News from Poland

Police raid Wroclaw Social Centre

The next day a demonstration with 100 participants was made at the procurer's office, where a suit against Dominik was filed, accusing him of attacking a policeman. Piszpunt and Natalia from the Polish A.B.C. have filed a complaint at this same procurer's office, with the results of medical exams they have made, accusing the cops of causing injury and intrusion on private property.

A press conference was organised, and as a result the case made it to the national newspapers, which presented it like it really happened. We'll see how all this develops & keep you informed.

Zaczek - Anarchist Federation - Warsaw

Without Church Dogma to the 21 Century!

This is the motto of the event which took place on 30-31 May 1997 (during the Pope's visit) in Wroclaw in Poland and is organized by the Liberty Forum. The Liberty Forum organizes and is open to cooperation with all groups, social circles and individuals, which act for freedom, tolerance and cultural variety. The Liberty Forum declares for open society and peaceful coexistence of all outlooks on life. We are against every kind of domination of one cultural, political or religious option. With anxiety we are observing authoritarian (nationalist and clerical) tendencies in Polish society.

The action "Without Church Dogma to the 21 Century!" is our protest against clerical repression in social life and religious dictatorship which is going to be imposed by the Church and political circles connected with it. Our action includes demonstrations, fun (happenings, concerts) and a seminar on the threat to human freedom caused by the doctrine and activity of the Catholic Church.

We are expecting support and help from everybody who prefers critical intellect and human freedom to the Church dogma. Let our united resistance against authoritarianism destroy state borders and national divisions!

The number of our account:
Grupa Inicjatyw Spolecznych ("AKCJA")
553014-50016367-2701
Bank PKO SA/O-Opole

Contact:
RUCH
PO Box 2319
50-985 Wroclaw 47
POLAND

Please, spread this info by all possible means!

Association for an Anti-Authoritarian Society

We are the group of young people from Wroclaw organized into Stowarzyszenie RUCH (Association for an Anti-Authoritarian Society MOVEMENT). Members of our association are mainly students and secondary-school people. We are united by resistance against every kind of authoritarianism in every sphere and every level of social life. Therefore a lot of groups taking up specific problems, such as ecology, anti-militarism, anti-racism and anti-nationalism are active in our association. Because of the wide spread of activity, there are people working in different alternative groups in Wroclaw e.g. the Green Federation and Anarchist Federation who are members of our association.
There is no dominating ideology in our association. But, if we tried to qualify our opinions we could say that a lot of us are near to anarchism, and some describe themselves as the radical left or alternative people.
Now we take up a lot of problems, such as; the abolition of compulsory military service, objection to the tide towards nationalism, racism and anti Semitism, and the domination of the Catholic Church in social and political life in Poland. A short time ago we started engaging in social questions such as the problem of the impoverishment of large social groups in the period of transition and the flow of capitalism from XIX century rules.
Summing up, we are united by our objections to the system in three ways:
- in the political dimension (objection to so called ³democracy² based mainly on the opinions of bureaucrats and politicians, but not society)

- in the cultural dimension (resistance against mass culture and, on the other hand, the traditional, national and Catholic values proclaimed by rightist parties.)

- in the economic dimension (larger and larger stratification of the society, little groups become rich at the cost of the rest of society).

Forms of our activity:

- organizing ³direct actions² (demonstrations etc.), for example the anti-McDonald¹s demonstration, anti-militarist demonstrations, the Easter [peace] march, anti-fascist demonstrations, and the May Day protests.
- organizing ³propagandist actions² (leaflet distribution and placard design), commenting on present social and political problems
- managing the station of information concerning civil (alternative military) service
- organizing weekly meetings and discussions (for example about the history of alternative culture, feminism, alternative education, etc.)
- underground concerts (for example against the army and the release of people imprisoned because of objection to military service).

Poland Now

In 1980-81 we had a rush of social activity in Poland. The newly established ³Solidarity² movement was in fact the greatest social movement with 10 million members with various opinions united only by opposing the authorities of those days. In 1981 a program of Solidarity titled the ³Self-governed Republic² was formed. That was a syndicalist program in fact. In this time Solidarity was said to be the ³third way² alternative to bureaucratic socialism and capitalism.

Then the introduction of the state of war [martial law] made people indifferent, they lost hope that the situation might get better. The disintegration of the Communist system and the international situation caused an agreement between Communists and Solidarity (the Round Table Agreement). The Communist authorities and the elite of Solidarity (concentrated around president Walesa) divided power between themselves. We would like to emphasize that events from 1989 were not in any way a revolution (as it was said), because people did not take part in it. In 1989 the elite of the neo-Solidarity moved away from the society and changed the character of previous Solidarity. They started aiming at building free market capitalism. The society was tired and fell into line with the new elite and believed the new ³honest politicians². After three governments based on Solidarity, people in 1993 voted the ³post-communist² party into parliament [Polish Party of Social Democracy - SDRP]. But they realized the ideas of the free market also. The differences concern only the problems which may be called ³cultural² ( for example, the domination of the Catholic Church in social life). Using words like "the left" and "the right" to describe the political situation in Poland is not simple and does not render this situation well. For example the biggest leftist party (SDRP)which governs now in Poland (together with the Polish Peasant Party - PSL)they protect the interests of the villagers, but they are for the state¹s centralism and under the influence of the Catholic Church) builds capitalism and free markets (³capitalism with a human face¹) and want Poland to join NATO and the EU, like most other parties in Poland.
The biggest Polish trade union Solidarity came to an alliance with the rightist parties and advances building capitalism. Single strikes organized by Solidarity demand only the increase of wages. Concerning the cultural dimension Solidarity wants an alliance with the Catholic Church and refers to the social doctrine of the Church (they are in favor of a ban on abortion).
The second largest trade union is the OPZZ, The All Polish Trade Unions¹ Agreement [former Communist], is connected with the SDRP. They practice a policy similar to Solidarity¹s policy (accepting capitalism). The difference concerns only the attitude to nationalist and Catholic values (they do not want to cooperate with the church). Both trade unions are centralized and their leaders suppress every uncontrolled rebellion in the works. There are smaller trade unions in Poland also. For example Solidarity Œ80 (more radical in social problems, but nationalistic and Catholic), Kontra (connected with KPN-Confederacy of Independent Poland, populist, rightist and about 6% in Parliament). Only the trade union Sierpien Œ80 (August '80 established not long ago) and the Free Trade Union led by Andrzej Gwiazda (one of the leaders of Solidarity in 1980/81 - they organized a demonstration on May Day with anarchists in Gdansk in 1992 and 1993) are noteworthy.
But people in Poland aren't interested in the games of politicians and parties, they do not believe they can change anything by themselves (for example in June '94 local elections only 30% voted).
Concerning alternative environmental activity (where mainly young people are centered), it is connected mainly with the Anarchist Federation, Green Federation, and with small local anti-fascist groups (e.g. ANF - Anti-Nazi Front or RAAF-Radical Anti Fascist Action) or associations like MOVEMENT. The main alternative papers in Poland are Mac Pariadka (Mother of Order) and Zielone Brygady (Green Brigades). The activity of alternative environment parties is not coordinated in the scale of the whole country, but is based rather on local work.

The project FREE WROCLAW

After the decline of Communism in Poland, people got confused. Some of them, especially the young, believed in capitalism, free markets and western culture, some started believing that the improvement of the situation is possible only by realizing conservative and nationalistic values. But most people in Poland are still passive and do not believe in the possibility of improving their lives. They live day in and day out and do not want to think about their future. Only a very few young people want to do something - most of them are passive and indifferent like the rest of society. In order to create a place for active people, we want to set up a center so people could talk, organize themselves to solve their own problems and discuss questions. We would like to establish an alternative book shop for exchanging ideas and information, a place where people could meet, drink coffee, tea or have a beer. The project FREE WROCLAW would give a job to the young unemployed. It would be a non-profit organization.
If we manage to establish our goals, FREE WROCLAW would be the first and the only type of organization of it¹s kind in Poland.
Unfortunately it is very difficult to realize our goal when money is extremely difficult to come by for us average people. Therefore we would like to ask for your help. Every kind of help (money-even a small sum, computer equipment and so on) is useful to us. If you are interested in our activity and want to help us or receive additional information about us please write to:
Stowarzyszenie RUCH
P.O. BOX 2319
50-958 WROCLAW 47, POLAND

OUR ACCOUNT:
Powszechna Kasa Oszczednosci
Bank Panstwowy, IV Oddzial we Wroclsawiu
RUCH-Stowarzysznie na Rzecz
Spoleczenstwa Antyautorytarnego
93549-42462-132

From Polish American Journal April 1997

Polish Antifascist sentenced to 15 Years for killing Nazi

Letters of support for the 5 in jail can be sent to Michal Swiderski, PO Box 8, 21-400 Lukow, Poland. To contribute to the Anarchist Black Cross in Poland (easily done through the NY or Chicago branch of PKO or your local bank) send bucks to PKO S.A. o/Krakow
Account no 535078 8513016 2601-1-114

-Artur Lis

Polish Anarchists released from Czech Prison

Two Polish anarchists, Jacek Zbierajski and Tomek Czechowicz was detained in the "Pankrac" jail in Prague since August this year, even though a judge had aquitted them of the charges that were made. (They were accused of devastating a tram, which didn't take place - what did take place, was they were beaten by Czech police.)

A week after our little demo at the ministry of foreign affairs and the Czech embassy, the consul got a little scared of the publicity this could make, and made some negotiations with czech authorities.

Anyway, the two guys were present at our organisational meeting in Warsaw, and thanked all those who supported them.

ZACZEK
anarchist feder@tion
WARSAW, POLAND

Nazis Attack Squatters in Poland

POB 32
60972 Poznan 1
Poland

Letters from Polish Anarchist Groups:

SOYA