Confrontation against Frontex and head of European Council

On Jan. 17, on the 97th World Day of Migrants and Refugees, a conference on migration policy was held at the Kazimierowski Palace featuring keynote speakers Ilkka Laitinen, Executive Director of Frontex and former British Home Secretary Charles Clarke and attended by various Eurocrats and migrant hunters.  Although we found out about this only at the last minute, some people from ZSP and RAS (Radical Solidarity Action) were able to get into the closed conference and made an extended confrontation.  

Frontex chief Laitinen was particularly confronted about recent actions at the Greek Turkish border, iucluding incidents of shooting at migrants and press reports that a few people left their work there because they refused to shoot migrants. Laitinen denied everything, calling it a pack of lies and refused to answer questions about deaths of migrants. The debate got hot, with one woman from RAS and one from ZSP shouting Laitinen down. The member of ZSP pointed out the way in which Frontex was militarized and the controversy around this. There was no intervention by security and both Clarke and Laitinen refusing to address the questions and calling critics of Frontex anarchists. (In this case they were right.)


Prior to this, there was a couple of confrontations with Preident of the European Council Herman van Rompuy. The first was accidental when an individual from ZSP found herself in the morning on the Brussels-Warsaw flight with van Rompuy and other Eurocrats and decided to bother him about the bailout package in Greece, plans for Spain and Portugal and other assorted matters. Upon arrival in Warsaw, we learned that van Rompuy and Latinen were to speak in the same venue but there was not enough time to go to and intervene in van Rompuy's speech. However, just after it, and in the break prior to the conference on migration policy (held in another hall), van Rompuy found himself cornered by a few Eurosceptics, a couple of socialists and anarchists. Bodyguards and state security agents intervened and whisked him away. He did not make it to the conference on migration.






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Activists Confront Local Authorties

On Jan. 14, members of the Tenants Defense Committee and ZSP confronted local authorities in the Praga neighbourhood. The local government is now led by people put in place by the ruling neo-liberal party, in part of a procedural manipulation to take control over the two neighbourhoods in Warsaw where they were not elected. Such maneouvres (too complicated to explain here) have been going on for three years. To give a small hint, the head of the local council made a break in a session years ago and did not reopen the session. Later it was claimed that the session was never ended and subsequent ones were thus never legally opened. All decisions taken for a couple of years were then considered invalid and revoted in one session last year. Currently, a similar maneouvre took place, and thus the elected authorities could not be confirmed and the President installed her people, who subsequently tried to delay things for months.

Although we do not support any of the factions in the local council, we understand that the maneouvres of the President of the City is strictly connected to the desire to control this neighbourhood in particular, in order to speed up the gentrification process. It is significant that the authorities did not want to appoint a housing commission, which is the body responsible for assignining municipal housing. Without a commission appointed, there would be no way for anybody to get public housing in the neighbourhood. Therefore, we reminded then of our demands that the neighbourhoods be under popular control and said that if there is no housing commission, that we form it ourselves and tell people which flats are free and encourage people to go live there. The authorities then decided that it is better for them to appoint a commission.

Protestors showed up with a wheelbarrow to take away the politicians and interrupted the session with the protest, reminding them of the problems of the neighbourhood and our postulates. We also opposed the continued manipulations and interference of the President in local matters and the attempts to override and overturn the results of the elections. Read more!

Picket at OBI

On Jan. 12, members of ZSP picketed OBI in Warsaw. In  the morning, leaflets were handed out at OBI headquarters. In the evening, a picket was held in front of one of the stores. The date was not coincidental; that morning a court case started against the firm in Krakow where a woman fired for union activism took the firm to court to fight for her reinstatement.

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First Electronic Saleswomen Appear in Warsaw OBI; Workers Speak about Discrimination of Women in Chain

Yesterday ZSP members who went to one OBI store in Warsaw found it closed for stock-taking. Today, in the store we found that OBI has started introducing electonic salespeople in Warsaw.

To remind readers, workers in OBI in Krakow were being psychologically pressured and threatened with eventual replacement by "electronic salespeople". Some of them want to take action against their introduction. We were surprised to learn that they are already now a reality. 

ZSP will campaign against the replacement of real people by these computerized dolls. On Wednesday we are picketing against the repression of unionists in OBI and for the improvement of working conditions. We will now also be sure to take some action about the "electrosalespeople" and draw people's awareness to their significance.

In the meanwhile, it is coming to light that in OBI, pay discrimination against women is basically the norm. We will be trying to document this. The mainstream unions which operate in a few stores in the chain announced that they will start fighting for raises for the employees and the eliminate this discrimination.

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Solidarity with Student Protests in UK

Today there was a picket at the British Embassy in Warsaw in solidarity with the protests against tuition hikes and educational cuts. A couple of dozen people from various left organizations turned out, mostly students and teachers. ZSP members distributed booklets about the Bologna process and came with calls for free education on libertarian principles. It raised criticism of the educational system and capitalism in general, thus bringing a more radical point of view to the people at the demo. Protestors pointed out that it is high time to organize more resistance in Poland, which is probably one of the few countries in Europe which does not have a strong student movement and has not seen any large protests about the commericalization of education. All agreed that students, teachers, parents and just concerned citizens should be fighting against this process, which concerns the future of society and sharpens class divisions. Read more!

Solidarity with Bus Drivers!

Solidarity to the Struggling Workers of PKS Suwalki

On the Role of State Institutions in Collaborating Against Workers' Action

For months there have been problems between the workers of PKS Suwalki and the management. PKS Suwalki is a bus company employing over 400 people, which also operates in Elk, Augustow, Olecko, Goldap and Sejny. It was commericalized in 2006 but was still owned by the State Treasury. Then it was unclear whether or not it would be privatized; in the end it was taken over by the Voivodship and remains a public entity.

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Tenants Meet About Reprivatization

On Dec. 10, over 100 people met to talk about the reprivatization of their buildings.  There was a presentation about what to expect and what could be done, with emphasis on taking direct action and immediate organizing for mutual self-defense.

The meeting was focused on one neighbourhood and we plan to make similar meetings all throughout January, each time focusing on a different neighbourhood.

Notices were delivered to houses which were on a list maintained by the city. Despite the fact that the city claims this is "confidential information" which may not be copied or disseminated, we will not be deterred and we plan to reach as many people as possible. Read more!

Warsaw Rent Strike: Community Organizing and Activization in the Context of Social Atomization

In Warsaw a rent strike has been going on since Oct.1. Despite the fact that the issues may effect up to a quarter of a million people in Poland's capital city, we cannot say that a significant percent of public housing tenants have joined. This is mainly due to a lack of tradition and the extreme social atomization of the population - something typical in many post-Soviet bloc era countries. There is also the issue of a minuscule grassroots social movement and the disdain of the left for anything radical and outside the realms of reformist and party politics. [1]

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ZSP vs. State Repression of Information

At the last fake social consultation with the city housing authorities, officials promised to publish the list of public housing buildings which may be privatized (where claims have already been submitted to court). This promise came after ZSP delivered information to 1500 homes listed on a leaked document. But, what can you expect from politicians and bureaucrats? Almost two weeks after the promised the list would be up... still no list.

ZSP also made a promise: that it would still find a way to get these lists and would deliver the information to the people concerned. So we announce that we got a couple of more lists and teams of people are delivering notices. We expect 500 notices to be delivered to these houses by the end of the weekend.

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Tenants Confront President of Warsaw

Tenants were able to attend the presidential debate with Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz. They whistlled, chanted "evict the City Hall" and asked questions she did not answer. Despite the interruptions, nobody intervened. On this way, tenants were finally able to confront the President with her policies in a very public and maybe embarrassing way. Read more!

Antifascist Action

In Warsaw a crowd of about 2000 people tried to block a couple of fascist and right-wing marches that went through the city. Police did everything possible to enable the march to go on a different route while provoking, invigilating and surrounding the antifascists.

ZSP also reminded that they are against capitalism and there were some sharp words towards the capitalist political parties whose activists turned up with flags and election leaflets. We gave out about 1500 leaflets to passersby explaining why we were there and giving our point of view that we must also fight capitalism, which is just as deadly as fascism.

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President of Warsaw Runs Away from Tenants / Opening of Estate for Evicted under Bridge

For a couple of weeks we have been trying to meet with the President of Warsaw, Hanna Gronkiewicz-Waltz. She doesn't seem to ever be in her office, and when she hears we are coming, she runs away. When we found out that she had scheduled a TV debate with the two other main candidates for President of Warsaw in the upcoming elections, we decided to pay a visit. Waltz then cancelled the most important pre-election debate which was to be broadcast live on TV.

No problem - we could (and did) protest against the other candidates.
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11 November – Against Nationalism, Fascism and Capitalism

Statement of ZSP Warsaw

ZSP Warsaw wil actively oppose the marches organized by right-wing organizations in Warsaw 11 of November. We are not only against the right-wing groups such as ONR, and their storm trooper subculture, but also against all the proponents of authoritarianism, xenophobia, racism and capitalism who propagate their conservatice and antisocial world view, regardless of whether they dress in suits or Lonsdale and Thor Steinar shirts.

The politics of the right-wing offer nothing to the working class except for ideological poison which drives people further apart and strengthens the authority and power of small elites.

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Congratulations on Direct Action / New Squats

One direct response to the city's housing crisis is simply to go find yourself a place to live. In Warsaw, it is not easy; the conditions are bad and it is hard to get any electricity, water or other conveniences - some public housing doesn't even have this! In the past months we actively encourage and help people if they are willing to go this way.

Our congratulations to our comrade from ZSP who in the last few days helped to open two new squats, one of which he may move into himself. Read more!

Confronting the Politicians

Former Ministers and leaders of the SLD Wojciech Olejniczak and Ryszard Kalisz decided to visit the slums during their campaigning, trying to find rent strikers, victims of reprivatization and others to take their leaflets. Instead they were surrounded and asked many difficult questions for quite a long time. The looks on their faces tell it all. Below is a video of a particularly interesting part, unfortunately only in Polish. People asked a lot of difficult questions, some of which the politicians were not able to properly answer and tried to corner them for concrete proposals.

Despite their attempts to meet with and co-opt activists from ZSP, we rather have been giving them a hard time. We recall their past promises and warn against trying to fuck with us, reminding them that will always and have always shown up and given them trouble when their party gave the people shit.

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