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Action against the Euro 2012

On June 8, the Euro Cup opened in Warsaw. The city was full of police, military police and football fans. ZSP and the Tenants Defense Committee organized a protest against the politics of the Euro. The protest was at the main roundabout on the way to the stadium, so thousands of people passed by.  People spoke about the money spent on the Euro and the fact that UEFA (which was exempted from tax in Poland) and a few businesses would be big beneficiaries, but that the public has spent already almost 26 billion euros on the spectacle. At the same time that Poland is spending a lot of money on games, children will go hungry as the city privatizes school cafeterias, makes cut in social services and raises the price on everything.

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Actions worked to call off eviction

We are happy to note that the eviction of Iwona, planned for tomorrow early morning has been called off. This information came after ZSP, tenants and some other supporters picketed a restaurant owned by the same woman whose company owns the building which was privatized. Besides this action, there was a picket last Monday and plans for blocking the eviction. However, the bailiff has informed us that he will wait for the court to decide. There is already a decision for the eviction and the tenant even would agree to leave, provided the city provide her with appropriate social housing.

The bailiff is most likely acting on the instructions of the owner, so we understand that she is trying to avoid trouble. But we will take more action to remind her that it would be even better if she stopped speculating in real estate and left the tenants alone to live in their homes.

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Action against Speculator/ Restaurateur

Members of ZSP protested at CK Oberza restaurant in Warsaw to protest against the action of the owner, who is involved in real estate speculation and the eviction of residents on Hoza St.

One family is due to be evicted in a couple of days and we will be on the blockade, opposing the displacement of the residents by gentrifiers.

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Court Case Continues in Defense of Free Speech and Tenants Dignity

Some members of ZSP who are part of the Tenants Defense Committee returned to court on May 16, fighting against a lawsuit resulting from the publication of a documentary video. The video interviewed tenants about their problems with their landlady, who claimed that we violated her good name.

The case is important because of very restricted freedom of speech in Poland and because tenants need to be able to tell about what is going on in their homes without fear of repression.
See also: http://zspwawa.blogspot.com/2011/07/in-defense-of-free-speech-and-tenants.html
More on the current case can be found here.

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Demonstration in Memory of Maxwell Itoya

On May 27, a demonstration was held at the place that Maxwell Itoya was killed two years ago. Itoya, an immigrant citizen of Nigerian descent, was at the former Stadium market place when police arrested a man who was selling socks. He was thrown to the ground and handcuffed, screaming for help. When Max intervened, he was shot by a cop and bled to death. This happened on May 23, 2010.

Then, the ZSP held an emergency demonstration onto the police station. Other immigrants had been arrested during the incident. The widow of Itoya (a Polish woman, left with 3 children) and others demanded an investigation into the incident and punishment for the cop. The Prosecutor for Praga, Renata Mazur, just recently dropped the case, claiming their was a lack of clear evidence.

(See: http://zspwawa.blogspot.com/2010/05/police-murder-riots-and-protest-against.html 
and http://zspwawa.blogspot.com/2010/05/demonstration-against-racism-and-police.html)

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Occupation of Square in Warsaw

On the last weekend of May, there was an occupation of a square in central Warsaw. Members of ZSP took part in the event, speaking with passerbys about various issues. The event was immediately harrassed by police which tried in various ways to get rid of the protest. Among the most disgusting ways is something that authorities in Krakow thought up to deal with a similar protest: to try to charge protestors money for using the territory! The action was legalized, but only for a few days, and after the legalization ran out, the police busted the occupation. This included seizing property, including personal property like people's wallets. The next day a picket in defense of freedom of assembly was held in the same place.

Below are a few photos.

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Informational Action During Museum Night

On May 24, several museums in Warsaw went on strike, closing their doors to the public. ZSP in Warsaw has been in solidarity with museum workers.

On May 19, during the annual Museum Night event in Warsaw, members of ZSP held an informational action about budget cuts in cultural institutions, loss of jobs and repression of one worker who was involved in action to save his work place.

A few cultural institutions in Warsaw will probably be liquidated because of budget cuts, including the Technical Museum, the Warsaw Chamber Opera and the Praha Cinema. We are in solidarity with the workers of these institutions, who are fighting against their closure.

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Against Rising Water Prices and In Support of Parents' Struggle

Members of both ZSP and the Tenants' Defense Committee protested at the City Council on May 17. A group of parents were also present who successfully fought to overturn a huge increase in fees for nursery schools. The administrative court ruled against the City Council's decision... but then the City Council decided just to introduce a new rule about payment. This time, their idea was to charge parents an hourly rate for these schools and the effect is going to be just the same.

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Case Postponed Again

Some members of ZSP Warsaw who are members of the Tenants' Defense Committee are being sued for a video they made and posted on the internet where tenants describe their problems with their landlady and she is filmed in action. After months and months of delay, we were back in court on May 16. Nothing much happened and the case was postponed again until October.

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Picket at Empik

On May 13, ZSP picketed at another Empik bookstore in Warsaw, kicking off a national campaign against the chain.  Contact with Empik workers started a couple of years ago when we received many denounciations against the firm from people around Poland during the "Worst Employer of the Year" contest. Every year, more and more employees wrote with the same complaints: unpaid overtime work, being forced to work while ill, having trash contracts, being forced to do heavy or dangerous work, lack of proper health and safety measures and mobbing. Now a few employees around Poland want to fight back and one is even suing the chain for unpaid overtime. And we offer our support to them and all workers who would like to organize.

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Case of Jerzy Madziarowicz-MIX reopened

In November 2011, a young worker, Karol M., suffered at accident at work on a construction site in Warsaw. He was employed illegally and did not have proper safety equipment, not even a helmet. He fell into a coma. The owner of the temporary work agency Jerzy Madziarowicz-MIX (also related to the property where the accident occurred) denied that Karol worked for him. The family, which was faced with the double horror of the accident and the financial consequences (since Karol was not insured), decided to fight, so that other workers would not be harmed by Madziarowicz and to get compensation for Karol.

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Action during Roche Corporate Meeting

On May 10, representatives of the Roche headquarters in Basel organized a meeting with Roche Polska workers in Warsaw. Since over 100 people attended, the meeting was held in a cinema in the shopping mall next to the Warsaw office. We were informed of the event so we organized an informational action.
First, leaflets were left in the cinema and posted around the shopping mall. Security was tight and it was difficult to stay in one place. Information about Roche practices were handed out also to people in the shopping mall and then posted in the neighbouring area between the mall and Roche offices.

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Legal victories through the anarchist optic

The following is a personal opinion piece and does not necessarily reflect the view of everybody.

In recent weeks, I have been a little surprised by small rebellions and about-turns on the part of various authorities. In Poland we have become quite used to the fact that courts and controlling authorities usually take the side of those in power: bosses, landlords and city officials. But we have seen some small victories lately in legal matters.

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May Day - The Struggle Continues

On May 1 anarchists and anarchosyndicalists held a May Day march in Warsaw. During the march we spoke about the worsening situation of the working class: the widespread use of trash contracts, raising the retirement age and the capitalist attack on all that workers' had gained in the past hundred years. We criticized the mainstream unions, which compromise with the bosses and refuse to call strikes, even when faced with the most drastic of situations.

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