On April 28-30 the European Economic Forum (EEF) will take place in Warsaw. As you know, this took place before in Salzburg, Austria. President Kwasniewski volunteered Poland to host it at the World Economic Forum (WEF) meeting in Davos. The Polish authorities don’t hide the fact that they would like the EEF to be transfered to Warsaw for good. Besides the prestige of hosting such an event, they want to show the rest of the world that they have no problems with opponents of neoliberalism here in Poland. They know that the anti-globalist movement is weak and disorganized in Poland. They want to use this meeting to show the world that while every other place has tens of thousands of demonstrators in the streets, riots and closing off whole sections of the city, Poland will be calm and orderly. They are so sure of this that they have chosen to hold the event in the Palace of Culture in the center of Warsaw. The choice of this place shows how sure they are that nobody can bother them. The decision-makers in Davos pointed out that this event will decide if it will be permanently held in Warsaw.
So it is important that we foil their plans. We have to show them that we won’t tolerate their politics. The social situation is favourable because the imcompetence and corruption of all consecutive governments makes more and more people open their eyes to what’s going on. The effects of the policies of both the right-wing and left-wing governments in Poland have led to over 20% unemployment in the country and this is growing. (Among youth, not counting graduates of higher education, this figure is twice as high.) More than 60% of people live at or under the poverty line. Last year it came to violent miners’ protests in Warsaw. Such fights haven’t been seen since the 80s. Other social groups are also in an equally bad situation. Social frustration concerns many social groups and professions. The libertarian and left anti-authoritarian milieus started preparing late last year but we won’t hide the fact that without significant support from abroad we won’t be able to organize large-scale protests.
We are open to cooperation and welcome you here. We will accept any kind of help with open arms. This will be the first action on this scale in Poland. From our side we will try to ensure legal protection and basic medical care during the action to the best of our capabilities, a place to make banners and so on. In places we will have translators, we’ll organize a list of afforadable accomodations, the Food not Bombs activists from different cities in Poland will prepare food for those who need it. We will try to organize the technical infrastruture for Indymedia although this might be a problem on account of the very modest funds that we have available. We invite everybody who shares the ideals of fighting against suffocating neoliberalism. We’ll show the army of technocrats, politicians and financier/sharks who are coming here that nobody gave them any right to decide for us. Let’s all meet in Warsaw on 28-30 of April. We will decide about our future!
—Polish Libertarian Milieu Organizing the Anti-Summit Wa29