What's on in Poland

international | anti-capitalism | news report Wednesday April 28, 2004 01:10 by Robert Looby

Anti-summit chased from venues while EEF goes ahead behind police lines

This is a (hurried) summary and translation of what I’ve picked up from indymedia Poland and some mainstream Polish press (i.e. web) coverage for the benefit of non-Polish speakers, though some of the http://poland.indymedia.org/pl articles have English translations too.

The European Economic Summit (a regional meeting of the World Economic Forum) runs from the 28th to the 30th in Warsaw alongside an “anti-summit” organised by alterglobalists, as they are known in Poland. Taking part in the EEF will be leaders from 25 countries and representatives from 700 businesses (estimates run from 900-1200 participants).

The anti-summit’s slogan is “Enough of the globalisation of exploitation, poverty and war: globalise justice” and a demonstration is planned on the 29th in Warsaw. The organisers say the demonstration will be pluralist and peaceful.

While the security operation is described as the biggest in post-Communist Poland’s history, more elaborate preparations were made for the Pope’s visits. Shops have not been ordered to close but many shopkeepers are boarding up their premises with wood. Warsaw has been divided into zones of varying levels of police activity.

Meanwhile the main story in Poland’s leading political magazine “Polityka” (2004, nr. 17) is that the entire Polish party system is in crisis.

Jacek Kuroń has written that the world’s future is in the hands of alterglobalists in an open letter. The elites of power, money and the media often act to disadvantage the societies they lead. He has also said that the American dream has fared disastrously in Poland. This is not his first open letter. In 1964 he co-wrote an open letter to the members of the Polish Communist Party for which he was sentenced to three years in jail. He was one of the most important figures in the early Solidarity and was interned under martial law.

Sound Familiar?

On indymedia Poland (http://poland.indymedia.org/pl) there are reports of unlawful restrictions on travel into the country. But perhaps they are not as bad as Irish authorities. One Czech citizen and long time, legal resident in Poland was prevented from entering the country until it was discovered that his child had Polish citizenship.

Most of the mainstream media is presenting the protestors as hooligans and rioters. One indymedia article talks of “media hysteria” and claims that the managers of the venue for the Alternative Economic Forum reneged on their contract with the anarchist organisers after the publication in Gazeta Wyborcza, Poland’s leading newspaper, of an article entitled “Anarchy on the Vistula.” The organisers say if they fail to find a venue their forum will go ahead in the open air. Organisers of “A Social Europe Without Borders” which was to take place in the “Praha” cinema have also been left without a venue after the management was paid a visit by the police. Articles refer to the paranoia reigning in Warsaw now. A part of the indymedia team meeting in a park to discuss a print edition for the 28th were “visited” by police who refused to identify themselves by name.

The demonstration on the 29th is supported by, among others, trade unions and Mazowsze Solidarity. There will also be a “Million Marijuana March” on May 1st in support of legalising the marijuana and changing drug policy.