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Karol M. has been in a coma since November 3. That's when he had an accident at his construction job in Warsaw. To the horror of his family, it turned out that Karol was never given any contract by the work agency "Jerzy Madziarowicz MIX". The boss did not report the accident at work and went he was called by the police, he claimed that Karol did not work for him.
Karol has no insurance. He may never be able to work again. And Madziarowicz is trying to avoid responsibility. ZSP has started an action against the agency. The first step was to try to collect evidence that the agency is functioning and hiring people, with or without contracts. Now there is the task, which is not easy in Poland, of getting compensation for Karol.
Madziarowicz can expect a visit from us and should understand that we have been speaking to other people who have worked for him.
On Dec. 2, there was a picket at the Greek embassy in Warsaw against capitalist exploitation, austerity measures, repression and other attacks on working people in Greece. The protesters also the demanded release of prisoners. The ZSP distributed the following text:
We stand in solidarity with the people of Greece, fighting against the ploys of the ruling classes which are forcing more and more austerity measures on them. In Poland we hear the nonsense of neoliberal logic repeated again and again about how it is necessary to make cuts, as if the Greek working classes were living some life of waste and luxury. In reality, all the waste always comes from the top and it is the people who are made to pay for this. A few people get rich, while most working people get screwed.
On Nov. 25 ZSP held a picket in front of the French embassy in Warsaw to bring attention to the case of three comrades from the Spanish CNT who are in arrest in France. The three wanted to demonstrate against the G20 Summit in Cannes but were detained during preventative searches on Nov. 1. The police arrested them for bullshit reasons, because of certain items they had in their car, all of which could be normally explained - ie. they had mountain climbing equipment because they are in a mountain climbing club and were travelling near the Alps. However, the police asked many political questions and developed their theories to consider the comrades suspicious. They are supposed to remain in arrest in Nice for four months and have a ban on entering the region for 3 years.
Numerous solidarity demonstrations have been held in France and Spain demanding the release of the comrades.
A solidarity page has been made (in Spanish) http://libertadparalostresenniza.blogspot.com
First, we would like to thank the people who came to Warsaw, especially those who travelled from abroad to show solidarity with the goal of resisting the spread of far-right manifestations. Our goal is a common one: a world where such ideas finally hit the dustbin of history, where people unite to show their opposition to the far-right, nationalism, racism and fascistic ideologies.
We also express our condemnation for many incidents around the participation of these people in the blockade.
First, we criticize the media for its role in creating hysteria, before, during and after the incidents related to November 11 regarding these people, especially regarding the German activists.
An image was created for these people from the beginning. They were presented as practically some paramilitary group. In the meanwhile, paramilitary training goes on in Poland, in the camps of the far-right, without too much notice – certainly the media forgot to create hysteria about the mobilization of such people to the capital for the 11th, instead looking for some external threat.
Such a letter comes as no surprise to us.
This is not the first time we have seem problems with such a pyramid of responsibility on construction sites and it probably will not be the last. Each entity ensures the public that there is not fault and no problem. Workers, who unwisely agreed to work off the records or did not get their overtime evidenced, are just screwed.
The firm Plaza Centers has demanded that we rectify information about the situation on the Torun Plaza building site. We are publishing the letter received.
In relation to the conflict at Torun Plaza mall construction site regarding the non-payment of workers employed by subcontractor companies, representatives of another organization, the Workers' Initiative, have signed and published a statement under duress, which contains misleading information. The situation is that the boss of Plaza Centers, who met with people in Torun, used one of the oldest tactics in the books: he tried to scare workers, claiming that the information about the situation in Torun caused financial losses, due to falling stock prices. In reality, the price of stocks in Plaza Centers had been falling dramatically for quite some time. The fact that the company had a negative investment rating may have something to do with this.
After a few pickets made in the last few days in Warsaw and some cities in Silesia, a representative of Plaza Centers has contacted us and said that they would like to resolve the issue of non-payment to workers. A meeting is arranged in Torun which will hopefully result in the payment of all money overdue.
On Oct. 15, members of ZSP in Warsaw took part in the march of the "indignants". Instead of slogans that "we are indignant" or we want "real democracy now", we have slogans that we are outraged and that we want real revolution now. In response to talk about the "Spanish revolution" (referring to the M15 movement), we reminded people of some of the postulates of the real Spanish Revolution.
While the march went on some visit to a European Union office, we went to the bar "Brave New World" where we had had some pickets about trash contracts and working conditions. The march was supposed to pass by the bar later on. Our visit was partly motivated by the fact that the liberals at the bar were heavily promoting this action. We hung some sign on the bar saying that "real democracy begins in the workplace, all workplaces in the hands of the workers and collectivize the bar". This made the people from the liberal think tank furious and they came out, tore down the sign and made an incident. They even were trying to get the police to do something with us because a comrade but a sticker on their bar. We had some problems with the police, although we are allowed to picket there so when they told us to stand elsewhere, we of course refused. Then, when they had no basis to move us the police decided to try to write one comrade a ticket for supposedly walking across the street on a red light, but we also refused. In the end, the financial director of the organization flipped out and tried to rip our banner and stole our placard and beat one of the comrades on the head.
ZSP took part in the international day of action in solidarity with the workers of Visteon Cadiz Electronica who are fighting against the closure of their factory. Our comrades from the CNT in the factory called for actions at Visteon / Ford so we visited the Ford Polska headquarters. We gave out leaflets informing about the situation; this followed some informational actions during the week which included postering and hanging info-exhibits on Ford dealerships around the city.
On the same day, workers from the factory held a rally in Jerez de la Frontera.
Unfortunately we were not able to go into Ford headquarters. We entered into the office compound and made some noise but were quickly surrounded by security guards. Since both Ford and Plaza Centers are located in the same building, we have been here numerous times in the past month, which makes it hard to get past the security. However, one comrade who went separately managed to get on the premises where he managed to distribute leaflets for quite some time.
We will continue informing about this case and send our solidarity to our comrades who are fighting!
