A Brief History of the Camp Olympics and Color Wars
(Imagine Camp Kinderland having any kind of war!!)
If anyone has any additonal information about missing team names please let me know.
(Thanks to Meira Bernstein (2006) for compiling this list and to Joanna Kalb (1993) for
finding the official records, starting in 1973, buried in the back of a drawer.)
| Year | ||||||
| 1944 | Color War | |||||
| 1945 | Color War | |||||
| 1956 | USA | USSR | UK | France | Israel | India |
| 1957 | India (1st with 166 points) | Poland (2nd with 162.5 points) | USA (3rd with 162 points) | Italy (4th with 161.5 points) | Ghana (5th with 160.5 points) | Israel (6th with 153 points) |
| 1960 | ILGWU | United Auto Workers | United Steel Workers | 1099 (pharmacists) | Printers | UHCMWIU (United Hat, Cap and Millinery Workers; International Union |
| 1962 | Bulgaria | |||||
| 1963 | Japan | Poland | Romania | Senegal | Tanzania | |
| 1964 | USA | Bulgaria | Indonesia | Italy | ||
| 1965 | Nigeria | Israel | Mexico | Czechoslovakia | ||
| 1966 | Cambodia | Senegal | ||||
| 1967 | France | Japan | Poland | Tanzania | ||
| 1968 | Marc Rubman remenbers the following: There were 4 teams but also a rouge 5th team,
"the infirmary sickies". Led by Marc Kaplan (who was then a cit), there we're 5 or 6 of us who were sick during the
Olympics and kept in the infirmary for nearly the entire Olympics. Near the end of the Olympics, we all broke out of the
infirmary and marched on the games singing the song we had written to the tune of "the peat bog soldiers". Guess we
weren't all that sick. Others remember: Denmark, POland, USSR |
|||||
| 1969 | Pakistan | Kenya | USSR | England | ||
| 1972 | Mohatma Ghandi | Hannah Senesh | Benito Juarez | |||
| Theme | ||||||
| 1973 | United Labor | Fur and Leather Workers(Purple) | Local 1199 – Hospital Workers(Black) | United Mine Workers(Blue) | ||
| 1974 | Cambodia(Navy) | Chile(Red) | Guinea-Bisseau(Purple) | |||
| 1975 | The Roots of Unity | American Indian Community | Black Community | Hispanic Community | Jewish Community | |
| 1976 | Ghana(Black and Green) | Greece(Blue and Orange) | Mexico(Red and Yellow) | |||
| 1977 | Cuba(Blue) | Italy(Red) | Japan(Purple) | |||
| 1978 | Holland(Blue) | Ivory Coast(Yellow) | Vietnam(Red) | |||
| 1979 | Egypt(Yellow) | France(Red) | Israel(Blue) | |||
| 1980 | Jamaica(Green) | Nicaragua(Blue) | Poland(Red) | |||
| 1981 | Freedom Fighters | Dolores Ibarruri(Red) | Emma Goldman(Purple) | Frederick Douglas(Green) | ||
| 1982 | El Salvador(Red) | Azania (South Africa)(Green) | Yugoslavia(Blue) | |||
| 1983 | India(Blue) | Chile(Red) | Ireland(Green) | |||
| 1984 | ||||||
| 1985 | Resistance | Nicaragua | The Philippines | South Africa | Spain 1936 | |
| 1986 | La Lucha Continua | The Anti-Slavery Movement(Purple) | The Labor Movement(Gold) | Native American Rights Movement(Green) | Anti-Intervention/ Sanctuary Movement(Red) | |
| 1987 | The Struggle Continues | Mozambique | Guatemala | New Zealand | Haiti | |
| 1988 | Building A Better Future | Angola(Green & Black) | China(Yellow & Purple) | Mexico(Blue & Orange) | USSR(Red & White) | |
| 1989 | Black Liberation Struggles | Port au Prince 1791(Yellow & Orange) | Harper’s Ferry 1859(Red & Purple) | Mississippi Freedom Summer 1964(Blue & Brown) | Soweto 1976(Green & Black) | |
| 1990 | Revolutionary Turning Points | France 1789(Blue) | Russia 1917(Red) | India 1947(Green) | Nicaragua 1979(Black) | |
| 1991 | American Peoples | Hispanic Americans(Red) | African Americans(Yellow) | Asian Americans(Blue) | Native Americans(Green) | Jewish Americans(Purple) |
| 1992 | Building Bridges | Judah Magnus(Blue) | A. Philip Randolph(Orange & Black) | Chico Mendes(Green) | Sojourner Truth(Purple) | Ida B. Wells(Red) |
| 1993 | Solidarity | Israeli Palestinian Peace(Blue) | Asian Student Democracy(Red) | Gypsy Rights(Purple) | Islamic Women’s Liberation Movement(White) | African Freedom(Green) |
| 1994 | Heintikeh Kemf - Our World Struggles | Haiti(Blue) | Mexico(Red) | Ireland(Green) | Burma(White) | Mozambique(Purple) |
| 1995 | Africa’s Many Peoples | Nigeria(Blue) | Madagascar(Green) | Kenya(Red) | Morocco(White) | Zimbabwe(Purple) |
| 1996 | Workers of the World | Brazil(Purple) | France(Blue) | Guatemala(Red) | Pakistan(Green) | |
| 1997 | Youth Activism | SNCC(Blue) | Young Lords(Purple) | Brigadistas(Red) | Soweto(Green) | |
| 1998 | Struggle in Solidarity: Working people’s struggles | United Farm Workers Strike and Grape Boycott 1964(Green) | Lawrence Textile Workers Strike 1912(Red) | United Automobile Workers’ Flint Sit-Down Strike 1937(Purple) | Shirtwaistmakers’ Strike 1909(Blue) | |
| 1999 | Struggle in Solidarity | Indian Independence Movement (Red) | Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo(Green) | Women’s Suffrage Movement(Blue) | Ban the Bomb(White) | |
| 2000 | Speak Truth to Power | Hollywood 10(Green) | Conscientious Objectors(Blue) | The Israeli Refusers(White) | Revolutionary Association of the Women of Afghanistan(Purple) | |
| 2001 | People Before Profits | Haymarket 1886: Rights of Labor(Red) | People’s Movements of the 1930s(Green) | Seabrook 1977: Health Before Profits(White) | Seattle 1999: International Democratic Cooperation Not Corporate Exploitation(Blue) | |
| 2002 | Gay-Straight Alliance | International Brigades | Free the Children | Abolitionists | ||
| 2003 | Truth, Peace, and Justice: Telling It Like It Is | Art-Makers(Red) | Muckrakers(Green) | News-Breakers(Blue) | Whistleblowers(White) | |
| 2004 | Building Democracy in America | Civil Liberties(Blue) | Equality(Red) | Solidarity(Green) | Community Justice(White) | |
| 2005 | Seeds of Victory | Mother Jones and the UMW(White) | Harry Hay and the Mattachine Society(Blue) | W.E.B. DuBois and the NAACP(Red) | Dave Dellinger and the War Resisters League(Green) | |
| 2006 | What Does Real Democracy Look Like? | Venezuela(White) | Bolivia(Blue) | Chile(Red) | Brazil(Green) | |
| 2007 | From Discussion to Action | Jews for Racial and Economic Justice(Red) | Highlander Center(Blue) | Greenpeace(Green) | Center for Constitutional Rights(White) | |
| 2008 | A People’s Platform: Kinderland’s Agenda for Change | Czechoslovakia(Red) | South Africa 1991(Blue) | Guatemala(Green) | USA 1932-1936(White) | |
| 2009 | Achieving the Impossible | The Civil Rights Movement (Blue) | The Abolitionists(Red) | The Suffragists(Purple) | The Eight Hour Day(Green) | |
| 2010 | People Making History: Remembering Howard Zinn |
Stonewall Uprising (Purple) |
Yucca Mountain Protests (Green) | Battle at the Border (Red) |
Butcher’s Boycott (Blue) |
|
| 2011 | Workers of the World Unite: the Fight for Labor Rights |
The Miners (Blue) |
The Farm Workers (Red) | The Autoworkers (Purple) | The Sanitation Workers (Green) | |
| 2012 | People Before Profits: Kinderland stands with the 99% |
Occupy Jobs (purple) |
Occupy Healthcare (red) | Occupy Housing (blue) |
Occupy the Environment (green) |
|
| 2013 | Seneca, Selma, Stonewall, Silent Spring: Where are we now? | Racial Justice | LGBTQ Rights | Women’s Equality | The Safe Environment | |
| 2014 | Artist Activists: |
Harry Belafonte | Augusto Boal | The Suffragists(Purple) | Keith Haring | |
| 2015 | We Are Each Others’ Keepers: Working Together for Racial Justice and Equality |
End Racial Profiling | Equal Education for Al | Fair Housing for All | End Environmental Racism | |
| 2016 | The Earth is my Country and I Am a Citizen of the World | The Coalition of Immokalee Workers | Hidankyo | The Kichwa | WOZA, or Women of Zimbabwe Arise | |
| 2017 | Kinderland Resists: Without Struggle There Is No Progress | Protect the Environment | Welcome Immigrants | Defend Voting Rights | Resist Militarization |
|
| 2018 | The People Speak: Telling the Truth, Changing the Narrative | The Civil Rights Movement (Blue) | Ferguson/Black Lives Matter | The Little Rock 9 | Trail of Dreams | East L.A. Chicano Walkout |
| 2019 | River of the People: A Mighty Force Towards Justice | Break the Prison Chains | Green New Deal | Our Bodies, Our Choice | Strike Wave | |
| 2020 | COVID SUMMER | |||||
| 2021 | Fighting Racism with Solidarity | Rainbow Coalition (blue) | International Union of Mine, Mill, and Smelter Workers (red) | Idle No More (green | STAR – Street Transvestite Action Revolutionaries (purple) | |
| 2022 | Turning Swords into Plowshares | The Chipko Movement | The Landless Workers Movemen | The Green Wave Movement | Abolishing Apartheid | |