Warsaw: Solidarity with the Belgrade 6!

In Warsaw there were two solidarity actions for the Belgrade six in recent days: on February 16 there was a picket at the Serbian Embassy and February 25 there was a demonstration organized by ZSP and WRS as part of the International Solidarity Day called for by ASI.


The demonstration, although only about 30 people, was very visible and went a couple of hours through Warsaw, stopping at many places for speeches. The police did not manage to stop the demonstration, even after it blocked an important intersection. Besides words of solidarity for the Belgrade Six, there were lots of good anti-state and anti-capitalist slogans, and everytime the demo passed some objectionable place (like Starbucks), there were some additional slogans and speeches.

The demo attracted a lot of attention and curiosity and many leaflets about the case were handed out. Some of the people had heard about it before. Read more!

Delegation in Berlin

A small delegation went to Berlin to show solidarity with FAU in their struggle against the state and the bosses at Kino Babylon Mitte.


A few hundred people marched during the award ceremonies at the Berlin Film Festival Berlinale. Speeches were made about the freedom to organize and people vowed to continue the struggle to ensure FAU's right to exist and take action as a union.


On the sign: "Only pigs sit in the cinema - Boycott Kino Babylon". The slogan about pigs is famous in Poland and refers to the boycott of nazi-run cinemas in occupied Poland.



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Head of City Council Greets Tenants

For the first time in approximately 10 months protesting at the City Council, the head of the council handed over her duties to another person to meet with a group of tenants and members of the Tenants' Defense Committee. Of course we were not too impressed by the gesture. Either she got worn down from the protests or her party finally decided that they must try to deal with the problem following announcement of the motion to dismiss the Mayor.


The head of the City Council also faced such a motion a few months ago but was not recalled from her duties since the leftists are in a coalition with the neo-liberals in Warsaw.



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Belgrade Six Released

There is news that six comrades arrested in Belgrade have been released. The trial will continue. Maybe the charges will be changed.


Some small action was made in Warsaw before trial and 25 February ZSP Warsaw takes part in international day of action. Read more!

Boycott Greenway

ZSP received the mail from the main shareholder of GreenWay corporation saying he is sorry about problems but with no committment to do anything and pretending this is isolated incident. ZSP is announcing that it is starting a boycott if GreenWay doesn't take concrete steps immediately. Wroclaw comrades made a picket during which a former employee confronted the boss about being cheated and the boss claimed she never even worked there. This shows disgusting attitude of capitalist exploiters. 


Special material will be prepared for actions around Poland. Read more!

Tenants Take Over City Meeting

Members of the Tenants' Defense Committee and residents of three apartment blocks fighting with local politicians and a corrupt housing administration found out about a meeting of a committee which was to be dedicated to their case. The meeting was scheduled just before the council session in downtown Warsaw. So about 40 people showed up and demanded that the council deal with their problems immediately.  Fearing possible action by the tenants, the politicians changed the agenda of the council session and the situation of the tenants was discussed for hours.


Although the behaviour of the head of the housing administration and some politicians ranged from scandalous lies to pretending not to be able to do anything, others were sympathic. A member of Parliament came to argue on behalf of the tenants. A few concrete demands were met, but others not yet; tenants are waiting on some studies and decisions.


As a result of these protests, some politicians have called for the dismissal of both the head of the housing authority and the Mayor. A vote to recall the Mayor will be held at the next council session but it is not likely to pass. Still, a clear message was sent that people cannot be treated like trash by the administration.



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Another Informational Action - for Free and Libertarian Education

Once again there was an informational action for free education, this time near Warsaw University. Since most students in near the university were weekend students, who have to pay for studies and often come from less priveleged backgrounds than day-time students who study for free, there was lots of interest and support for at least the idea of free studies.

ZSP Education will hold a lecture on the Bologna Process at Warsaw University on March 11. On this day there will be ministerial meetings commemorating ten years of the Process, accompanied by demonstrations in Budapest and Vienna.

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GreenWay Vegetarian Restaurant Doesn't Pay Workers

ZSP is putting an ultimatum to the owners of GreenWay restaurants: stop exploiting workers or we will start a boycott.

In 2005, there was the first information about problems in the GreenWay restaurant in Łódź. In 2007, information on the subject was published on the portal CIA. Former employees pointed out that people were often hired on unpaid "trial periods". Such unpaid trial periods are illegal, but that doesn't stop sleazy employers from deceiving workers.


As it turned out, a worker in Poznan had similar experiences and spoke of how workers were required to do two free 13-hour shifts. Besides the free labour, in both cases, working conditions were abyssmal.

We campaigned about this issue and had hoped that things would be better. Unfortunately, the pattern is repeating, with new reports from Olsztyn and Wroclaw.

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Informational action at Warsaw University

Members of ZSP educational section made an informational action at Warsaw University. Leaflets were given out with information about the Bologna Process and against paid studies. There were also leaflets about the doctoral students protest in Wroclaw and booklets informing students about their rights at work. Since this action was made for weekend students, most of them work and students have many problems with working conditions.

There is such an action every week in Warsaw. Read more!

Protest at City Council

Members of ZSP and the Tenants' Defense Committe were back at the City Council. This time the protest, which included interruption of the session with a speech and list of demands, was not prevented by security or the politicians. The visit was related to rescinding one of the prior decisions of the City Council - not to give replacement housing to public housing residents in so-called "social housing" (for the very poorest) or to public housing tenants without permanent contracts or with debts - even if there is a serious threat to life.  We demanded that the matter be discussed at the next session and the councilpeople agreed. It is not clear however how they intend to hold this discussion or if they are just trying to buy time. Tenants who came to the council want to force it to change the policy on this matter.
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Tenants Protests Continue - Adminstration Closed Down

Tenants suspended their occupation of the local housing administration over the weekend and met with the Mayor on Monday. The whole meeting turned out to be just a pretext to get people out of the house and turn off their gas while they were on the way to the meeting. The Mayor promised no help for the majority of residents who would not be able to get replacement housing. 


Prior to the meeting, there was some division amongst the tenants, with some hoping to make their own private deals, most wanting to try dialogue instead of making the protest more radical and a minority who wanted to keep protesting. The meeting made it clear to everyone that the city had no intention of working something out with the tenants and just wanted to pacify them. The response was that tenants went back to protesting.


The housing adminstration responded by shutting down for the rest of the week. Angry tenants protesting outside were joined by people who had come to the office to settle their matters, only to find it closed during office hours.
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Demonstration Against Censorship on the Internet

Members of ZSP and CIA Portal took part in a demonstration against censorship of the internet. The demonstration was a response to new registrictive legislation. A similar demonstration was held in Wroclaw, but there the organizors didn't even show up so ZSP just took over.

A TV interview about the issue  with a member of ZSP is here. (In Polish) Read more!

Leafleting at Politechnic

Education section of ZSP is giving out the leaflets every week at Warsaw Politechnic. ZSP carries out information campaign about Bologna Process, against paid studies,for better conditions for academic workers and for free, libertarian education.

Education section also has web site:
www.edukacja.zsp.net.pl Read more!

Tenants Occupy Housing Adminstration

A group of tenants are occupying the local housing adminstration and carrying out a hunger strike. More than 150 families are soon to have their gas cut off under the pretext of "saving" them from "danger". The Tenants Defense Committee intervened the first time when the city threatened to turn off the gas. During the intervention, which was filmed, the gas inspectors said that all problems with gas were minor and could be fixed very simply, within hours and one of the housing inspectors promised to do so. Despite this, the borough president intervened and put pressure on local authorities, basically saying that the gas must be turned off.


(Previous articles in English about the problem of these tenants here  and here .)

It is clear from the behaviour of the politicians that the property is simply slated for development. Today tenants were basically told as much when they were told to apply for new housing. (If their house was to be repaired, they would have been told about temporary replacement housing.) All these families are about to get treated to slumlord tactics to try and harrass them out of their houses.

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Protest in front of Russian Embassy on Anniversary of Killings in Moscow

19 January in front of the Russian Embassy was held a picket to remmber Stanislav Markelov and Anastasia Baburova who were murdered one year ago in Russia. The picket also was a sign of solidarity for the antifascist movement in Russia.

The protestors reminded people about the many murders committed in recent years by neonazis on people who they consider "foreign" or "enemies" - like immigrants, lawyers and journalists who defend human rights and antifascists. Some speeches were made and candles with photos left in front of the Embassy. Read more!