English is still a problem in Eastern European countries. Only few of us speak this language, that's why we are not able to translate all news and also we don't have archive in English.
News from Workers Initiative Poland *english*
www.workers-initiative.poland.prv.pl
Days of action in defense of squats and autonomous spaces in Poznan
A week after the international days of action in defense of squats and autonomous spaces, a demo under the same slogans took place in Poznan, Poland. At the Old Market Square there were samba drummers, Food not Bombs, fireshow, tallbike wars, speeches about squats and autonomous spaces, soundsystem and screening of videos from European squats' evictions & slideshow about Rozbrat and squatting in general.
After 13 years of its existence, Rozbrat squat in Poznan will be soon auctioned and is in danger of eviction. So far, due to long legal processes, the situation is suspended and the auction date is still not known. We still do not know when the final decisions about the squat will take place. But we are not passively waiting, we still need your support, we organize loads of events at the squat and you're all welcome to come. But the red alarm is on! The updates available on our website: www.rozbrat.org.
23 Polish antimilitarist activists arrested
23 Polish antimilitarist activists were violently arrested on Sunday (30/03/2008) at a private flat of one of them morning after coming back from a demonstration after-party in Slupsk in nothern Poland.
On Saturday (29/03/2008) noon a demonstration against the plans of locating up to ten silo-based long-range missile defence interceptors in Poland took place in Slupsk, a city in northern Poland. The military base where the shield would be placed is located near this city. Around 500 people took part in a peaceful march in the city centre, after that around 50 people came to the military base and tried to come inside but were stopped by the police. Nobody was arrested, one person got a fine for using swearwords and drinking beer.
At night a techno party organized by anti-war activists was organized at one of the local pubs in Slupsk. The activists came back to their flat and around 6 a.m. cops raided their house and arrested the people inside, aged 18 to 35. The police used heavy violence, beating up the activists with batons and using pepper spray. One of the activists had his arm broken and later managed to run away from the hospital.
After an immediate reaction of other activists, lawyers and media cops gave their official version of the event which says that the activists were arrested for "violating the night silence", some of them are charged with an physical assault and verbal insult of a police officer. First activists were released after 12 hours of interrogation, cops claimed that the activists were drunk and had to sober up before they were questioned. So far (Sunday, 10 p.m.), around 10 people are out, 9 who are charged are still detained and they are said to leave the arrest tomorrow (Monday, 31/03/2008) by 3 p.m. The cops had no legal warrant to come inside the flat. It is not common to send a dozen or so cops to silence people at night, so the argument about them being too loud is clearly a lie.
At 1 p.m.
on Sunday around 30 anarchist and antimilitarist activists came to protest
in front of the police station where the others were arrested. They
shouted slogans against police repression and police violence and demanded
releasing all arrested activists. Probably thanks to high media presence,
they were not repressed in any way.
The activists will probably need financial help for lawyers, if you want to help contact Poznan ABC (preferably in English/Polish) ack@rozbrat.org
The demonstration on Saturday in which hundereds of activists and local people, a street theatre, a samba band and Food Not Bombs group took part was organized as a part of a campaign against the installation of missiles and the building of the US base in Poland.
Recent polls in Poland released by State television claim that 50% are against, 36% support while 14% are unsure. When compared to a poll conducted 12 months ago for the daily broadsheet Rzeczpospolita (Republic), those who support (moderately or strongly) the proposal has grown by 6%, those against has fallen by 1% while members of the public who remain unsure fell by 5% to 14%. Opinions are being crystallised, the government propaganda machine is on full steam ahead but the voices and arguments of the majority, those opposed, remain marginalised by the mainstream media.
The Sunday
intervention is a clear sign of state repression against anti-militarist
activists who are supposed to be shown as terrorists/hooligans/drunk
youths, it's a method used to crimiminalize the social movements, a
method that is not a new one in our reality. We will not subject to
any intimidation!
STOP
STATE REPRESSION! SOLIDARITY IS OUR WEAPON!
Rozbrat remembers Ungdomshuset 1/03/2008
On Saturday night (1/03/2008) Rozbrat squat activists dropped a banner in Poznan center saying "We remember Copenhagen! We will not give you Rozbrat! Ungdomshuset 1983-1/03/2007, Rozbrat 1994-?". It was made to commemorate the first anniversary of Ungdomshuset eviction. A press communique was released, saying we remember about Copenhagen events, we do not forget and we do not forgive and we will fight for our place too and if anyone doubts it, let this person remember Copenhagen events one year ago. Solidarity is our weapon!
Rozbrat
squat alarm - Communique from 21/02/2008
Here are the news about our situation for all those who are interested in defending Poznan's Rozbrat squat. There's a legal trial going on in court against the owner of the ground that used to belong to Darex company and is the biggest part of Rozbrat squat. One of the creditors of that comapny is a bank situated near Warsaw. Darex company took a loan of 218,000 zlotys (about 62,000 euro) and today this loan is equal 372,000 zlotys (about 100,000 euro) together with the interest. It is possible that there are more creditors of Darex. Of course the amount of money after selling the ground will be higher than that. The decision about the evaluated price of the ground will be taken by court until the 22nd of February 2008. MOST PROBABLY IN THE MIDDLE OF MARCH THE AUCTION WILL TAKE PLACE. We ask you all to mobilize around that time because we're planning a DEMONSTRATION! We count on you! Look for the following communiques from us at www.rozbrat.org
Rozbrat
squat alarm - Communique from 16/01/2008
Rozbrat
Collective would like to thank everyone who in the last days expressed
their support and their readiness to defend our place. We've received
hundereds of e-mails, telephone calls, letters, both from indviduals
and organizations, social movements from Poland and from abroad.
In general, after the visit of the bailiff last week (8/01/2008), nothing significant has happened, nothing that would change our situation. We're still under the threat of eviction, but the date is really hard to predict. We're still analysing our legal situation, considering both the organizations and initiatives that are active at Rozbrat, and the people living here for years. Within next 2 or 3 weeks our legal situation should be clear and we will publish another communique. However, we would like to state that we will defend Robrat both with all legal means and with all means necessary.
So far, Rozbrat is still active! We invite all of you for the events that will be organized in January and February: gigs, exhibitions, lectures, film screenings and so on... We invite you to visit our Anarchist Library and our Infoshop, where you can get some useful pamphlets, leaflets, posters, or borrow a book. Please visit our website www.rozbrat.org - in the announcements (in Polish "zapowiedzi") section we will be announcing all the cultural, social and political activities that we organize and we will inform you about the current situation of Rozbrat.
Struggle
continues!
08.01.2008 - ALARM AT ROZBRAT!
Today,
around 10 a.m. bailiff together with cops came to Rozbrat squat. The
policemen drilled the lock of the gate, the bailiff had a court's permission
to come in and estimate the price of the ground. The middle part of
Rozbrat squat (including both concert halls, gallery, bars, library
and part of the living area) was indebted for a long time by a company
that doesn't exist anymore. The ground price evaluation today means
that the ground can be auctioned witthin one or two months - that can
mean the end of Rozbrat squat - the longest occupied space in Poland.
We'll
keep you informed. We count on you being ready to organize solidarity
actions by you and your groups!
We're not gonna give up without fight!
NEWS FROM 8/01/2008 - MULTI-LANGUAGE VERSION
Solidarity letter to "One struggle One fight" demo in Berlin 8/12/2007
We want to express our full support for the squatting movement in Germany. We are aware of the current policy of the German authorities, and we are against the repression taking place against squatters all over Germany. In the last few months there has been a rapid increase of police raids on self-organized, unofficial social centers. These acts of terror are disturbing and shocking. It's obvious that local authorities are trying to force their neoliberal politics into city management. This means less social safety net and much higher rent prices.
By using violence - such as the oppression of the squatting movement they try to 'improve' living standards. For capitalists this improvement means yuppie housing estates, less real social relationships, more obeying society and moving the poor and handicapped into the outskirts of cities. We strongly disapprove of this policy. We belive that streets should fully represent the real society and that streets & city districts are places accessible to all citizens, not only the wealthiest or the most powerful ones. In our opinion all actions that are aimed at increasing the prices of rents and mortgages, such as destroying old housing estates to build newer and more expensive ones, are aimed against the poorest part of the society. In that way, by getting rid of the poor, the authorities pretend to solve real social problems. What happens is directly the opposite: the poor get even poorer, and the rich ones once again use their economic power to increase their income. We also share the opinion that there are more things going on in city life, not only the costs of housing. We believe that such values as rich cultural life, strong civil society or a friendly neighbourhood are more important than the value of land. We believe that most important value of the city is not within the prices of houses or the standard of living.
There
are much more important things, that all begin with the basic interaction
between two people. Unofficial, self organized and antiauthoritarian
centers are crucial in development of these interactions. Therefore
we strongly disapprove of the current policy of German authorities,
and we call for a radical change. We support our comrades from the squatting
movement in Berlin and we would like to emphasize that without squats
the cities are going to be much less interesting.
We strongly support the struggle for all autonomous spaces all over the world as we believe that they are able to create a background for local social struggles fighting against the present system of conformity, exploitation and uniformity. The struggle for squats and free spaces in different places is the same fight all over and an attack against one place is an attack against all of them and we will always show our solidarity, by all means necessary, every time the capitalists, cops and politicians act against peoples' freedom of expression. We will not be a safe margin of alternative culture within capitalism, we will try as much as we can to create a real opposition against this system.
We stand together and we fight together!
Elba
squat, Warsaw, Poland
Rozbrat squat, Poznan, Poland
12.03.2007
May-Day
2007 in Poznan.
Demonstration
Independent Publishing Houses' Bookfair
Workers' Conference
Dear friends and comrades! We would like to invite you to Poznan to Independent Publishing Houses' Bookfair (anarchist, ecological, leftists, social-cultural and others), that will take place on 1-2-3 of May 2007. We would like our meeting to be a place where people can show their publications, exchange ideas, experiences, concepts and will serve estabilishing contacts and cooperation both local and international. During the Bookfair, there will be a lot of meetings with authors, presentations of publishing houses, projects, books (especially the new ones), debates, exhibitions, film shows and... We offer exhibition spaces, places to sleep, food and drink. Contact and details: bractwo_trojka@wp.pl We also invite you to a workers demonstration that will take place on 1 May at 12 o'clock. On 2-3 May there will also be a Workers' Conference. Everything will take place at the Rozbrat Squat.
13.08.2006
On
the 9th of August, Krzysztof Wantoch-Rekowski - a longtime activist
of the Polish Anarchist Federation and Food Not Bombs from Poznan -
was detained by the police. He has been put into jail for six weeks
for...
destroying his identity card (article 276 of the Penal Code)
We
are calling for expressions of solidarity with Krzysztof:
1. sending protest letters to the Ministry of Justice
2. sending solidarity letters to the prison where Krzysztof is being
detained (postcards, letters, leaflets, newspapers, etc. please remember
that all of then will be censored)
Below is a sample of the letter to the Ministry:
I,
signed below, protest against the detention of Krzysztof
Wantoch-Rekowski - a longtime activist with the Polish Anarchist
Federation from Poznan and Food Not Bombs group - in prison in Poznan.
His sentence is unnecessarily harsh and illustrates the repressive character
of the Polish state. I demand his immediate release!
Address of the Ministry of Justice:
Ministerstwo
Sprawiedliwości
Al. Ujazdowskie 11
00-950 Warszawa, Poland
Sygnatura akt (file signature): WK 1481/03/4
Address of Krzysztof in prison (censored)
Krzysztof
Wantoch-Rekowski
AŚ Poznań
Młyńska 1
61-729 Poznań, Poland
Anarchist
Federation from Poland/Poznan
Anarchist Black Cross/ Poznan
24.07.2006
URGENT APPEAL!!! SUPPORT ANTIFA PRISONER TOMEK WILKOSZEWSKI
Tomek
Wilkoszewski is in Sieradz prison already for 10 years. He ended up
behind bars in 1996 after participating in a streetfight, after which
one neo-nazi died. During his trial judge was not at all concerned with
fact that Tomek was for few years harassed, attacked and humiliated
by local nazi shinheads. He comes from village and he didn't have money
for good lawyer. He was sentenced like a normal murderer. 15 years of
jail for somebody acting in self defence is a good example of state
"justice".
After serving 2/3 of his sentence Tomek has right to appeal for earlier
release. He never caused any trouble and continued his education. Despite
that there are no apparent reasons to keep him locked, he is still refused
release.
During last years there were thousands of signatures collected in his
support, yet court still rejects his appeal.
Probably in October there will be another parole board deciding granting him freedom. Unfortunately without professional help there are little chances that Tomek will receive it. There is a need for a good lawyer, especially in situation when from legal point of view there is nothing that should stop Tomek from being released. Leaving him on his own we would loose unique chance to get him out of this shit, in which he landed also becasue of ideas that are close to all of us. Anti-fascist and libertarian movement simply owes it to him.
We appeal to all groups and individuals to support Tomek. Money for
lawyer is needed now (cost will be around 1000 USD). In case that Tomek
would be released he will need money to meet his basic needs as well,
as he will not have much funds. He will need help with finding work,
house etc.
We should all get involved!
Anarchist Black Cross
Accounts on which we collect funds:
Jakub
Gawlikowski
PL05 1140 2004 0000 3702 4238 2269
BRE Bank S.A. Retail Banking, al. Mickiewicza 10, 90-050 Łódź
BIC/SWIFT: BREXPLPWMUL
SORT CODE: 11402004
mBank
PL81 1140 2004 0000 3202 3517 7247
Katarzyna Jankowska
BRE Bank S.A. Retail Banking, al. Mickiewicza 10, 90-050 Łódź
BIC/SWIFT BRE Bank: BREXPLPWMUL
SORT CODE- 11402004
Write "for Tomek"
More about Tomek's case: www.tomek.most.org.pl
If
You can, copy this appeal and send it forward!
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