From our wild-east correspondent

Rozbrat is a squatted social centre in Poznan (West Poland) occupied by anarchists for over 15 years, it is home to many initiatives and projects. On 13th May there was a DIY Art Festival taking place there. Since Rozbrat is a pretty popular place in Poznan (not only amongst activists, but also amongst more mainstream population looking for something different) the event was attended by many families. On the same day in the centre of city local fascists from Autonomous Nationalists (fascists who dress like anarchists) and other right wing groups of idiots were taking part in some sort of celebration of one of the national heroes, as usual trying to hi-jack events for their own ends.

As if this was not enough our brave Polish ‘patriots’ decided to go to Rozbrat and attack the festival taking place there, even though it wasn’t particularly political and there were a lot of kids in attendance. Around 30 arrived outside the building, tried to set the gate on fire and began chucking rocks and flares inside squatted area. Leaders of the master race however didn’t expect the squatters to react so robustly to their ‘patriotic’ action. Fascists were chased away from the squat and in the resulting scuffle many of them sustained injuries, including their leader Maciej Witzberg who was hospitalised with stitches and fractures.

Shotly after activists began a boycott of two pubs Witzburg is co-owner of. In Poznan the far right is not very strong when it comes to numbers, but clearly has money behind it and those two pubs definitely contribute to that. A Facebook profile of the action quickly got hundreds of ‘likes’ and local media also wrote about it. The boycott obviously had significant impact upon nazi business already, as Maciej Witzberg began issuing legal threats to everybody sharing it on their Facebook pages or distributing information about it publicly. That seemed to increase the numbers of people liking and sharing the profile even more! Obviously not content with bad publicity and possibly already facing pressure from business partners, Mr “I am only a Polish patriot” went to the local liberal newspaper (think The Grauniad with less typos) to tell “his side of the story”. In the interview he complained about “being persecuted for his beliefs”, compared boycott to actions of communist secret police and said he was at Rozbrat to protest their anti-patriotic activities and was assaulted for absolutely no reason. Clearly throwing bricks and flares at kids and their families had nothing to do with it!

The boycott action continues and Poznan anti-fascists said they are not going to leave our poor “patriot” in peace.

FB profile of the boycott action with more information about the fash in Poznan and their connections (in Polish) https://www.facebook.com/pages/Bojkot-U-Honzika-i-Brogans-nie-wspieraj-rasizmu-i-nacjonalizmu/382889931749010