Asking semi-seriously.
The Socialist Workers’ Sport International (although I prefer its German name Sozialistische Arbeitersport Internationale as it was abbreviated as SASI) was formed in Switzerland in 1920. They organized three International Workers’ Olympiads between 1925 and 1937 to offer a less classist version of The Olympics, which especially in the early days of its modern revival upheld a view of sportsmanship that was very upper class coded and upholding idealized images of a privately educated “gentleman amateur” who was an “all-rounder” who didn’t specialize or excel in one particular area. The events emphasised international cooperation, shared class struggle, and solidarity above national identity.
If we were to bring the spirit of this idea into the modern age, would the obvious candidate not be the Eurovision Song Contest. Like the Olympics, it’s based on international competition. and people have complained for decades that most countries just end up voting for their closest ally. Then there’s the fact that the EBU still refuses to bar the genocidal apartheid state of Israel.
So do we need a “Prole-Oh-Vision” (Never said I was good at naming things. Fuck You. What are you going to contribute?) Song Contest? Keeping the libs and reactionaries out would solve most of the problems with Eurovision. You wouldn’t even need to ban Israel, because any Israeli who believed in internationalism, shared struggle, and liberation for all wouldn’t be a zionist.
Huh, next edition is hosted in Saudi Arabia. It’s cool that Vietnam won the last contest and all, and i’m boycotting ESC as long as the Occupation can use it to pinkwash its crimes, but having the Jemen genociders instead of the Gaza genociders host this doesn’t sound promising. That this was originally revived when Russia was still allowed at Eurovision, but was too triggered by queer people existing doesn’t make it better.
i did not mean to endorse the contest in its current form, merely to refer to its history as a formally socialist-dominated art contest. obviously, there is sadly little to celebrate about the current interests behind the event.