Radical Student Protests in Poland

by Laure Akai
For the second week in a row, Students’ Initiative organized protests across the country against the radical right.

BACKGROUND
The last elections (Presidential and parliamentary) in Poland were won by the Law and Justice Party which, apart from the politics implied by their name, is ultra-Catholic, homophobic and conservative. Since their coming to power, they have had more and more influence in the Ministry of Education meaning the wish to realize ideological programming through the public school system.

People were quite shocked to find that the former Minster, Zielinski, had sent a letter to schools (high schools and junior high schools) warning them against letting different types of people, particularly anti-war and ecological activists, come to schools on the invitation of students. Since then, there have been many incidents of interference and canceling such meetings. For example, the Campaign against Homophobia is seen as “corrupting the morals” of Polish youth (since the Law and Justice party regularly calls them “deviants” and “perverts”) and even an NGO which organized first aid course for young people was not allowed because its founder also was the founder of a rock festival which the ultra-Catholics deem as something sinful.

Students’ Initiative was started by some people from the Anarchist Federation in Szczecin and people from Warsaw and other cities soon joined. Now not all the groups are entirely anarchistic because it took on a wider character but there is a strong anarchist and radical presence. SI is made up of junior high and high school students (Polish “gymnasium” and “lyceum”) but also has sympathizers and supporters amongst some others, particularly anarchists.

Last week they called for protests against what was going on and increased indoctrination in schools only on the eve of the protest, the situation went from bad to worse. A new minister of education was appointed: Roman Giertych, the head of the League of Polish families, a far-right political party.

Giertych is perhaps the most extreme figure in the government and the youth group that he reactivated (because it existed before the communist times when it was famous for conducting pogroms) is fascistic. It is most known for extremely conservative and scary views and its actions of throwing stones and eggs at gay parades. Its ideological legacy comes from the tradition of anti-semitism and extreme patriotism.

Because this happened, last week’s demos became important news; 75-85% of people are highly against this appointment. Despite the fact that this country is too Catholic and conservative, this is just too much. They decided to hold actions around Poland every week.

About 1000 people came in Warsaw and other demos were held in Szczecin, Krakow, Katowice, Czestochowa, Wroclaw and Rzesów with a few hundred people each. Just to stress, these demos were called by the students, most of whom are young and are just learning to organize things, so such results in this country (not known for such big political actions) were quite good. The media and public resonance was also quite good. There were many nice slogans about putting the schools in the direct control of the students, about taking religion out of schools and lots of anti-government ones as well.