Grzegorz Piotrowski

Our paper deals with the establishment of the container settlements in Poland and the grassroots response to it: by the inhabitants and by political activists. In particular we are interested in how local authorities strategically frame housing issues to create social acceptance of diminishing standards of social housing in Poland and the involvement of the mainstream media in the process. We are focusing on strategies as well as tactical efforts to overcome structural and discursive opportunities emerging in the process of the anti- container campaign. Exclusionary discourse about the ‘container ghettos’ becomes a justification for local authorities to use social containers as tool of social and spatial segregation as well as to discipline communal tenants. In response of this process activists had to develop new diagnostic mobilizing frames and put considerable effort into frame alignment processes and forged new alliances with other actors. We analyze the campaign from the perspective of social movement studies, in particular structural theories of collective action. One side effect of such policies is unspoken racism, which we – after E. Balibar – interpret mostly in class terms aimed at the economically maladjusted. Empirically, our paper draws upon sociological intervention and 40 in-depth interviews with the inhabitants of the container settlements in Poland in 7 different cities conducted in 2008-2012; participant

Radical left is regaining political importance, as well as interest of scholars. In Central and Eastern Europe, the situation is similar. However, the specific historical, socioeconomic and political circumstances explain the particularities of social movements and of the left as a whole in the region. In the introduction to the symposium “Radical left in central and Eastern Europe. Constraints and opportunities” we aim at briefly presenting not only the content of the symposium and of the cases coming from the Czech Republic, Serbia and Romania, but also a more general background for the activities of the extra-parliamentary radical left in the region.

Działania opozycji demokratycznej w PRL dotykały różnych obszarów życia społecznego. Z „komuną” można też było walczyć w obronie środowiska naturalnego. Przykład kampanii przeciwko elektrowni atomowej w Żarnowcu pokazuje jednak, że walka ta nie skończyła się w czerwcu 1989 roku.

During the 1980s, the “civil society” concept made a comeback into the main discourse of the social sciences – after in principle being out of use since the mid-19th century – mainly as a consequence of the emergence of pro-democratic movements in Eastern European and Latin American authoritarian states (Kocka 2004: 67). Civil society in Central Europe is not only seen as one of the main forces behind the overthrow of the communist regimes in the region; it was also one of the core concepts of the transformation of 1989. The changes within the structure and form of the civil society in post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe reflect, to a large extent, the processes of the post-1989 transformation and the transfiguration of the political. This paper examines the tensions and conflicts within the broadly understood civil society sphere through the perspective of social mobilization and the function of the civil society. It also shows the dynamics of the changes within the sector and compares it with other forms of civic engagement such as grassroots social mobilizations. Finally, this papers
deals with few myths about the civil society in post-communist Central Europe that shape the academic and the popular thinking about civil society sector in the region.

The key question in this chapter is why a movement (anarchist in this case) that refers to the  same  ideological  roots  as  its  counterparts  in  other  parts  of  the  world  does  not want to make explicit references to its shared leftist heritage and workers’  movement traditions.  I  will  try  to  answer  this  question  by  looking  at  what  constitutes  this difference  and  where  to  look  for  the  origins  of  this  peculiarity  as  well  as  to  what extent the  national  historical  and  political  context  shapes  how  a  movement  relates  to an  international  tradition.  Considering  the  very  similar  discursive  opportunity structures  that  have  emerged  in  post-socialist  countries  after  the  1989  transitions,  I argue  that  the  analysis  in  this  chapter  is  not  specific  for the  Polish  case,  but  is representative  for  anarchist  (and  to a large  extent  left-libertarian  in  general) movements in most of the countries in Central and Eastern Europe.

There are connections between the rebirth of anarchism as a social movement in the 1960s and the emergence of music and youth subcultures around the same time. This chapter explores these relations pointing out to more than simple time correlation between the two processes. The paper looks at which elements of the new wave of anarchist movement resonate the best with the D.I.Y. (Do It Yourself) punk and hardcore music scenes. The paper investigates not only organizational dimensions of the connections, but also looks at the spatial aspect.

A Turkish translation of a book chapter originally published in 2014 in 'The City is Ours', in Turkey the book is called van der Steen Bart, Katzeff Ask, van Hoogenhuijze Leendert (eds.) Kent Bizim: 1970’ lerden Günümüze Avrupa’da işgalevcilik ve Otonom Hareketler (translated by Ahmet A. Sabaci), Kafka Publisher: Istanbul ss. 301-326

History of anarchist thought has seen ups and downs of its popularity. The classical phase of anarchism that ended with the fall of the Spanish Civil War has set the foundations for the
anarchist philosophy and practice as well as the organizational models. The rebirth of anarchism in the 1960s and 1970s (sometimes dubbed the neoanarchism) has changed its perception and has shifted the core of the arguments towards fields of cultural production and hegemony rather
than to the working class syndicalist struggles. In that era anarchist thought not only became popular but also inspired many newly emerged movements such as the squatters, Autonomen.
With these developments anarchist ideals became re-interpreted to fit into the times in which they were used. One of the last waves of growing interest in anarchist thought was the emergence
of the Global Justice Movement (sometimes named the alterglobalist movement) in the late 1990s and early 2000s and the emergence of the so-called ‘post-anarchism’ that was connected with it. Here the concepts of the founding fathers of anarchism were re-interpreted through post-structuralist philosophy and applied to the globalized world. Mainly the concepts of state, power and domination that remained central for the anarchist movement, were applied to the concepts of biopower and governmentality and more emphasis was put on the mechanisms of the self-reinforcement of these processes among people. The processes of the multinational corporations
taking over the role of nation states have re-defined the traditionally understood centers of power, hierarchy and alike.
With the growing popularity of the recent wave of the #Occupy! and Indignados movements in the last years, another wave of redefining of anarchist ideals and traditions seem to be taking place. With the development of social media the anarchist strains within contemporary social movements anarchist ideas became on one hand simplified and on the other hand showed how context-dependent they are. The (partial) introduction of anarchism into social movements has resulted in what I call pop-anarchism and the specificities of the recent theoretical
anarchist discussions and their introduction into social movement practices are the focus of this paper.

Squatting is often mentioned in connection with radical left-libertarian social movements (Guzman-Concha 2015, Katsiaficas 1997) but recently the far-right groups also occupy buildings in Italy (the case of Casa Pounds). However in the academic literature it is operationalized as a social movement, protest repertoire, lifestyle choice etc. according to the needs of the research. At the same time it is stressed that squatting in Poland (and in general in Central and Eastern Europe) is a new phenomenon strongly connected to the heritage of Western European squatting experiences (Żuk 2001).
The aim of this paper is threefold: (1) to make a typology of approaches to squatting to indicate strengths and weaknesses of each of them and also to cross-reference it with the self-image of the squatters themselves as observed during intensive fieldwork. The other (2) aim is to analyze squatting from the perspective of Polish social movement studies, in particular to examine the strong connection between subcultural music scenes and social
movements that are much stronger than in Western Europe (Piotrowski 2013). The last (3) goal is to see how the recent attempts to open legally-functioning social centers affect
the squatting movement / scene.

Większość badań nad ruchem alterglobalistycznym koncentruje się na Europie Zachodniej i Ameryce Północnej, od czasu do czasu uwzględniając inne części świata. Badania na temat tego ruchu w krajach postsocjalistycznych Europy Środkowej i Wschodniej są mniej niż wyczerpujące i rzadko podejmowane z perspektywy porównawczej. Niniejszy artykuł ma na celu wypełnienie tej luki poprzez opisanie kluczowych wydarzeń z historii tego ruchu, jak również genealogii oddolnego aktywizmu w regionie. Ruch alterglobalistyczny rozwinął się w środowisku wrogo nastawionym do lewicowych ideologii i grup. Niniejszy artykuł ma wyjaśnić nie tylko rozwój ruchu alterglobalistycznego w regionie, lecz także jego źródła. Stawia również pytania o naturę ruchu i sposobów jego analizy ‒ jako upolitycznionego ruchu społecznego lub subkultury i stylu życia. Bliskie związki oddolnych ruchów społecznych oraz subkultury i kontrkultury w Europie Środkowej i Wschodniej mogą sugerować nowe i świeże spojrzenie na badania ruchów społecznych.

The idea for this issue emerged in Budapest during a two-day workshop on social movements in Central and Eastern Europe. The ideas behind this workshop (and thus this issue) was to discuss the specificity of civil mobilizations in the region and to
contribute to academic debates ongoing since the transformation of 1989. Is there a regional specificity of social activism? Is, and if yes, how social activism is different from other parts of the world? Does this imply different theoretical and analytical approach? Other questions, closely linked to these are, how Eastern Europe is
defined, characterized and constructed? How the eastern European context and environment affect social movements and mobilizations in the region? The main goal of this article is to present the main discussions among social movement academics
and practitioners in the region and to deconstruct some of the clichés about grassroots activism in Eastern Europe that arose over the years.

In this paper I show the development of the environmental protection movement in Poland and its influence on the process of democratization that occurred in the 1980s. I present the social and political landscape of Poland of the 1980s, focusing on the dynamics within the dissident sector. I shall later describe briefly the few most important campaigns of those times and present the actors that took part in them. In the second part of the paper I will analyze the input of the environmental movement for the democratization process of Poland and on the development of the NGO sector and grassroots social activism. The environmental movement in Poland managed to mobilize different cohorts of the society compared to the mainstream opposition, introduced novel repertoire of contention and brought issues that were not within the mainstream public discourse. In the last part of the paper I argue that the continuity of the environmental movement in Poland and its influence on the democratic consolidation after 1989. In the paper I focus mostly on the radical strain of the environmental movement in Poland that is under-researched within the transitional and social movement literature and that seemed to set the tone for the whole sector in terms of agenda and repertoires of action.

Inaczej niż w latach 70. i 80. skłoting w Europie nie jest już realną alternatywą dla osób, które są przede wszystkim zainteresowane miejscem do mieszkania lub które nie są politycznie zaangażowane. O architekturze, estetyce i mieszkalnictwie skłotowym Grzegorzowi Piotrowskiemu opowiadają Bart van der Steen i Ask Katzeff, autorzy wydanej niedawno książki The City Is Ours. Squatting and Autonomous Movements in Europe from the 1970s to the Present

The 2015 Conference on Social movements in Central and Eastern Europe is organized by the University of Bucharest and the ISA Research Committee 47 “Social classes and social movements”. The conference will provide a platform to share and develop perspectives on, and analyses of, current and recent social movements and protests in Central and Eastern Europe – including the ones that attain mainstream media headlines as well as those that discreetly transform politics or daily life.

Squatters and autonomous movements have been in the forefront of radical politics in Europe for nearly a half-century—from struggles against urban renewal and gentrification, to large-scale peace and environmental campaigns, to spearheading the antiausterity protests sweeping the continent.

Through the compilation of the local movement histories of eight different cities—including Amsterdam, Berlin, and other famous centers of autonomous insurgence along with underdocumented cities such as Poznan and Athens—The City Is Ours paints a broad and complex picture of Europe’s squatting and autonomous movements.

Each chapter focuses on one city and provides a clear chronological narrative and analysis accompanied by photographs and illustrations. The chapters focus on the most important events and developments in the history of these movements. Furthermore, they identify the specificities of the local movements and deal with issues such as the relation between politics and subculture, generational shifts, the role of confrontation and violence, and changes in political tactics.

All chapters are written by politically-engaged authors who combine academic scrutiny with accessible writing. Readers with an interest in the history of the newest social movements will find plenty to mull over here. Contributors include Nazima Kadir, Gregor Kritidis, Claudio Cattaneo, Enrique Tudela, Alex Vasudevan, Needle Collective and the Bash Street Kids, René Karpantschof, Flemming Mikkelsen, Lucy Finchett-Maddock, Grzegorz Piotrowski, and Robert Foltin.

Most of the research on the alterglobalist, also known as the global justice, movement has focused on Western Europe and North America, with occasional research on other parts of the world. There has been little research done on this movement in the postsocialist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. This paper attempts to fill this gap by exploring the key events of the movement as well as the genealogy of grassroots social activism in the region. It offers insight into a movement that developed in a region that, due to its history, has been rather hostile to leftist ideologies and groups. This paper examines the development of the alterglobalist movement in the region and traces its inspirations and path dependencies. It also poses questions about the nature of the movement and ways to analyse it – whether as a politicized social movement or a subculture and lifestyle choice. The close connections of Central and Eastern European grassroots social movements to subcultures and counterculture might suggest a new and fresh perspective for studying social movements.

Skala skłotingu rośnie w obliczu kłopotliwej sytuacji na rynku mieszkaniowym. W Londynie po II wojnie światowej skłoting stał się zjawiskiem masowym i dopiero budownictwo
socjalne oraz odbudowa zniszczeń wojennych zmieniły ten stan rzeczy. Zrozumiały jest więc rozwój kultury skłotowania we współczesnej Polsce.

The transition to democracy in 1989 in Central and Eastern Europe is said to be
the achievement of the dissident sector. In Poland the biggest power in the democratization
process was the Solidarność trade union. At the same time many smaller grassroots groups
from that time remain unnoticed and their influence on the democratization process is
underrated.  Such  grassroots  groups  were  responsible  for  organizing  numerous  strikes,
campaigns on the issues of environmental protection and many others. They also brought
novel protest repertoires and managed to mobilize different sectors of the society. This paper
aims at presenting the complex environment of civil society actors in the democratization of
Poland as well as presents the broader context for the transformation of 1989: structural
preconditions, cleavages within the authorities and main waves of protest events.

During communism, the formation of an independent civil society was one of the main strategies of the dissidents in their strife to regain sovereignty. After the transitions of 1989, the civil society underwent a major transformation and is now largely represented by the NGOs (Non-Governmental Organizations). However, over the last few years, all over the region, there seems to have been a revival of the idea of a politicized civil society that might lead to re-configuration of political and social sphere. This would also challenge several myths surrounding this issue, which currently influence our understanding of civil society.

Alterglobalism in Postsocialism. A Study of Central and Eastern European Activists' is a doctoral thesis that presents the development and the characteristic of the Global Justice Movement in Poland, the Czech Republic and in Hungary. Using tools and approaches ...

Paper analyzing relations between the NGO sector and grassroots social movements in Eastern Europe, based on a conference presentation. Whole book available for download at: http://www.csduppsala.uu.se/devnet/CivilSociety/Outlookserien/2011,GlobCiv/GlobalCivilSociety2012.pdf

Jarocin in Poland is usually associated with one of the biggest rock festivals behind the Iron Curtain. It was not only a birthplace of many music groups in the 1980s, but also an enclave of freedom in communist Poland. It was a place where young people could manifest their music and fashion tastes, listen to their favorite bands and enjoy few days of relative freedom. This article highlights the main events in the history of the festival and also tries to assess its significance for the broader political and cultural life of Poland in the 1980s. It also looks at the role the festival played in the creation of youth subcultures and in catalyzing political changes in “late socialist“ Poland.

This paper will attempt to examine the phenomenon of the squatted social centers in Central and Eastern Europe and their positioning within the social movements. The article’s main tasks will be to conceptualize the squatted social centers’ existence and to seek possible causes of their low number in the region. My analysis will be based on the stories of several squatted social centers from Poland, the Czech Republic and Hungary. Looking at different trajectories of these places, I would like to present the main discussions within the activists involved in such places and different problems these activists had to face.

The aim of this article is to show the development and the origins of identity-based youth groups in Central and Eastern Europe. The rise of these groups, closely related to subcultures, should be perceived not only as one of the ways of fighting the communist regimes in the region, but also as a criticism of pro-democratic dissidents. The opposition's shift towards neoliberal positions, as well as the elitism of the intellectuals forming the movement, left many people-including the young-aside. The cleavage can be seen not only on the discursive level, but also when speaking of tactics used during protest events.

Skłoting – czyli zajmowanie pustostanów bez zgody ich właścicieli – jest od dawna przedmiotem akademickiej dyskusji. Jednak ten fenomen nie doczekał się jeszcze kompleksowego ujęcia z perspektywy Europy Środkowej. Niniejszy raport jest pierwszą tego rodzaju próbą w języku polskim. Autorzy tekstów nie tylko przedstawiają genealogie tego zjawiska w Budapeszcie, Wilnie, Pradze, Poznaniu, Warszawie czy Petersburgu, ale także podejmują debatę z aktualną literaturą przedmiotu, analizując to zjawisko z różnych perspektyw.

This book examines the alterglobalist activists in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Hungary. Based on lengthy ethnographic fieldwork and numerous in-depth interviews with key figures of the movement, it covers mobilizations and actions between 1998 and 2011 and analyzes the process of adapting the alterglobalist way of thinking, claims and
organizational modes in post-socialist countries. By pointing out the main challenges the movement faced, the author discusses the ways it tried to overcome these. The main argument is that the post-communist legacy (expressed in low levels of mobilization, in rejection of leftist ideals and discourse and in deep mistrust towards political life) had
a tremendous impact on the formation and the shape of the alterglobalist movement in the region.

In the last few years, populism has been on the rise in Europe, across East and West. In some countries the nationalist right-wing populist parties have gained power, whereas in others they have emerged on the fringes of mainstream politics. Xenophobic and outright racist movements are becoming more visible and vocal and seemingly threatening democracy. Yet elsewhere, left-wing movements are mobilizing against this development, arguing that there are other forms of populism: less reactionary, more inclusive and with the potential to reinvigorate democracy. Recent years have also seen a rise in women's and feminist mobilization against a current resurgence of "traditional values", anti-feminist backlash and authoritarianism. In light of this, is it safe to say that we live in a time of increased political polarization?
This and other topical questions will be the subject of lectures and discussions during the two weeks of the CBSS Summer University 2018 on two sides of the Baltic Sea, in Sweden and Poland.
The course “Populism and Radical Politics, Across East and West, Right and Left” deals with populism and radical politics across the political spectrum both theoretically and empirically. Particular attention is paid to the European post-1989 context within Baltic, Central and Eastern Europe, as well as the larger transnational and global cultural, economic and political developments within which these movements have emerged. The actual learning process will be enhanced by travel from Stockholm to the birthplace of Solidarity – Gdańsk.

Events of 1968 became a turning point in many histories of European (and beyond) countries. They took different shapes, but in many cases it became an important caesura for national histories, marking a generational experience. From the Prague Spring and attempts to liberalize communism, through anti-Semitic campaign in Poland in March, events in May in France and Germany and Mexico and Japan mobilized huge numbers of people, resulted in emergence of new elites and types of activists and transformed whole societies.
In all cases these events were aimed against the ‘old’ – the communist regimes of Eastern Europe, the old Institutional-Revolutionary party in Mexico, the ‘old’ establishment, cultural and political elites of Western Europe. The events also coincided with the growing counterculture and rise of new subcultures and art currents. New tactics and slogans were introduced to the mainstream discourse and public opinion.
What was also significant in the 1968 event (in all contexts) was the role of culture: on one hand prominent artists took part in the events and made their voices heard, on the other, the youth-propelled cultural revolution was in the air almost all over the world. Although the role of popular and counter-culture is often acknowledged by scholars, its conceptualization is often problematic.
The idea of this conference is not about commemorating a historical event and date, but rather to reflect on several issues, such as:
- The cultural, social and political impacts of 1968 and of social and cultural movements
- Cultural approaches of social movements
- The connections between cultural and political impacts and outcomes of movements
- The presence and experience of youth in social mobilizations and its role
- Critical approach to historical sociology
- Assessment of concepts of path dependency with regard to social movements.
- Connections between East and West and the importance of local contexts
- Influence of pop culture and counterculture on social mobilizations and vice versa
- Role of culture in social movement research
- Intergenerational tensions then and now
- Connections between social movements and trade unions