Telco rally kids for 2012 Olympics Southbank ‘demo’

Children turned up by the dozen with campaigners from all over East London for a rally outside the International Olympic Committee’s Sports Accord convention.

They gathered for a ‘public celebration’ on the Southbank on Monday with ‘cut out’ Olympic torches to mark commitments that have been won from the 2012 organisers including jobs for their mums and dads on the 2012 Games site getting the London Living Wage.

The rally was held opposite the IoC’s conference at Westminster by Telco, The East London Communities Organisation umbrella group.

Around 300 youngsters and families made it a day to highlight concerns in East London about next year’s Olympics.

It follows a long campaign going back to 2004—even before London won the bid to host next year’s Games—when Telco drew up its ‘ethical charter’ calling for a guaranteed ‘living wage’ minimum for jobs, currently �7.85-an-hour, as well as education opportunities and affordable housing, which Olympics organisers have since signed.

The Olympics authority, which announced last month that all 130,000 jobs at the East London construction site are on ‘Living’ wages, received the Civil Society award at the rally for its commitment.