President of Warsaw Runs Away from Tenants / Opening of Estate for Evicted under Bridge

For a couple of weeks we have been trying to meet with the President of Warsaw, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz. She doesn't seem to ever be in her office, and when she hears we are coming, she runs away. When we found out that she had scheduled a TV debate with the two other main candidates for President of Warsaw in the upcoming elections, we decided to pay a visit. Waltz then cancelled the most important pre-election debate which was to be broadcast live on TV.

No problem - we could (and did) protest against the other candidates.

Tenants also decided to make an action to demonstrate the effects of the city's housing policies. About a dozen people who have been evicted or have eviction notices decided to go down to the river and set up an "estate" for the homeless under the bridge. In the background, many investments made in the city: the Swietokrzyski Bridge, the Copernicus Science Center and the National Stadium - all costly show investments made at the same time the city attacks public housing.

Instead of watching the President of Warsaw on TV, viewers got to hear members of tenants organizations and ZSP broadcast live.



The main newspaper also covered the event, half OK, but again with the prejudices of the establishment, so no link here to that! (See our statement on Nov. 11!)

Video: (Mainstream Media in Polish): http://www.tvnwarszawa.pl/-1,1681474,0,,lokatorzy_otwieraja_osiedle_pod_mostem,wiadomosc.html

Also on TVP Wiadomości: http://tvp.info/wiadomosci/wideo/08112010-1930/3045263