Solidarity with Repressed Unionist at Hotel Sobieski (Radisson)

On February 28 we went to a picket at the Hotel Sobieski in Warsaw (part of the Radisson chain) in defense of a repressed unionist. Malgorzata, who had worked for 19 years in the hotel, was dismissed last year on a bullshit pretext after being harrassed by anti-union hotel management. First, she found herself demoted: the management liquidated her job and offered her a job as a dishwasher. To be reassigned this job, she needed a health certificate, but when she didn't get it, she was summarily dismissed for disciplinary reasons.

Malgorzata was the union rep in the hotel. The new management had just before that started a campaign of harrassing unionists. The new management had a hostile attitude towards the union. Also, they wanted to avoid some provisions of the collective agreement which would have given workers like Malgorzata, who had worked for the hotel since it opened, a bonus upon completing 20 years of service.

More pickets are planned at the hotel and possibly internationally.

Demonstration Against School Closures

On Monday we demonstrated again against the closure of schools. The demonstration went from the City Hall to the Presidential Palace with a few hundred people - mostly parents and teachers. The ZSP has been supporting and trying to coordinate protests around this topic. Some people from the ZNP - one of the teachers' unions, also took part, as did the Education Agreement, which is a coalition of students, teachers and parents from a couple of the effected schools.

People called for an end to the closures and the defense of free public education.

A similar demonstration was held at the same time in Gdansk.

We are all Greeks

On February 26 we took part in a solidarity action called "We are all Greeks". It was called by local Greeks and a society of friendship and was meant to be a show of solidarity. People commented that they were fighting against stereotypes and the main line of thinking in the Polish press that claims that Greece is in trouble because it doesn't accept hardline austerity measures (like in Poland). We handed out leaflets about the crisis in Greece, more or less the same as this one and marched to the Greek embassy. We were not so comfortable with the fact that most of the Polish people thought that the best way to demonstrate solidarity was to bring Greek flags, but speaking to people we found that they were all angry about what was going on in Greece. We stressed that there is a deeper problem which is capitalism and invited those interested to other events which we will organize in the upcoming months.

Artists Kill Brzeska a Second Time - Activists Fights Back!

On February 25 was the premiere of a play, "Who Killed Alona Iwanowna?", which was advertised as being based on Dostoyevsky's "Crime and Punishment" and primarily an allusion to the murder of our colleague, housing activist Jolanta Brzeska. We were invited to a special pre-premiere showing for a small select audience on the 24th.

Open Assembly against Liquidation of Schools and other Budget Cuts

On February 18 residents of Praga and other interested activists gathered to discuss a strategy of mobilization against the liquidation of schools. The government has plans to liquidate around 800 schools all over Poland. In Warsaw the city first announced plans to close 18 schools, but we see that, without enough resistance, they are expanding these plans and that as many as 30-40 schools may be closed. The discussion involved what people could do to organize themselves against these and other anti-social policies.

How One School Avoided Closure.. for now (the struggle continues)

We have already written about how some schools which were being closed in North and South Praga districts organized some protests. We went together with pupils, parents and teachers to confront the mayor of the neighbourhood and later we also were at the session of the local council.

The Farse of "Social Consultations"; Comrade Tells off PM during Pseudo-Debate

Once again, the government tries to undermine social protests by pretending to "consult" with people after the fact. After signing agreements on ACTA, protests are still being organized throughout Poland. The Prime Minister, sensing that his popularity might fall, decided to organize some bullshit discussions and invited some organizations to a "debate" on it, after giving some misleading information to the press that Poland might not ratify it after all.

Solidarity with Library Workers! For the Reinstatement of Dismissed CNT Activists to the National Library in Madrid!

On February 3-4, ZSP Warsaw is holding informational actions in solidarity with library workers struggling against budget cuts and other measures which negatively affect both their working conditions and the quality of the libraries.

City Council Liquidates Schools Despite Protests

When people found out that the city council was going to try and push through a vote on the liquidation of 18 public schools in Warsaw, protests were quickly organized in Warsaw, despite the -20 degree temperatures. On January 31, five protests were held in different parts of Warsaw and extraordinary sessions of two local councils were held. There, politicians from the ruling party tried using Orwellian language to get rid of the parents, teachers, pupils and neighbours protesting. ZSP and DZS (the Democratic Student Association) called on people to disturb and protest at the City Council.
(Photos below)

Fascist Scumbags' Site Hacked in Solidarity

We thank the anonymous hacker who put a nice message up on the "autonomous nationalist" site. These are the bastards we had an encounter with a few days ago at the National Stadium. Their page is gone for now...