Capitalism And Sport

Michael Lavalette

Description

Millions of working class people watch or participate in sports, and yet sport is shaped by the drives and contradictions of capitalism. The essays in this collection focus on the politics of, and politics in, sport. They look at the origins of sport regulation, the impact of globalisation and the place of individual and collective resistance. Covering issues such as racism, doping, sexism, fan movements and great figures from Muhammad Ali to Billie Jean King to Palestinian footballer Mahmoud Sarsak, this is a radical journey through sporting history.

Informations

• Publié par: Bookmarks
• Date de parution: 01 octobre 2013
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781909026421
• Langue: English

Extrait

Capitalism and Sport: Politics, Protest, People and Play Edited by Michael Lavalette
Acknowledgements
For a book of 42 chapters to come together requires immense discipline from contributors. I d like to thank all the writers in this volume for meeting deadlines and writing interesting and engaging pieces.
On behalf of the publishers I d like to thank the estate of C L R James for permission to reprint the two pieces reproduced here ( chapters 25 and 31 ) and Andrew Smith for help locating these works.
Sally Campbell at Bookmarks, Charlie Kimber, Martin Smith, Gareth Edwards and Pete Marsden have all offered critical comment and suggested key areas of debate we should explore. I d like to thank each for their help and support.
While I was putting this book together my father-in-law, Alan Penketh, came to live at our family home. He is a former sheet metal worker and was a shop steward and activist within the Sheet Metal Workers and Braziers Union, now part of Unite. He is currently struggling against an industrial disease and showing great fortitude in his latest fight. He has spent much of the last few months watching sport, especially football, on the television-a passion we share, though not his ardent support for Blackburn Rovers! I would like to dedicate this book to him.
Michael Lavalette
April 2013
CAPITALISM AND SPORT
Politics, Protest, People and Play
EDITOR MICHAEL LAVALETTE
Capitalism and Sport: Politics, Protest, People and Play
Edited by Michael Lavalette
Published July 2013
Bookmarks Publications Ltd,
c/o 1 Bloomsbury Street, London WC1B 3QE
Copyright Bookmarks Publications
ISBN 978 1 909026 30 8 ePub ISBN 978 1 909026 42 1 Kindle ISBN 978 1 909026 43 8
Printed by Russell Press
Designed by Bookmarks Publications
Contents
Contributors
Introduction: Capitalism and Sport: Politics, Protest, People and Play
Michael Lavalette
Part 1: Sport in a capitalist society
1 Capitalism and the birth of modern sport
Gareth Edwards
2 In defence of sport
Jonathan Dart
3 Sport and capitalism
Adrian Budd
Part 2: Global sport
4 Think local, act global: Football and globalisation
Dave Swanson
5 Cycling: History and globalisation
John Foot
6 Cricket and globalisation
Andrew Stone
7 The meaning of Murdoch: Sport in the New World Order
Tony Collins
8 The jogging boom
Dave Renton
Part 3: The sporting gods that failed
9 Rangers: The self-destruction of a football club
Phil Mac Giolla Bh in
10 Cycling and drugs: It s not about the bike
Michael Lavalette
11 Hillsborough: The disaster and the cover-up
Sadie Robinson
12 Mexico 1968: Massacre at the Olympic Games
Eamonn McCann
13 Anyone but England: Not flying the flag in the World Cup
Socialist Worker
14 The Olympics: A nation united?
Brian Richardson
Part 4: Sporting divisions
15 Sexism in sport
Jo Cardwell
16 Wrestling with the prophet: The politics of Muslims and sport
Hassan Mahamdallie
17 Cricket: Gentlemen and players
Keith Flett
18 Cricket, racism and the Yorkshire Leagues: Prospects for a more inclusive cricket in Yorkshire
Lionel Cliffe
19 Rugby League: Sport, class and politics
Paul Blackledge
20 What s different about the Paralympics?
Roddy Slorach
21 From the factory to the field: The story of Dick, Kerr Ladies FC
Peter Marsden
22 Cycling to socialism: The Clarion Cycle Club
Denis Pye
23 Pedalling days
Sylvia Pankhurst
Part 5: People
24 C L R James: Beyond cricket s boundary
Christian H gsbjerg
25 Test Match R sum
C L R James
26 Arthur Wharton: Airbrushed from history
Phil Turner
27 Sport is part of our resistance : Mahmoud Sarsak, Palestine s hunger striking footballer
Estelle Cooch
28 An anti-racist Olympic rebel: Damien Hooper
Dave Zirin
29 Carriers of the dream : Tennis radicals of the 1960s and 1970s
Peter Marsden and Rita Gough
30 Boxing, Ali, racism and resistance
Ron Senchak
31 Joe Louis and Jack Johnson
J R Johnson (C L R James)
32 The flame of revolt : An interview with John Carlos
Ken Olende
33 Justice for the 96: An interview with Sheila Coleman
Sadie Robinson
Part 6: Resistance
34 England s travelling cricket fans: A turning wicket
Hazel Potter
35 Ultras and fandom: The Green Brigade at Celtic
Michael Lavalette
36 Protest, community and football: FC United of Manchester as a fan movement
Peter Millward and George Poulton
37 OMONOIA, Nicosia: When the communist bandits formed a football team
Vassilios Ioakimidis
38 Militant action against sports apartheid
Peter Hain
39 The workers sports movement
Simon Basketter
40 Working on the chain gang at the Tour de France
Michael Lavalette
Part 7: Alternative futures?
41 Physical Culture , sport and revolution: The debate in post-revolutionary Russia
Gareth Edwards
42 Physical education: A class issue?
Sue Caldwell
Conclusion: The contradictions of capitalist sport
Michael Lavalette
Notes
Contributors
Simon Basketter is a journalist on Socialist Worker
Paul Blackledge is Professor of Politics at Leeds Metropolitan University
Adrian Budd teaches politics at London South Bank University, where he is UCU branch secretary
Sue Caldwell is a teacher and socialist activist in east London
Jo Cardwell is a socialist activist in London
Lionel Cliffe is Emeritus Professor of Politics at the University of Leeds, a founding editor of Review of African Political Economy and one-time league cricketer in South Yorkshire
Tony Collins is professor of history and director of the International Centre for Sports History and Culture at De Montfort University. He is the author of several books on the social history of sport, including Rugby s Great Split (1998), A Social History of English Rugby Union (2009) and Sport in Capitalist Society (2013)
Estelle Cooch is an assistant editor on Socialist Review
Jonathan Dart is a Senior Lecturer in Sports Studies at Leeds Metropolitan University
Gareth Edwards is a socialist activist in Portsmouth. He runs the sport-related blog inside-left.blogspot.co.uk
Keith Flett is a socialist historian and activist. He blogs at kmflett.wordpress.com
John Foot is Professor of Modern Italian History at University College London
Rita Gough is a social worker, a Unison member and a socialist activist in Lancashire
Peter Hain is Labour MP for Neath. A founder of the Anti Nazi League and supporter of Unite Against Fascism, he served as a Labour government minister for 12 years. He recently published his memoirs, Outside In (2012)
Christian H gsbjerg is a PhD student in Leeds and editor of a new edition of C L R James s 1934 play about the Haitian Revolution, Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History (2013)
Vassilios Ioakimidis is a lecturer in social work at Durham University
C L R James (1901-1989) was a historian, journalist, socialist theorist and essayist. His 1963 book Beyond a Boundary is a seminal work on cricket and society.
Michael Lavalette is a socialist councillor in Preston and the national coordinator of the Social Work Action Network. He is author of several books including Voices from the West Bank (with Chris Jones), which was published by Bookmarks (2011)
Phil Mac Giolla Bh in is the author of Downfall: How Rangers FC Self-destructed (2012). He is an activist in the National Union of Journalists
Hassan Mahamdallie has a background in theatre and campaigning journalism. He writes on issues of race, religion and black people in the West. He was a founding member of Unite Against Fascism
Peter Marsden is an officer with the local government union Unison
Eamonn McCann is a journalist and activist based in Derry
Peter Millward is a lecturer in sociology at Liverpool John Moore s University
Ken Olende is a journalist on Socialist Worker
Sylvia Pankhurst (1882-1960) was a leading suffragette and founder member of the Communist Party of Great Britain
Hazel Potter is a freelance writer and consultant who spends much of the winter in the left wing of England s travelling cricket support. She is a long-term fans activist, a former fanzine editor and current contributor to numerous sports fanzines, publications and websites
George Poulton is a PhD student at Durham University
Denis Pye is the author of Fellowship is Life: The Story of the Clarion Cycling Club (2004). He was a member of the club s national committee for over 20 years, and has written articles on the Clarion movement for the North West Labour History Journal. He is a retired teacher
Dave Renton is a lawyer, a blogger and an author. He blogs at livesrunning.wordpress.com
Brian Richardson is a lawyer and a socialist activist
Sadie Robinson is a journalist on Socialist Worker
Ron Senchak is a former boxer and a socialist activist in Manchester
Roddy Slorach is a disability activist and socialist in east London
Andrew Stone teaches politics and history in south London. He is a National Union of Teachers workplace rep
Dave Swanson is a PhD student at Manchester University
Phil Turner is a journalist based in Yorkshire and an NUJ activist
Dave Zirin is a blogger and political sports journalist with The Nation in the US. He blogs at www.edgeofsports.com
Introduction
CAPITALISM AND SPORT: POLITICS, PROTEST, PEOPLE AND PLAY
Michael Lavalette
The sports world is a lived world, like those of literature and the theatre, that is highly charged with human meaning. As a dramatic and symbolic world the sports world has its own plots, scenes, characters and settings. The game itself is the ritual hub of the sports universe; the team provides social structure; sports language gives the world cohesion; fans play the game vicariously through the athletes. Underneath and penetrating all the dramatic appeals is the powerful symbolism of play. The success of the sports world rests on its ability to build its symbolic structure on the memory o