Bresco is an employment agency which also specializes in sending personnel to hospitals. It is known in Poland for its anti-worker activity. For example, on March 13, 2003, cleaners, cooks and non-registered nurses who belonged to Solidarity and were employed at the Railway Hospital in Wroclaw held a two hour strike. The main reason they did so was that they were not paid on time. The Bresco firm explained that the hospitals owe them a few million zloty. The conflict was not resolved and on May 28, a strike broke out. The hospital administration had to use soldiers to give out meals in the hospital.

Threat of steelworks' collapse - pressure of international corporations.

The tragic situation of Silesia, the region in which the heavy industry and mining play the key role, is caused mainly by the government's actions, which ruin both of these industries. In the case of the mining industry the authority is aiming at the liquidation of this part of industry mostly because of the World Bank's dictate. In the case of the heavy industry, the instructions of the European Comission which is bossing about how much can be produced contribute to the liquidation of plants and depriving thousands of people of employment.

The one and only idea of the government for rescuing the heavy industry is looking for foreign investors, meanwhile it is only a temporary rescue, to achieve a better price for the sale of the industry. Because of this, only the best and new manufacture lines were included in the syndicate of Polish Steelworks. The interest of foreign companies is only in gaining information about the market, because Poland is a perfect market for the overproduction of western corporations overproduction. Thus, it can be expected that the liquidation preceded by the bakruptcy of most of the Polish steelworks would be the thrust of foreign investor. The creditors of our heavy industry are banks with the major participation of foreign capital. After taking charge of market and investment in purchase of our plants, this capital is interested mainly in transfering the profits abroad. Therefore, those banks won't be interested in the realisation of the development programme for heavy industry. In our country the heavy industry has got a huge production potential. For the European Union's corporations suffocating from too much overproduction it is a big danger. That is why from the beginning of 90's there are endeavours to extort a reorganisation programme from the governments which a permanent liquidation of a production potential will predict through the limitation and liquidation of some parts of steelworks and massive dismissals. The government shows an unusual submission and undertakes to accept the heavy industry destruction programme.

It was the third "encounter" of this kind. People from FA Lublin kept shouting slogans like "Solidary with Ozarow", "Pinochet's puppies", "Long live self-management", "Human rights and not the rights of the market".

On 11th of September nearly 10 thousand miners from Silesia protested against the closing of the mines. Last year the government said about necessity of dismissing 30 thousand miners . Under the threat of general strike the government withdrew their plans and retracted their statement.It proved to be just a pretence.

A clash between police and demonstrators started right from the beginning. The march targeted first the headquarters of the ruling SLD. Stones were thrown towards the building. Then the demonstration, that had in the meantime been made illegal, moved in front of the Ministry of Economy. There they clashed with the cordons protecting the governments' buildings. Demonstrators used , bangers metal rods and Molotovs cocktails, police-water canons, CS sprays and rubber bullets .The façade of the building was damaged. 40 window glass were smashed. As a result of fights 62 policemen were hurt, some of them badly. 22miners were given medical help, but the exact number of wounded is unknown.Home Officer assessed the damage for more than 200 thousand zlotys (nearly 50 thousand dollars).

During the whole of June an occupation took place at the Uniontex SA - textiles factory in Lodz. It was caused the workers rights being attacked. For a few months the workers were almost deprived of the means to live. The protest in Uniontex was an attempt to remind about unpaid wages and also to try to save the work place, endangered by the dishonest, almost criminal activity of the authorities of the enterprise. But from the beginning the workers were threatened by the bosses with immediate liquidation of the company. At the beginning the protesters were threatened with a lock-out, later by the illegalisation of the strike and the sacking of all the workers. The last decision of the company was to dismiss the workers, which was supposed to happen on the 30th of June.All of the actions of the company,despite their illegal character were accepted, because the unions involved in the dispute didn't take any steps either on a regional or national level, to support the protesting workers.

The strike committee gave up and on Friday 27th of June decided to sign an agreement with the company authorities. This agreement can be treated as a capitulation of the strikers because the owners didn't fulfill any of the demands.More,the government started prosecuting the leaders of the union,who were involved in the action. Police called Slawomir Kaczmarek,vicepresident of the Uniontex "Solidarnosc" into questioning on suspicion of:making threatening remarks - to take the president of the company away on a wheelbarrow.For that kind of deed he can get up to two years imprisonment.After a few days they called him again.They took his picture and finger prints.Workers Initiative in Lodz is still intouch with the workers of Uniontex.

We address our request to all trade unions - we want you to stand out in defence of repressed workers of one of plants localised in Poznań - Sulzer Chemtech Poland (the part of great Swiss Company Sulzer Chemtech).

At February 2002 a group of workers started up the founders committee of a trade union (Konfederacja Pracy - Work Confederation). At the same day a notice was given to Rafał Jackowiak the chairman of the new organisation. On the second day the president of the company - Andrzej Łyko convened a staff meeting where he was slandering Jackowiak and disputing the point of trade union's existence. Finally in result of members' intimidation only 15 people have joined the union (the whole staff counts 175 people) At 12th August the Labour Court passed the sentence in which it dictates to restore Rafał Jackowiak to work and to pay him his back pays. At 21st October 2002 the president of the company has again attacked Jackowiak (active in Work Confederation) and fired him once more breaking the law. Rafał Jackowiak still fights for his rights in the court. Also the activity of other members of the trade union is being hindered (e.g. by mail control, financial discrimination etc.).

A press conference of the Anti-Summit organizers took place on Tuesday morning (9.03.2004). It was our reaction to the hysterical declarations of the president of Warsaw and his supporters presenting antiglobalists opposing the EFE as a threat to the capital city. A large number of journalists (about 50 people) represented all important TV and radio stations arrived to the conference. Our representatives were interviewed by them long after the meeting. In response to our conference, the president of Warsaw, Kaczynski, organized his own one, on which he was present with his deputy Stasiak and colonel Polko. The colonel Polko was not long ago a commanding officer of Grom, a special commando unit, which took part in the war in Iraq. Now he is going to be the president's adviser on safety during the EFE.

Roadblocks and Blocking Border Crossings in Case of Activists Being Held.

As we have recently been informed of cases of unwarranted and unlawful restrictions against persons attempting to cross the borders of Poland, we expect the main repressions to occur during the European Economic Summit itself: April 28th - 30th.

The Police as well as the Border Guard claim that they do not posses lists of foreign activists whom they will not allow to enter the country. We would like to believe that this is the case, nevertheless, given our experiences to date, we must be extremely cautious about such promises. Many countries, in which there have been political and financial meetings, have broken the human right of unrestricted movement. Activists who had simply had their identification checked at previous protests found that they would not be let into certain countries. This has nothing to do with the screening of so-called "dangerous individuals", rather, the aim is to discourage as many activists as possible from taking part in the protests. Poland has witnessed such repression targeted at people travelling to take part in the protests againt the war in Iraq.

Dear Friends,

Preparations for the Anti-Summit and protest against the European meeting of WEF (April 28th-30th) in Poland are getting forward on full speed.

All movements opposing the policy of EEF have mobilized themselves and organized together to the extent never seen in Poland so far. The main power organizing the Anti-Summit are the anarchists (acting as "Koalicja Grup Wolnosciowych "Antyszczyt Wa29"- "Polish Libertarian Milieu Organizing the Anti-Summit Wa29").

Dear friends,

On April 28-30 the European Economic Forum will take place in Warsaw. As you know, this took place beofre in Salzburg, Austria. President Kwasniewski volunteered Poland to host it at the 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 alterglobalist movement is weak and disorganized in Poland. They want to use this to to show the world that while they have 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 very 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.