers in Chicago and vicinity fully realize the international importance of the Workers’ Sport Meet in Chicago. Every worker in Chicago and vicinity shall consider it his or her duty to come and bring others to participate in the Counter Olympics.

Join Labor Sports Union.

Judging from the program arranged by the committee, this will be one of the most important workers’ sports gathering in the U.S. The program is so rich that everybody who will come will enjoy it. In addition to the sports meet there will be greetings from working-class organizations in Chicago ad an artistic program given by the Workers’ Cultural Federation. We must utilize the Workers’ Sports Meet in Chicago to build, strengthen and develop our as yet small Labor Sports Union into a broad mass organization.

The Daily Worker began in 1924 and was published in New York City by the Communist Party US and its predecessor organizations. Among the most long-lasting and important left publications in US history, it had a circulation of 35,000 at its peak. The Daily Worker came from The Ohio Socialist, published by the Left Wing-dominated Socialist Party of Ohio in Cleveland from 1917 to November 1919, when it became became The Toiler, paper of the Communist Labor Party. In December 1921 the above-ground Workers Party of America merged the Toiler with the paper Workers Council to found The Worker, which became The Daily Worker beginning January 13, 1924. National and City (New York and environs) editions exist.

PDF of full issue: https://www.marxists.org/history/usa/pubs/dailyworker/1932/v09-n178-NY-jul-27-1932-DW-LOC.pdf