A communique and call to action:
Early November 20th, several hours before the opening ceremony of the 2022 World Cup, we smashed up most buildings at the Adidas North American headquarters in Portland, Oregon. We shattered windows, broke doors and covered walls with paint across the corporate campus, including office buildings, the gym and cafe. Adidas is one of FIFA’s primary long-term partners, and a main sponsor of the World Cup in Qatar this year.
The history of the World Cup is one of death and displacement. Every stadium stands upon the dead bodies of workers who built it. In Qatar, over 6,500 migrant workers from South Asia died during the decade of preparations for the 2022 World Cup, forced to work in slave conditions. The World Cup was made possible by hundreds of thousands of migrant workers forced into labor through a combination of physical violence, threats of imprisonment, passport confiscation, debt bondage, and more. Every World Cup involves the violent evictions and displacement of thousands, replacing whole neighborhoods with stadiums and other infrastructure. The entire operation is protected by huge increases of militarized policing and surveillance, with 3,000 riot cops sent from Turkey, 4,500 soldiers from the Pakistan army and forces from the British Royal Navy and Air Force coming to Qatar to enforce control during the World Cup.
At the demonstration called for Saturday, November 12, various streets in the Trastevere district, in the centre of Rome, were blocked for more than four hours.
