Movement A Double for Yes: the role of basketball athletes to raise awareness in the face of the referendum

The social role of athletes is key. Worldwide there have been many demonstrations involving different men and women of sport. For example, the claim against racial discrimination and that of women denouncing sexual abuse come to mind. Uruguay does not escape this logic. Athletes are becoming more and more aware of the influence they have on public opinion and, on several occasions, have put discussions on the table that have to do with politics and society. In this direction, the Un Doble por el Sí movement was born.

In October 2021, when it became known that there would be a referendum to repeal 135 articles of the law of urgent consideration, a group of basketball men and women – players, managers, coaches and referees – took to the court, gathered in Plaza Alba Roballo (in Bella Italia), read the articles in question, discussed in collective instances, built visions on the different topics, and reached today, when they made public several videos about it.

“We first intended to read the articles to dig deeper and take a stand. From there, collective instances were generated to generate opinion, which end up being transferred to public videos in the face of the referendum”, Mateo Sarni commented to Claw. The base also highlights the level of honesty of the personalities with great experience and popular recognition who are in the movement.

In recent days, Un Doble por el Sí published several videos that last around a minute and explain, among other things, articles on education, financial freedom or fuel, what existed before and what they are like after the LUC. “Everything that we have been saying in this logic of speeches we wanted to contrast it in videos with the textual articles and be able to give the contrast to get out of the logics that arrow the field”, comments Sarni, supporting the importance of collective construction, “as an opinion more than the many that exist and are respectable. The big step, the most important, is to give athletes a social position, which is not common, ”she adds.

Each video, in addition to the logic proposed, has, without exception, a closing with the message “We vote yes. You vote what you think. Here we show the articles. According to Sarni, closing like this is an idea that maintains the spirit that brought them together at the beginning: to have a space where they can share information to get out of the theoretical faction and learn more about the tools of politics, “and from there arrive at real arguments that help to grow as a society.

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