[fse-esf] situation left and ngo in Poland

[Attac Polska]

*The conference "The Left for Europe"*

Whether the activities of Polish left-wing groups as well as the Polish 
ATTAC deserves only to the criticism? This was the question which the 
representatives of the European Left, who came Nov. 5 to Warsaw to meet 
with Polish Left non –parliamentary organizations at the conference 
"Left for Europe", were certainly asking themselves.

The main reason for the visit of representatives of EL was "Report on 
the activities carried out by Rosa Luxembourg Foundation", written by 
Polish members of the Polish Labour Party (PPP*), which - as it should 
be stressed - not last the courage to submit the text of the signatures. 
However, this did not prevent the anonymous authors of the "report" to 
describe the exceptional merits of PPP and August 80 and negatively 
evaluate all the other groups on the left side of Polish political 
scene, including the Rosa Luxembourg Foundation's activities or Polish 
Attac.

At the meeting with Polish Left, came Helmut Scholz, a member of board 
of the European Left and the German Die Linke and Graziella Mascia, 
Vice-President of the European Left.

 From the Polish side in the conference "Left for Europe" was attended 
by: Joanna Gwiazdecka - *Rosa Luxembourg Foundation*, Krzysztof Pilawski 
– conductor of meeting, journalist left media, Maria Szyszkowska, Jan 
Baranski, Teresa Jakubowska, Malgorzata Swiatek - *Left Right Polish*, 
Andrzej Ziemski - "*Socialist Review"*, Andrzej Chwiluk, Dariusz 
POTYRAŁA, Bozena Gawryluk - *Miners Trade Union*, Michal SYSKA - 
*Ferdinand Lassalle Social Thoughts* *Center* , Adrian Zandberg, 
Grzegorz ILNICKI, Dominik Kaczmarski, Piotr Janiszewski and Pawel 
Amborski - delegation of the *Young Socialists*, observers EL, Ewa 
Ziółkowska and Piotr Kawiorski – *Attac Poland*, Boguslaw Gorski, Jerzy 
Stefanski - *Polish Socialist Party*, Mieczyslaw Kozlowski and Waldemar 
Tomasiak - *Economic Renaissance Movement*, Leszek Lachowiecki - *Forum 
Club*, Jacek Sochan - *Socio-Cultural Association "Warsaw in Europe"* 
and Adam CIOCH - the editors of *"Facts and Myths"*.

Despite invitations sent, Boguslaw Ziętek, the head of the PPP and 
August 80 and any other representatives of the party responsible for 
writing the "report" did not appear at the meeting.

- I would like to say that at this conference we are only a conductors, 
because our task is primarily a social education - said Joanna 
Gwiazdecka, coordinator of Rosa Luxembourg Foundation, welcoming 
participants of the meeting and giving Krzysztof Pilawski conduction of 
the conference.

Helmut Scholz, who was the first speaker, expressed his readiness to 
cooperate with the Polish left, paying close attention to the elections 
to the European Parliament and the need for wider representation of the 
European left, who stood against new challenges, such as the dangers of 
armaments in Europe, caused by the construction in Poland and the Czech 
Republic elements of the U.S. anti-missile shield.

- "Report", which hits also our Trade Union, is an attempt to reduce our 
authority said Andrzej Chwiluk, the head of the Miners Union. - In 
Poland attacks on the authorities are quite frequent and because of this 
type of activity, we must then explain our European colleagues the 
situation. Meanwhile, we have a little time and there is a lot of work 
to do.

- The biggest threat for the Polish Left is not right, but internal 
divisions and quarrels within the framework of the Left - said prof. 
Maria Szyszkowska, chairwoman of the Right of Polish Left Party. - In 
addition, "the left" was debasement in Poland, because of the SLD 
policy, which was far away from their ideals and went to neoliberal 
ideology. Another risk is left which collaborates with fascist groups, 
represented by the PPP. The PPP wants to brake down the non-parliament 
left, using the argument below the belt. Actually, the report written by 
PPP should be thrown away to rubbish, because discussing about this 
document has no sense.

Ewa Ziółkowska, chairwoman of the board of ATTAC Poland, also recalled 
right pedigree of PPP saying:

- Actually, we should think about the matter with what kind of party we 
really face - she said. - It seems to me that this is a type of hybrid, 
in which the left wing exist as well as the strong national right wing. 
Is it a lot more leftist or right-wing party, which has taken some left 
postulates? We have had such examples in Europe.

Chairwoman of ATTAC also pointed out that this "report" is not the first 
time, when persons associated with the PPP sends to the West such 
letters. There were previous activities related to Polish Attac and 
breaking its cooperation with KPiORP.

Polish representatives also said about the difficulties in gaining 
access to the Polish media, which makes clear that despite the demand, 
left ideas are not known Polish society.

The conference was closed by Helmut Scholz, who, paid an attention to 
the need to reorient the EU's policy towards the new challenges of 
twenty-first century and called for broad international cooperation. He 
added that the left wing and antifascist activists should not be afraid 
that the extreme right views will be found in the ranks of the European 
left.


http://attac.org.pl/?lg=pl&kat=1&dzial=30&typ=2&id=909 
<http://attac.org.pl/?lg=pl&kat=1&dzial=30&typ=2&id=909> - info in polish


/*PPP - party, `Sierpien 80` - trade-union and `Trybuna Robotnicza` - 
newspaper, its one group. Boguslaw Zietek is chief PPP and `Sierpien 
80`. This group is editor //"Trybuna Robotnicza" - chief //Dariusz Zalega./