Picket at JW Construction

ZSP organized a picket at the JW Construction sales office at the Gorczewska Park housing estate. Chinese workers who were not paid and wound up camping in front of the Chinese embassy worked on this, as well as other housing estates built by JW Construction.

Members of several pro-worker groups joined in the picket.

During the picket, several times cars with potential customers drove up but then turned away.

The protestors pointed out that JW has recorded very high profits despite the recession. Since the company has gone public two years ago, it has been using almost exclusively foreign labour hired through employment agencies. Since technically they are not the employers of the workers, they try to avoid responsibility for what goes on at their construction sites: people not getting paid, lack of proper safety equipment, people working without insurance, people working without the proper safety training, people working overtime and without proper breaks, people working without proper food or drink. But we were there to remind them that they are responsible and to ask potential home buyers if they want to live in a former work camp.

ZSP activists promised to return to different sales offices and continue to put pressure on JW.

More photos
Read more!

Warsaw - Capital of Homelessness 2010

June 24 the Tenants' Defense Committee and the Warsaw Tenants' Association held a demonstration under the City Hall against the city's housing policy. The demo was a response to the city's continued attack on tenants which included a recent rent hike of 200-300% and taking the topic of the city's new housing policy of the agenda of the last city council meeting where members of the two organizations were to speak.

The amount of public housing available in the city is becoming smaller and smaller due to reprivatization of public housing and letting many houses fall into such a state of disrepair that they literally start falling down on the tenants. At the same time, the demand for public housing is growing. The ideologues of the ruling party believe that people should be able to find housing on the private market, but they seem oblivious to the fact that housing costs more than in many European cities and the overwhelming majority of people have neither the creditworthiness to buy a flat, nor enough money to rent one at the exorbitant rates charged by local landlords. As a result of property speculation and gentrification, many are driven out of the city and into the suburbs or nearby towns for lack of any affordable housing options.

At the same time, many politicians have been able to buy up property owned by the city, state or former state-owned enterprises at a fraction of their value.

The City is always trying to raise its prestige by blowing money on lavish events like European Congresses, Euro 2012 or whatever and is also trying to get elected to different titles such as the European City of Culture. The city is trying to gentrify the whole downtown and fill it with ritzy shops and cafes that few can afford and to convince the world that it is a rich city. But we say that Warsaw will probably become the European Capital of Homelessness by next years since evictions are bound to increase and people have nowhere to go.

We think that, in order to prove this point, there should be a homeless city set up outside City Hall. Unfortunately there have been violent thunderstorms in town, so we couldn't even stay one night this time - although at least a couple of symbolic housing structures were set up. We also agreed that the President of the City needs to get a certificate honouring the city as the Capital of Homelessness and we vowed to deliver it to her and make sure it is on the walls of City Hall.

Tomorrow is a press conference of the two organizations on the problem and what we are demanding. Demands of the organizations include stopping reprivatization as long as the city does not have housing available for all people who will be displaced and who are already waiting for housing, cancelling the rent increase and civic control over public housing expenditures.

Some photos are here:
http://cia.bzzz.net/warszawa_stolica_bezdomnosci_2010
Read more!

Demonstration in Krakow

On June 4 1989, Poland held elections which marked the end of the era of the People's Republic of Poland. Grand ceremonies were held in many cities. Prime Minister Donald Tusk had wanted to hold a large international event in Gdansk but was afraid of massive (and perhaps violent) demonstrations by shipvard workers who lost their job due to an EU decision. They had demonstration recently in Warsaw and there were violent clashes with the police. Tusk decided instead to hold the event, attended by many foreign heads of state, in Wawel Palace in Krakow. Anarchists went there to show him that he could run, but he can't hide.

Besides the anarchists, a group of tenants showed up. They have been protesting and organizing in Krakow for more than a year now. The night before, they had a picket at the Sheraton hotel where VIP guests were staying. They also picketed on the main square in Krakow before the demo.

Anarchists had slogans like "Without Us Their is No Democracy" and "Enough Compromises - the Class War Continues". They marched though the city to Wawel where there were some speeches. In newspapers given out, anarchists called for a boycott of elections and for direct democracy.

Some photos are on CIA, with links to other photos and videos:
http://cia.bzzz.net/anarchist_demonstrate_in_krakow_on_20th_anniversary_of_1989_elections
(On our banner: Enough compromises! The Class War Continues. This is a clear reference to the history of 1989, when the leaders of "Solidarity", already devoid of their rank and file masses, sat down with the government at the Round Table and negotiated a pact which basically divided up power between elites. The idea of compromise also relates to the position of the unions compromise away workers' rights in "social partnership" instead of participating in class struggle. Read more!

Surprise at "Cafe Surprise"

20 years ago in a cafe named "Surprise" on Constitution Sq. in Warsaw the Solidarity Campaign Office was located. June 4 marks the 20th anniversary of the first "free" elections in Poland after the fall of the PRL and all around Poland, events are being held to commemorate this date. On Constitution Sq. in Warsaw, the city, together with some organizations, opened up a mock cafe "Surprise" with photographs from this period. They are also gathering material now for an anti-communist "Museum of Communism". Today was the opening celebration which was to be ceremonially opened by the President of Warsaw, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz. ---- Waltz, who is one of the leaders of the ultra-liberal Civic Platform and who is responsible for introducing rent hikes and speeding up reprivatization processes while doing nothing to improve the city's housing policies, has been called "Queen of the Slums" by the Tenants' Defense Committee. There have been a number of protests in front of City Hall, but the "Queen" does not want to meet with tenants. So tenants will have to follow her public appearances and meet her.

Members of the Tenants' Defense Committee and the Warsaw Tenants' Association went to protest at the event. Gronkiewicz-Waltz cancelled her appearance, afraid to be met by the protest.

Members of the tenants groups pointed out that in 1989, one of the postulates of Solidarity was to cut down the time people had to wait to get an apartment. The situation in housing has not improved since then and has only gotten worse, with buildings being sold with tenants, illegal evictions and forcing people to live in substandard and dangerous housing. Besides speaking about this situation, there were some reminders to the guests of the event, which included many prominent Solidarity activists, about what the values of the original Solidarity were and how much Poland has departed from them. People were told that social struggles are still alive, that they didn't go away with the fall of communism, as some would like to think, and they do not belong in a museum. (A reference to the attitude of some former activists.)

The demo being a surprise, it was not legalized and there were a few "discussions" with the police and a few of the museum activists who found protesting to be scandalous. Luckily, this attitude was only held by a few people, mainly former hippies, who still had long hair and proved to be the most uncool pricks going: probably they were only students or artists then, fighting for the right to get more rock concerts, not for the social rights of the workers. Some of the legends of Solidarity on the other hand came and spoke to the tenants.

Some anarchist and left activists from Union of Syndicalists and Left Alternative are active in the two tenants groups and take active part in these demonstrations. Read more!

Starbucks Picket

Today there were two pickets at Starbucks Coffee in Poland - one in Warsaw and one in Wroclaw, the two cities where Starbucks opened their first cafes in Poland last month. May 17 is the 5th anniversary of the founding of the Starbucks workers union, which we spoke about at the pickets.

The pickets were organized by ZSP as solidarity campaigns but also to raise awareness about working conditions in the cafe/restaurant industry and to encourage workers to organize.

Some photos of the picket in Wroclaw can be found here: http://www.wsa.org.pl/module.php?op=g...mp;cmd=366

(Sorry, no photos from Warsaw this time. A little technical fuck-up.)

Today's picket also included information about what is going on along "Nowy Swiat" (New World) Street in Warsaw where Starbucks is located. Almost all of the well-known cafes along the street have closed down due to astronomical rents, leaving room only for corporate chains, ultra-exclusive places and money laundering fronts. We just found out that the last of the famous cafes on the street. Cafe Bajka which has been there for 53 years and was the last place on the street where you could get a cheap drink and a meal, is being forced to close since their rent was raised to an astronomical 20,000 zloties a month. (It's a small place, so it's really amazingly high rent.) We could see on the street that other cafes and small shops have closed up and in their place we will have Subway and Haagen Daaz. The price of coffee in Starbucks is similar to in the US, despite the fact that average wages are many times higher. This makes brands like these clearly brands for yuppies (and tourists) who are in the elite. Seeing what is going on with the
rapid influx of corporate chain stores along New World St., we renamed it "Brave New World" St.

We have also noticed that Starbucks in Poland has started an extensive greenwashing campaign, which an average consumer might misunderstand and believe the prices are high because they are buying fair trade coffee. Only about 5% of Starbucks coffee is fair trade but they are presenting themselves as the most "ethical" coffee in town. Read more!

Protest at City Council

About 50 tenants protested at the session of the Warsaw City Council. Tenants forced that they could speak to council without waiting. Council members promised to discuss the postulates of tenants at next session.

Action was successful criticism of city housing policy.

Members of KOL - Tenants' Defense Committee - called action, it was supported by Warsaw Tenants' Association.

Members of ZSP Warsaw are active in KOL and were among organizers of this action.
Read more!

Tenants' Protest

On Monday there was another tenants' protest in Warsaw. Members of ZSP Warsaw took part as members of the Tenant Defense Committee. The tenants' demanded that the rent increases planned to come into effect May 1 be cancelled. There were many good speeches made, which of course fell on deaf ears at City Hall - but that's not the point. People are getting in a fighting mood.

For the first time in as long as anybody can remember, the City Hall bureaucrats were sent home from work a couple of hours early so they did not have to face the danger of our words. They can run, but they can't hide. We've decided to take over the next session of the City Council.

Today is another demo, but this time organized by the politicians. Luckily, the tenants' association with ties to the left prefer to cooperate with us and will also come to the City Council action.

Our next demo will be on May 1 when we will call for a rent strike.

Photos from the demo: http://cia.bzzz.net/demonstracja_lokatorow_przeciwko_podwyzkom_czynszow Read more!

Action in Bielsko-Biala

On April 24, members of some sections of Workers'Initiative and Union of Syndicalists,
along with members of the Silesian Anarchist Federation, went to the office of the Head of
the Local Adminstration in a solidarity action with the workers of the Psychiatric
Hospital in Bielsko-Biala which voted in favour of a strike two weeks ago during a
workplace referendum.

The hospital, is slated for restructuring and, most probably
commercialization, which means that there is more work, everybody is supposed to be more
efficient, but probably many jobs will be cut. The workers are demanding that the number
of beds in the hospital not be reduced, that the staff not be reduced and that they
receive a pay raise of 400 zloty (less than 100 euros) per month.

About 15 activists showed up at the Local Administration Office. This is the office in
charge of the administration of, among other things, hospitals. After being told that the
Head of the Administration was not there, people went into his office and said they would
wait there and made themselves at home. Shortly later the Head of the Administration
showed up for a discussion which went nowhere. Besides claiming that none of the activists
there "knew anything about anything", the Head of the Administration did not want to make
any statements about the future of the hospital, trying to pass the responsibility on to
various other parties: the National Health Fund, the Director of the Hospital and the
government. The activists pointed out that they were most concerned that staff reductions
would not take place but the Head of the Administration only said something like he'd
recommend that "if it were possible".

Two weeks ago the workers voted in favour of a strike in a referendum but haven't stopped
working. They have been in a "state of protest" however. Unfortunately, none of the
workers except the union leader came to the action which undermined our legitimacy with
the Local Administration. The union leader said that he didn't want them to come, but
wanted to do a solidarity action instead. Unfortunately this is often the state of union
activity in Poland, with strikes and protests made by union leaders and outside agitators
due to workers' fear of reprisal or indecisiveness.

It is unclear whether or not this action will have the desired effect, which was to
pressure the Head of the Local Administration to act in favour of maintaining staff levels
at the hospitals and improve working conditions. The Head of the Local Administration was
very arrogant and was clearly annoyed at times, especially at the end of the "discussion"
when he stormed out. Very little should be expected from such local politicians. We also
do not know what the reaction of the workers to the meeting with the Head of the Local
Administration will be; there should be some more feedback on it this week.

Some photos from the action are here:
http://cia.bzzz.net/zdjecia_z_okupacji_biura_starosty_z_bielsku_bialej
http://cia.bzzz.net/zdjecia_z_okupacji_biura_starosty_z_bielsku_bialej_cz_2
http://www.super-nowa.pl/gal.php?i=12918
An article (in Polish) is here:
http://www.super-nowa.pl/art.php?i=12918
For people who speak Polish, the TV report is here:
http://www.super-nowa.tv/?idtabmn=514 Read more!

Protest Against Rent Hikes

On April 6, residents of the Praga neighbourhood organized a picket in front of the City Hall against rent hikes which will be effective May 1.

ZSP joined the Tenants Defense Committee and will take part in organizing the next demos on April 20 and 27th.

In the meanwhile, the city is trying to quiet down the protests by claiming they will assign "more money" for public housing. Although the city budget for public housing is higher than before, there will not be enough apartments built even for half of the families on the waiting list, not to mention the hundreds of families who will lose their homes due to reprivatization. Also, the city has not responded to demands to freeze rent hikes. Read more!