Extreme Marathon Athlete Dietmar Muecke Runs for Fair Play at the Olympics in Berlin

On 30 June some 3500 citizens and guests of Berlin welcomed the Olympics Torch Relay "Athens 2004", which was so heavily dominated by the Coca Cola and Samsung Circus, that the Torch itself was difficult to be seen…. From midday on activists and supporters of INKOTA, the local CCC-Germany NGO, organized an ALTERNATIVE TORCH RELAY with extreme athlete Dietmar Muecke asking passers by to run with him for fair labour conditions in the global sportswear industry.

Dietmar is famous not only for such extraordinary achievements as 24-hours-marathon while running barefoot over a distance of 133 km (his Guiness record) or 48-hours-marathons, but also for his strong social and environmental commitment.

Street theatre at Torch Relay Berlin

Several hours prior to the official Olympic Party the Torch Relay passed right through the Play Fair at the Olympics stand in the middle of the Unter den Linden Boulevard next to the Brandenburg Gate. They were attracted by a number of street theatre performances.

A dozen of young people performed their play showing the dissonance between the Olympic ideal and the cruel reality in the sportswear factories. Several hundreds of passers-by readily received leaflets with information about the global campaign and the Olympic Report, and about fifty signed an appeal to the IOC and the brand companies. Some CCC-activists from other cities joint us in distributing materials and explaining the cause.

The Police were watching the whole action and especially "torch carrier" Dietmar very closely making sure he would not spoil the official torch relay. Nevertheless, he managed to follow the last VIP carrying the Olympic Torch towards Brandenburg Gate with his symbolic torch blown off. Then he tried - with emphasis and courage - to persuade the official carrier/runner to light his torch from the Olympic Fire - until the Police got really angry and ordered Dietmar to leave the place. So he had to withdraw, but a lot of people had learned about the Campaign!

Colourful protests at the Karstadt- Ruhr Marathon in Germany

The German Clean-Clothes-Campaign launched their "Play Fair at the Olympics" street actions at the Karstadt-Ruhr Marathon on 25th of April. This marathon was organised by KarstadtQuelle, the biggest sportswear-retailer in Germany -who sells a number of sportswear brands that are also targeted in the Play Fair at the Olympics campaign-, and was sponsored by Reebok. At the start of the marathon in Dortmund, a banner with balloons flew the message "SPORTSWEAR: a pittance for huge profit" high above visitors' heads as leaflets were handed out to the crowd. A green dragon, 10 metres long, bearing slogans about the low wages of workers and the big profits of Karstadt and sportswear companies, was carried alongside the marathon.

At the finishing line in Essen, the town of the KarstadtQuelle headquarters, the dragon marched around for more than two hours, accompanied by campaigners in CCC T-Shirts handing out leaflets to visitors. Campaigners in Germany look forward to a similarly bright and noticeable presence at the opening of the European Football Championships on 12th of June.