Friends Worldwide,

We sent a report about situation of activists from Poland. One memeber
of Anarchist Federation was arrested two days ago, two squats have been
evicted, around 80 people have suits in courts.

It is getting harder and harder here.

Read in enclousre if you are interested,
in solidarity with your struggles,
Anarchist Federation of Poland (Poznan section)

Friends,
In the past months, a wave of repression has struck Poland with double
force. We assess the number of people currently or lately under police
repression to be about 80.

Of course it is not only because right-wing and neoliberals have won
last parliament and president elections. For several years actions of
many different political and social groups that openly protest against
the Polish government’s policy are submitted bigger and bigger
repressions, with the use of the police and a machinery of court.

This phenomenon is not an incidental, but on a mass scale. For the past
3-4 years many activists of anarchist, antiwar, radical left wing,
social worker and ecological movement, have been put on trial. The
reason of the government’s repressions is undoubtedly an increase in
number of social conflicts (for example a number of demonstrations,
according to the police statistics, raised from 315 in 2001, to 2054 in
2003, and 1476 in 2004). The government apparently is not able to manage
with so tries to restrict the freedom of assembly and speech. But we
know that not only we have a r i g h t to protest, but we are f r e e
to protest!

We announce 8.11.2005 a day of protest against the state and the police
repressions! That day demonstrations are going to take place in few
Polish cities (Poznan, Warszawa, Katowice, Wroc³aw, £ódŸ). If you can do
anything to protest and to support us- do it!
You can help us by sending a donation for costs of lawyers, suits etc.

We are collecting money through the Anarchist Black Cross’s bank
account: PEKAO BP // XX o/Poznañ // ul.Stary Rynek 44 // 61-722 Poznañ
// Poland // swift code: bpkoplpwapoa // for USD:
10204085-5999100-270-44787 // owner: Marek Piekarski

The problem we are facing now:
1) 31.10.2005 - arrest of political dissident Marek Kurzyniec in
Krakow  http://pl.indymedia.org/pl/2005/11/16656.shtml
 http://pl.indymedia.org/pl/2005/11/16659.shtml
2) Last two weeks two squats have been evicted
(26.10.2005 – Bia³ystok-
 http://pl.indymedia.org/pl/2005/10/16512.shtml#english;
31.10.2005 - Warsaw -  http://pl.indymedia.org/pl/2005/10/16598.shtml )
3) Several people are charged with demonstration against war in
Chechnya on Lawica Airport in Poznan in 2004
4) From 6 to few dozen defendants and found guilty in connection
with demonstration against Vladimir Putin’s visit in Cracow in January
2005
5) One person accused in connection with a “critical mass” (bicycle
demonstration) in Poznan
6) One person convicted of a Nurse and Midwife’s Trade Union
demonstration in Warsaw in 2000 (convicted to fine with a possibility to
change to arrest)
 http://pl.indymedia.org/pl/2005/09/15885.shtml#english
7) 11 people are accused with demonstration which took place in
Warsaw on 16th of May 2005 (3rd Council of Europe Summit)
8) We don’t precisely know the number of suits against workers
protesters. For example 20 people were arrested on the 22nd of October
2002 after the demonstration of shipyard workers. 11 of them were put
under accusation. No less than 20 people, maybe even 70 have been
charged after the protests in Ozarow on 27-30th of November 2002.
9) Last year gay parades have been banned (11.06.2005
 http://pl.indymedia.org/pl/2005/06/14475.shtml )

For more information read detailed report and analysis! (below or
 http://rozbrat.org/ulotki/report2.htm )

In solidarity with your struggles,
The Anarchist Federation section Poznan (Federacja Anarchistyczna sekcja
Poznan)
The Polish Anarchist Black Cross (Anarchistyczny Czarny Krzyz)

P.O.Box 5
60-966 Poznañ 31, Poland
 fa-poznan@rozbrat.org ,  ack@rozbrat.org

3.11.2005

---
Raport 2
In Poland freedom of assembly and speech has been limited. Enough police
and state repressions!

The Anarchist Federation and the Polish Anarchist Black Cross in the
first report published on 21st of December 2004 have paid attention to
the fact that “for several years actions of many different political
and social groups that openly protest against the Polish government’s
policy are submitted bigger and bigger repressions, with the use of the
police and a machinery of court”. This phenomenon is not an incidental,
but on a mass scale. For the past 3-4 years many activists of anarchist,
antiwar, radical left wing, social worker and ecological movement, have
been put on trial. It is easy to see not only the rising number of
“political” cases, but also passing by courts higher and higher
verdicts. Today a number of police, prosecutor's and legal proceedings
is hard to count, however, we can mention these examples:

1) Several people are charged with demonstration against war in Chechnya
on Lawica Airport in Poznan in 2004. They are now standing trial in
Poznan

2) From 6 to few dozen defendants and found guilty in connection with
demonstration against Vladimir Putin’s visit in Cracow in January 2005.
They are now standing trial in Cracow

3) One person accused in connection with a “critical mass” (bicycle
demonstration) in Poznan is standing trial now in Poznan
4) One person convicted of a Nurse and Midwife’s Trade Union
demonstration in Warsaw in 2000 (convicted to fine with a possibility to
change to arrest)

5) 11 people are accused with demonstration which took place in Warsaw
on 16th of May 2005 (3rd Council of Europe Summit)

We asses the number of people being now or in the last past under police
repressions (which include at least detention) at about 80.

We don’t precisely know the number of suits against workers protesters.
For example 20 people were arrested on the 22nd of October 2002 after
the demonstration of shipyard workers. 11 of them were put under
accusation. No less than 20 people, maybe even 70 have been charged
after the protests in Ozarow on 27-30th of November 2002.

The reason of the government’s repressions is undoubtedly an increase in
the number of social conflicts (for example a number of demonstrations,
according to the police statistics, raised from 315 in 2001, to 2054 in
2003, and 1476 in 2004), that the government apparently can not manage
with. So it try to restrict the freedom of assembly and speech. It has
happened at two levels:

Firstly officials have taken actions using formal and legal procedures
in order to reduce a freedom of demonstrating. During past few years we
could notice many examples of such behavior, we mention here just some
of them:

1) The mayor of Poznan gave 11 prohibitions of demonstration to the
group Free Caucasus Committee (Komitet Wolny Kaukaz- KWK) who protest
against war in Chechnya. Every time when KWK activists demonstrated in
spite of illegal prohibition, they were repressed by the police and then
the court. On 30th of September 2004 Chief Administrative Court (NSA)
considered all prohibitions given by the mayor as illegal. It was
announced that he had no right to prohibit anyone from demonstrating.
The court referred to 57th article of the Polish constitution which
ensures everybody freedom to organize peaceful assemblies and to take
part in them. NSA noticed in its verdict that “the constitution
introduces the institution of f r e e d o m of assembly, not only the
r i g h t to organize them”.

2) In the beginning of 2004 the parliament tried to introduce an
amendment to the act about assemblies, which would forbid people whose
appearance prevents from identification taking part in demonstrations.
It would also find an organizer of a protest responsible for damages
done by any member of assembly or done shortly after this assembly.
Official reason of the planned change of low was safety to the members
of protests, but in fact the government wanted to tighten the rights to
demonstrate. That amendment was planned to be introduced shortly before
protest against he European Economic Forum in Warsaw 2004. The Polish
Constitutional Tribunal recognized it as not contrary to the Polish
constitution.

3) The local authorities mainly connected with “Prawo and
Sprawiedliwosc” (PiS- Right And Justice- the political party that has
won last month parliament elections and whose representative has become
the Polish president two weeks ago) and “Liga Polskich Rodzin” (LPR –the
Polish Families League- the radical right-wing party) have tried to
restrict the rights to demonstrate of “Equality Parades” many times in
Poznan, Warsaw and Cracow. The most glaring example took place on 11th
of June 2005 in Warsaw, where despite the fact that Lech Kaczynski (the
present Polish president) banned the parade, about 3 thousand people
marched through Warsaw as an act of civil disobedience.

4) The apparatus of the police applies in a mass scale surveillance and
intimidation against activists, under a pretence of preventive actions.
The well known case of this actions took place at the beginning of 2004
just before the alterglobalist demonstration against the European
Economic Forum. The police intruded dozens of activists in their homes
and at workplaces, put pressure on them and provoke in order to
intimidate and discourage them to participate in the legal protest. On
29th of April 2004 the police abused their power and stopped buses of
activists going to protest in Warsaw from Poznan, Elk and other cities.
In addition, custom officers didn't let in two buses of Hungarian
activists going to that protest.

Secondly, in many individual and specific cases there are taken actions
that restrict freedom of assembly and speech, in which the police and
justice administration use the most glaring provocations and low abuses.

That includes: using restrictions discouraging to take part in
demonstration, brutal police interventions (using violence) during
protests in order to provoke protestors and by this creating situations
which can be used against them on trial. It is common that the police
(often without any evidence) accuses protestors of aggression or
assault. Courts usually believe policemen, in the name of the rule that
policemen’s testimony is more credible than defendant’s because police
officers have no reasons (or business) to lie. Of course the rule of a
credibility of a policemen testimony in which Polish courts seem to
fully believe has no rational psychological and sociological sense. On
the contrary there are many cases when policeman has lain to court, and
it is in his business as it is a consequence of intentional strategy of
abusing violence by public order services.

It results in:

1) criminalizing people who protest against policy of the authorities
2) police actions are getting more and more violent and sentences of the
courts are more and more strict
3) charges are not commensurate with situations, and often concerns
completely innocent people

We can mention many examples of those situations, for instance:

1) Proceedings against Andrzej Smosarski has been completed in a court
in Warsaw. Andrzej Smosarski has been invited to take part in protest of
All-Polands Trade Union of Midwives and Nurses on December 2000 in
Warsaw. The demonstration was dispersed by the police force and
demonstrators were divided into small groups, surrounded by police
cordon. Suddenly, Andrew noticed that one of the women required
immediate medical treatment. Despite his requests, police officers
refused to let the woman contact ambulances standing nearby. Seeing
that, the group of demonstrators, with Andrew among them, started to
push forward and finally broke through the cordon of police officers in
order to help the sick woman. As a result of that, Andrew and another
agitator were accused of assault of a policeman (kicking him in his
chest), although nothing like that had happened.
In Andrew's presence, the police officers agreed upon their own false
version of the whole accident. Court of first and second instance has
found him guilty of violating a policeman's ,,nietykalnoϾ" (immunity).
Smosarski was sentenced to 3700 zlotys fine with a commuted to 100 days
of imprisonment. With false accusations and a severe sentence, the
judges and police obviously want to silence social critique and threaten
other activists

2) Agnieszka Wasieczko was one of 11 people arrested after demonstration
in Warsaw on 16th of May 2005 against 3rd Council of Europe Summit. They
were offended by the police, who even in a police car didn’t want to
give a reason and a legal basis for their detention. After arrival to
the police station they were kept in a garage belonging to the
headquarter. Afterwards they were examined in a tent. Every attempt of
resistance was suppressed.

Detainees were pulled, pushed, beaten and strangled. One of them was
thrown on a table, hit with his head and had his eyelid smashed. All
were chained to chairs by their right hand. Policemen took photographs
and fingerprints. All irregularities committed by the police during
detention were afterwards taken by the court as justifiable. Ironically,
Agnieszka Wasieczko were accused that “by kicking and hitting with her
hands a policeman face, she violated his corporal inviolability", and
“in the same place by shouting: “you are fucked” she wanted to force the
policemen to stop the actions”, and finally that “she insulted the
police officer by using words commonly known as offensive". For this she
may be sentenced for 3 years of imprisonment. Agnieszka firmly denies
that any of these events had place during the detention.

3) The organizers of planned on 26th of January 2005 demonstration
against Vladimir Putin visit in Cracow reported to the Town Council
about the protest on 24th of January. The Town Council rejected their
application because it was "too late". Despite this, on 26th of January
the protest of human rights protestors took place. It started peacefully
till several officers shouted: "we'll take him!" and tried to take one
demonstrator who kept the Chechenyan flag.

Being surprised with
officers’ assault other members of the protest decided to help and to
shelter the beaten demonstrator. The reaction of the police was that
several people were pulled on the snow, kicked in the legs, had their
arms twisted and hair torn out. Taking out one demonstrator the police
attacked next person in a similar way. According to the protest
participants, outside observers and even the media who wrote a statement
about aggressive behavior of the police, the police reaction was no
justified.

What is more, we can suppose the brutal intervention was intentional in
order to change the image of protesting people from peaceful
demonstrators to "dangerous hooligans". Demonstrators did not use
violence or did not call for violence, just chanted slogans, which
didn’t offend anybody. Policemen individually said to the protesters to
finish the meeting, but nobody heard a call to disperse announced
through a police megaphone or in other official legal way. The police
didn’t let protesters to finish the protest and disperse by their own
but created a cordon around protest participants and did not inform
about anything. Half hour later only individuals after being identified
were taken straight to the police cars.

People who didn’t have any documents were immediately taken into
custody. Whole action finished at 7, when the last frozen and drenched
person was released. Over 30 protesters were detained. The police
officers refused detainees the possibility of writing a complaint about
conditions of detention, as well as they didn’t give reasons of
detention and didn’t pass copies of the proceedings. In the meantime few
new policemen were substituted at the police station, who officially
entered into proceedings as these who collared (although they weren’t).
At least two detainees weren’t allow to see the doctor. The police took
pictures of all detainees without the previous permission and
accusation, which is unlawful. Person who opposed was dragged to the
place where photographs were taken by force. Not everybody received a
warm meal during all day, but just a cup of tea, although they were wet
and frozen from dragging through puddles and snow during the
intervention. Those who wanted a vegetarian meal get only several slices
of bread. Two hours after being released from the police station one
detainee fainted few times. She was immediately taken to the hospital,
where doctors recognized exhaustion of the body caused by starvation and
stress. At the beginning the police accused 33 people, but finally they
decided to send for a trial the cases of 6 people: Iwona Bojarczuk,
accused of pushing away hands and pulling at an officer; Jan Sawicz,
accused of pushing away an officer's hands; Marek Kurzyniec, accused of
waving hands and pulling with an officer; Monika Gilowska, accused of
waving her hands in front of an officer; Grzegorz Sobieszka, accused of
waving his hands and legs, making the detention difficult by kicking
into police car’s doors, kicking an officer in a head and insulting an
officer by using vulgar words; Karolina Wiœniewska, accused of having
illegal drags.

Claims of human rights abuses against the prisoners
include: throwing people into water despite the sub-freezing
temperatures; kicking people in the genitals, pulling their hair
(dreadlocks) in order to exert pain, throwing two women to the ground
and putting their knees on the women's backs despite no violence from
the side of the protestors.

4) On 26th of November 2004 cyclists organized a "critical mass"-
bicycle protest in Poznan. From the very beginning appeared several
police cars and officers subjected the cyclists to a routine control.
The police made a list of cyclists, who decided to continue their
protest. No policeman informed demonstrators in any way that that
demonstration was illegal. Near to the Freedom Square the police cars
freely overtook cyclists but then they blocked the road. Policemen
bluntly threw people off from their bicycles, threw the detained on
bonnets of the police cars and on a fence. They were offended, pulled,
kicked, persecuted and demeaned. Undoubtedly provocation was a part of
an intervention scenario.

A senior officer threatened the detained not only verbally, and young
policemen followed his example. They used words: "paws on fence fucker
and legs wide spread, other way I’ll kick your ass". Every objection or
movement of the detainees ended with threat of accusation about making
difficulties to the actions of police. In a short time tens of people
were standing along fence with wide spread legs and hands on a fence.
Policemen did not react when protester invoked the law e.g. the act
about the police. In such circumstances none of cyclists accepted fines
and all became arrested. Persecutions and humiliations were repeated at
the police station. Few hours later almost all demonstrators were free
but they would face the trial at local court. But S³awomir Kmiotek
become detained on a charge of punishable threat, only because he
rebuked the police officers during the intervention that they had used
means inadequate to the situation. At the police headquarter in
accuser’s presence policemen established their testimonies. S³awomir
Kmiotek may be sentenced for 3 years of imprisonment

In all these cases the fact that intervening public order services do
not respect freedom of assembly and speech has a fundamental meaning.
The public opinion is rarely informed about repressive methods of the
police actions. The media sometimes bow before the illusion of "the
state of law" and they believe the police and prosecutor's excuses.
Meanwhile, year by year we become more and more closer to the
authoritarian system, where democratic standards are established by the
police officers and the officials of the state administration. Under a
pretence of crime and terrorism menace they try to force legal
solutions, which will be ruthlessly used against the political
antisystemic opposition.

The Anarchist Federation section Poznan (Federacja Anarchistyczna sekcja
Poznan)
The Anarchist Black Cross (Anarchistyczny Czarny Krzyz)
23.10.2005