Small Disturbance at Frontex Official Conference

Following the anti-Frontex conference in Warsaw on May 22, there were a number of small actions against the agency. Amidst rather strict secrecy and security, on May 24, Frontex started their conference in Warsaw. A few activists managed to get to the registration point and make some noise.


http://cia.bzzz.net/warsaw_protest_at_frontex_fifth_anniversary_conference

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Anti-Frontex Conference

The anti-Frontex conference took place on May 22. We will soon publish some videos with a slide show and audio, outlining the most important points of the conference.

It was shown how the Frontex mission has expanded, militarized and become more repressive and wide-reaching in the five years of its existence - often without any clear mandate to expand its powers. Its role in surveilling both immigrants and local populations was discussed, as were the ramifications of its programs and the technology it is implementing.


The issues of privacy, control, the role of the state and of capitalism were discussed. There was also a presentation about which corporations are benefitting most from selling border and data management technology. Read more!

Death at the Stadium

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Police Murder, Riots and Protest against Racism and Police Brutality

On Sunday May 23, police started a raid on some Nigerian traders who were selling shoes at the bazaar at the Stadium in the Praga district of Warsaw. One guy was apparently handcuffed and push to the ground. A 36-year-old colleague from Nigeria, Max, tried to intervene and get the police to stop brutalizing the other. Max was shot in the stomach and killed.

There immediately started to be problems with police, who tried then to chase and round up the rest of the panicked African traders, mostly from Nigeria. When more police arrived, some riot started. People were throwing stones and bricks at the police and 4 police vans were destroyed. 32 people were arrested.
The police immediately sent their spokesperson to invent a good story for the media: that police were "surrounded and attacked" by a gang of agressive Africans, so they had to shoot Max. As we later established from eye witnesses, the story was completely different.
ZSP released a statement and called for an emergency action the next day. During the day, the TV interviewed Max's wife, Monika, and Akai from ZSP, finally letting another version of events into the media.

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Anti-Repression Action

Despite the rain, March 19 there was an anti-repression action in the center of Warsaw. The action was held to draw public attention to various types of repression against political activists, protestors, workers and unionists and in particular to cases related to our comrades.

Some speeches were made and leaflets given out about cases of repression against workers' activists (from FAU, CNT, ZSP) and about the current situation in Mezhdurechensk. We spoke about the situation with Priama Dija in Ukraine and other cases in Russia, such as the case of Andrei Kutuzov from Autonomous Action.

We also explained that this protest coincided with the trial of the Lisbon 11 and reminded people about the famous cases of arrests of antifascists in Warsaw and, more recently, in Bialystok.

Finally, we also reminded people about the outrageous case of the Belgrade Six.

Below are some photos.

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Meeting with Women in Walbrzych

Members of ZSP from Warszaw and Wroclaw were invited to meetings in Walbrzych with women facing problems such as unemployment, precarious working conditions and lack of proper housing to talk about experiences and proposals for tackling these issues.

The women, many of them single mothers, complained about poor working conditions and lack of decent employment. They complained about how many workplaces try different methods to make people work for free and about conditions in supermarket work. Many are unemployed and some find lack of childcare facilities a barrier to employment. (On this issue, a concrete proposal was made and it looks as if the women will take steps to organize some sort of collective child care center in the place the meeting was held.)

Another issue for women was housing, both poor conditions and lack of it. Some of the women squatted vacant municipal housing when city bureaucrats proved unwilling to help them, making repairs and bring it to liveable standards. They are facing both repression from the city (eviction attempts) and problems with things like getting water and electricity installed. A member of ZSP Warsaw active in the tenants' movement also advised on what could be done and the need to organize grassroots movements in the city.

The participants considered the meeting successful and fruitful and hopefully some follow-ups will take place soon.

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Anti-Frontex Conference (program)

On May 24, corporations and EU bureaucrats wll attend a conference and exhibition on  “Surveillance Technology for Border Control” hosted by the EU migrant-hunting agency, Frontex. May 25, the "European Day of the Border Guard" and the 5th anniversary of Frontex, a conference to be attended by key European decision-makers entitled "The Future of Border Management in Europe including the Role of Frontex”  will also take place.  A small act of resistance  -  a counter-conference and protest at the location of the conference.

The state and capital has long sought to divide and conquer .The accidental placement of people within national borders often determines, like class, if they are born into relative prosperity of poverty. Workers have moved around the globe for ages, in search of better conditions, in search of escape from unbearable poverty. But these victims of poverty, war, internal displacement and ecological misfortune and being hunted by the agents of border management, working to ensure that the world's supply of cheap labour be kept in place, working to pander to racists and xenophobes, to protect Fortress Europe from people that the policies and practices of European states and capital often displace. Working people are pounded with propaganda to convince them that this is necessary and in their interests when, in fact, they are paying for this cruel and deadly regime.

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Museum Night at the Infoshop

Again we had some exhibitions for Museum Night at the Infoshop. This year there were paintings about the economic crisis and an exhibit of posters, old and new, from CNT to commemorate their centenary. The latter was accompanied by leaflets and, of course, a wide array of reading material was available at the Infoshop for anybody who wanted it. Besides the exhibit on the inside of the space, posters were hung around the building, which at night were illuminated by "eternal flames". Read more!

Fuck the Flag! Freedom for the Greek Activists Jailed in Warsaw!

Update: May 13. All people have been freed.

On May 12, a picket took place at the Greek embassy in Warsaw in solidarity with the social struggle in Greece. The picket was visited by a group of about 10 Greek people living in Poland. A banner was hung on the embassy. Also, the flags of Greece and the EU, which were on flagpoles in front of the building, were taken down and black flags put in their place.


After the picket, police came after a group of people sitting in the park. Six Greek activists and a Polish guy were arrested and are still being held. Police are still "investigating" the incident, but they are threatening to charge people with stealing the flag and with taking part in an illegal demonstration with the intent to commit a crime. Stealing the flag can face up to one year in prison.


The police have not been very cooperative in either giving information or letting a lawyer see the detainees. In relation to this, there was an emergency solidarity picket during the day in front of the "Police Palace". As a result, a spokesman came out and gave a little information and promised that somebody could at least receive information concerning the eventual release or continued detention of the comrades.


Tomorrow again we will try to send legal aid to the detained and maybe organize a bigger protest if they are not released. There may be a problem for foreigners detained in Poland as sometimes the police consider them a flight risk. Read more!

Action against Repression

No Reprisals by Boss or State! The fight against capitalism and fascism will never be extinguished!

Meeting against repression and in solidarity with:

 COMRADES REPRESSED BY THE BOSSES (and sometimes authorities as well)


- FAU Berlin
Basically forbidden from calling themselves a union, the boss of Babylon Mitte Cinema fought the efforts of workers to organize themselves and terrorizes FAU with stiff state-imposed sanctions. We support their struggle to act without interference from the bosses or the state, in defense of workers' self-organization and struggle.

- A. from Green Way
Former employee of Green Way, threatened without basis by management lawyers with up to 14 years in jail for speaking out against unpaid trial periods and other employer abuse at this chain of vegetarian restaurants.

- Comrades from CNT in Spain
There are several situations where there are work conflicts, harrassments, reprisals and dismissals of CNT activists by  from Start People temp agency, Oceano publishing,  Mercadona supermarkets, Gros Mercat, Pilsa, Casolo group in Toledo  and others.

This list is just the tip of the iceberg!

ACTIVISTS REPRESSED BY AUTHORITIES

- The Lisbon 11
On trial for bullshit arrests made in 2007 during an antifascist demo protesting attempts to rehabilitate Salazar. May 19 will see the continuation of their trial.

- The Białystok 13
Arrested April 24 during a demo against racism and nationalism, 13 people have charges related to fighting in public; the demonstration was attacked first by nationalists, then by police. They face up to 3 years in jail if convicted.

- Priama Dija
Ukrainian anarchosyndicalist student union, whose activists, fighting against the commercialization of eduaction, are expelled, repressed and harrased for their activity.
 

- The Belgrade 6
Although their charges have been changed, they are still on trial connected to an act of vandalism at the Greek Embassy in Belgrade which caused 18 euros worth of damage. They already spent 6 months in jail on ridiculous charges and may still face jail or penalties.

-Andrei Kutuzov
Activist from Autonomous Action in Tyumen, arrested by the FSB for handing out leaflets. Any leaflets against the government tend to easily be labled "extremist".

We also cannot forget the appeal against convictions for demonstrating against Council of Europe in Warsaw in 2005 and other ongoing cases against demonstrators in Poland!

 We send our solidarity and support to all these comrades, struggling for grassroots workers' movements, struggling against capitalism, the state and creeping fascism!
May 19 at 18:00 Metro Centrum.

ZSP Warsaw

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Warsaw First of May

First of May in Warsaw was a local picket and demo in the Praga neighbourhood help by ZSP.  Besides talks about worsening work conditions, especially caused by casualization of labor, there  was talk of local problems like gentrification. Hundreds of leaflets and papers were handed out. 

Before the demo there was a picnic and afterwards, a discussion about labor precarity in the Infoshop. 

This year,  ZSP picket was target of a counterdemonstration made by  nationalists,  who also had anti-capitalist slogans but demand jobs for Polish people in Poland and are for national segregation of labor markets. Read more!

1 maja

Start: 17:30, 1. maja, sobota. Miejsce: Skwer Przy Skrzyżowaniu Al. Solidarności i Targowej (Przy Cerkwi). Przystanek "Dw. Wileński".

Po demonstracji zapraszamy do Anarchistycznego Infoszopu "Grona Gniewu" przy Targowej 22 na wykład i dyskusję na temat prekaryzacji pracy oraz poczęstunek.

Oprócz demonstracji odbędzie się wcześniej także piknik zorganizowany razem z mieszkańcami Pragi o godź 15:00 przy skwerze obok skrzyżowania 11 Listopada z Inżynierską. Read more!

No war but class war!

This weekend there was supposed to be an anti-war demo in Warsaw. It was called a long time ago and posters were all over the city. But the organizers (PD, Polish version of SWP) decided to call the thing off due to the day of "national mourning". 

Members of ZSP don't feel like mourning the people who sent troops into places like Iraq and Afganistan, where many more civilians have been killed than in the airplane crash in Russia which killed some Polish politicians. We are not mourning the dead politicians, but the victims of Poland's economic and crusader wars. So there was a small picket at the Sejm during the public gathering of mourners. People had a banner which read "No war but class war" and held this antiwar protest anyway, albeit on a much more modest scale.

To hell with the state's martyrology of their dead leaders! Read more!

Picket at Start People

9 April, ZSP made a picket at the Warsaw office of temporary work agency Start People. This was part of international day of action called by CNT Zaragosa, whose member had rights violated, was illegally dismissed and demands return to work.

Workers from Start People came to talk to ZSP about the reasons for the protest. People coming in and going out of agency received new issue of ZSP paper Zaplata which contains many articles about temporary work, including information about rights of temp workers and examples of actions made when there were problems at work.

This action is first in series about temporary work which will be made in Warsaw this month. Read more!

Tenants Action in City Council

A couple of weeks ago, tenants blocked Warsaw City Council, demanding special session devoted to housing problem. This session took place April 8. Over 200 people came to session. Members of ZSP in Warsaw are in Tenants Defense Committe and prepared large report on administrative corruption and violation of rights of tenants and housing laws. Our comrade from ZSP spoke a long time on this subject with expose of problems and made demand that housing be out of control of politicians and into more direct control of people with transparency, accountability and recallability.

TV Interviews (in Polish) Read more!