A preface from the curators of Forum (Amel Mana, Julia Strzemińska, Justyna Samolińska, Zuzanna Karcz and Janka Świerżewska) and Edwin Bendyk’s speech: "Solidarity or barbarity".
➤ Friday, the 26th of March, at 6 pm
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Where is solidarity 2.0 being born? New school, new participation rules, new generation.
➤ Friday, the 26th of March, at 6.30 pm
➤ moderation: Zuzanna Karcz
➤ participants:
Maja Urbanek –an activist working with Nowa Fala Aktywizmu (New Wave of Activism), a student in a high school in Cracow, a member of the Education Team in Rada Konsultacyjna Ogólnopolskiego Strajku Kobiet (Consultative Council of the Nationwide Women's Strike), connected with projects for YRSLF Magazine and Green REV Institute.
Marta Zagożdżon – she manages a ConTrust Communication agency, connected with Women in Technology Poland Association, a co-creator of the first Gender Gap study in Poland, an expert of the Let’s Solve IT program.
Paweł Lęcki – a Polish teacher, a pedagogue, writes about the absurdities of polish schools.
Karolina Słowik – a journalist of „Gazeta Wyborcza” writing about education.
When the sentence of The Constitutional Tribunal is passed, online classes at schools and universities are happening. Many commentators pointed out that a protest in the middle of the pandemic is impossible. They couldn’t have been more wrong. Not even a few days into the protests and current affairs programs started talking about “the awakening of the youth.”
Let’s talk about what changed. Does the engagement of the youth come like a storm, or will it only grow now? Is there a place for shaping attitudes of solidarity in schools? What influence on shaping new social movements do people during their studies have? Is Poland ready for solidarity 2.0?
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Save the planet, don’t work so much! The ideology of constant productivity growth as a reason for the climate crisis.
➤ Saturday, the 27th of March, at 3 pm
➤ moderation: Justyna Samolińska and Janka Świerżewska
➤ participants:
Hubert Walczyński – an economics graduate from Szkoła Główna Handlowa (Warsaw School of Economics) and philosophy of social sciences graduate from the London School of Economics. He is interested in the sociology of economic knowledge. An editor of the “Citizen” column in “Magazyn Kontakt”.
Maciej Szlinder – a philosopher, has a PhD in humanities, a politician, the president of Polska Sieć Dochodu Podstawowego (Polish Basic Income Network).
Weronika Parafianowicz – a cultural expert connected with Instytut Kultury Polskiej Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego (Institute of Polish Culture of Warsaw University), an activist of OZZ Inicjatywa Pracownicza (Nationwide Employee Initiative Trade Union)
Jadwiga Klata – a climate activist connected with Extinction Rebellion.
Earth is a planet of finite resources. Capitalism does not foresee it - it is a system based on constant growth in production and consumption. The efficiency of work is constantly growing too, which does not reflect in salaries and time spent at work. Is it possible to stop this growth, or even to take a step back? Is shortening the working week an answer to this? Or maybe unconditional minimum wage? Maybe after discrediting neoliberal theories leading us from crisis to crisis a time for the economy of care has come?
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Where there is no law, there is no crime. From the sexual autonomy to the world without repressions.
➤ Saturday, the 27th of March, at 5.30 pm
➤ moderation: Amel Mana and Julia Strzemińska
➤ participants:
Karolina Więckiewicz – an activist, Aborcyjny Dream Team (Abortion Dream Team)
Ola Ziemiańska – an activist connected with the anti-repressant collective Szpila and the Anarchistycznym Czarnym Krzyżem Warszawa (Anarchist Black Cross in Warsaw).
Helena de Cleyre – an activist connected with Warszawska Federacja Anarchistyczna (Warsaw Anarchist Federation) and Fundusz solidarnościowy im. Milo Mazurkiewicz (Solidarity Fund).
Magdalena Bartnik – an addiction psychotherapist, she works for Fundacja Polityki Społecznej PREKURSOR (Foundation for Social Policy). A specialist in reduction and prevention of damage, a co-author of scientific research, a practitioner.
Agata Dziuban – a sociologist, connected with Instytut Socjologii UJ (Institute of Sociology). An outreach worker and translator. Involved in the implementation of research projects devoted to the situation of sex workers in Poland and Europe.
By repeating the gesture of Lucinda Cisler from 1969, the activists from Aborcyjny Dream Team (Abortion Dream Team) and Rada Konsultacyjna Ogólnopolskiego Strajku Kobiet (Consultative Council of the Nationwide Women's Strike) were pulling out blank sheets of white paper, saying that “this is the only abortion law that we need.” In this gesture is a new stake, one not regarding only abortion but other areas of our lives and experiences - from sex work to drug use.
More and more movements are looking for a way out of the law instead of trying to find a place in it. At the same time, the difference between legalisation and decriminalization is not only about the political tactic, but the whole vision of the world - how we see it today and how we want to see it in the future. Can we look for justice not in the better, more precise, and more modern law, but outside of it or even in the opposition to it? Is the traditional way spread between criminalizing and legalizing social phenomenons a dangerous relic in which there is no way of pursuing social freedoms?
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Before the climate catastrophe - a story of a new world.
➤ Sunday, the 28th of March, at 3 pm
➤ moderation: Janka Świerżewska
➤ participants:
Marek Beylin – by education an art historian, a writer, a journalist and a publicist connected with „Gazeta Wyborcza” and „Krytyka Polityczna”. He writes about politics, social problems, democracy, and culture.
Aleksandra Jach – a curator, an educator, an art historian. An author of exhibitions, publications, conferences, research projects, and festivals. For many years she was working with Muzeum Sztuki (Art Museum) in Łódź. A member of the Kultura dla Klimatu (Culture for Climate) collective.
Filip Springer – a reporter and a photographer. An author of books devoted to space and architecture. He cooperates with Instytut Reportażu (Institute of Reportage) where he and Julia Fiedorczuk started a first in Poland Szkoła Ekopoetyki (School of Ecopoetics).
Anna Zachorowska-Mazurkiewicz – an economist, with a post-doctoral degree in economic studies, a professor in Instytut Ekonomii i Zarządzania Uniwersytetu Jagiellońskiego (Institute of Economics and Management of Jagiellonian University). A member of the Feminist Think Tank, specialises in the institutional and feminist economy.
The biggest challenge we are facing is changing the awareness of people, not saving the planet. The planet doesn’t need saving. We do.
(Xiuhtezcatl Martinez)
A time has come for a new narrative, for our story of the world.
Right now thinking about the climate catastrophe focuses on the years 2030 and 2050 as borders, final lines. We talk about preventing the catastrophe and how to do it, not how to build the world anew.
We need this story to be intersectional. The term “intersectionality” created by Kimberle Crenshaw recognizes the experiences of those who are marginalized in various parts of their identities.
In front of us we have the necessity of answering the questions: how can we create narratives about a utopian world (with intersectionality, anarchist-climate approach, and with degrowth) through theories and storytelling? Is there hope for choosing a different way? What possibilities do we have? And finally — or maybe primarily — how can we create real visions of actions through utopian thinking?
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Why does a police officer make more money than a teacher? The apparatus of repression instead of the economy of care.
➤ Sunday, the 28th of March, at 5.30 pm
➤ moderation: Amel Mana and Justyna Samolińska
➤ participants:
Katarzyna Rakowska – an activist, a doctoral student in Instytut Socjologii Uniwersytetu Warszawskiego (Sociology Institute of Warsaw University), an activist of OZZ Inicjatywa Pracownicza (Nationwide Employee Initiative Trade Union). She leads studies about limiting the rights to strikes and protests and strikes in the care sector.
Tomasz Szczepański – a social activist, a streetworker, a street pedagogue working with Grupa Pedagogiki i Animacji Społecznej Praga-Północ (GPAS Praga) (Group of Pedagogy and Social Animations in Praga Północ).
Przemysław Wielgosz – a journalist and a publicist, the editor in chief of the polish edition of „Le Monde Diplomatique”. He published in: „Wiadomości Kulturalne”, „Trybuna”, „Przekrój”, „Przegląd”, „Krytyka Polityczna”, „Rzeczpospolita”, „Freitag” and „Guardian”. He is an author of a few books.
Joanna Wowrzeczka – a painter and an art sociologist, a lecturer in Instytut Sztuki Uniwersytetu Śląskiego (Art Institute of the Silesia University), a social activist, a coordinator of “Krytyka Polityczna” common room in Cieszyn. A city councillor in Cieszyn.
In the summer of this year, one of the main slogans of the strong wave of anti-racist protests in the USA was „defund the police” - a call to cut the police’s funds. Similar postulates started being heard in Poland after police brutality escalated during the protests against the exacerbation of the abortion law by the Constitutional Tribunal.
At the same time, the budget amendment due to the coronavirus pandemic assumes a large increase in funds for the police - unfortunately not education, social help, or care. Can the postulates of the Black Lives Matter movement be related to the situation in Poland? Is polish police really “helping and protecting”, and if so - who are they helping, who are they protecting, and who is afraid of them? What are the real outcomes of the policies that emphasise control and repressions over care? How do they influence various social groups?
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A speech of the representatives of Culture Team of the Consultative Council of the Nationwide Women's Strike.
➤ Sunday, the 28th of March, at 7.15 pm
The Consultative Council of the Nationwide Women's Strike is a space to look for solutions to postulates and demands reported during the protests. It’s of an expert-activist character. It is a team composed of people that have knowledge, experience, and energy.
There are more than 500 people in the council. Its role is to collect the voices of protest, their analysis, defining the problems behind them and working on solutions. The proposals of the Council respond to the slogans on banners, suggestions sent by email, comments in social media, and they include solutions created by non-governmental organizations.
The Consultative Council operates in 14 areas: women’s rights, LGBT+ rights, rights of people with disabilities, rule of law, health, protection of mental health, secular state, no pasarán (fighting with fascization), education, work, culture, media, climate, animal rights.
The goal of the Council’s works is to answer the questions of why people protest, what can be done and how to do it. The long-term goal is changing the system in the direction of bottom-up policy making where the society co-rules the country. The result of the Council’s work will be a list of things to do that protesters are demanding from the ruling party and the opposition, and from which they will be held accountable. Because rules are supposed to be in the favour of people.
The council is civil and not involved in any parties.
The Culture Team has been working since the beginning of 2021. It is being created by people who in an open call expressed their willingness to cooperate and to devote their time to work on the postulates reported to OSK (Nationwide Women's Strike).
Currently the Culture Team includes:
– Michał Borowik
– Izabela Duchnowska
– Katarzyna Górna
– Katarzyna Hołda
– Monika Kamieńska
– Karolina Kapralska
– Urszula Kijak
– Lucyna Kowalska
– Nel Lato
– Justyna Łagowska
– Ewa Majewska
– Agnieszka Małgowska
– Karolina Micuła
– Małgorzata Mostek
– Klaudia Pasternak
– Julia Claver Pater
– Monika Rak
– Grażyna Szczepanek
– Magdalena Schejbal
– Dominik Strycharski
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It has always been like that. Polish theatre against violence – an online discussion.
➤ Friday, the 16th of April, at 6:30 pm
➤ moderation: Iga Dzieciuchowicz – a theatre specialist, a writer, a reporter, and a feminist. She publishes in "Duży Format", "Tygodnik Powszechny", Onet.pl website, and "Codziennik Feministyczny". Soon her book "Theatre. A pathological family" - will be published.
➤ participants:
Ula Kijak – a director and an activist. She leads social actions, educational and artistic participation projects. In 2016 she got her PhD in non-hierarchical methods of directing. She teaches in Actors’ Studio STA in Poznań. She participates in Women’s Strike in Poznań and Objazdowy Uniwersytet Powszechny im. Ireny Krzywickiej (the Irena Krzywicka Traveling Public University).
Monika Jarosińska – a graduate of Akademia Sztuk Teatralnych im. Stanisława Wyspiańskiego (Stanisław Wyspiański Fine Arts Academy) in Cracow, Bytom branch. A heroine of Iga Dzieciuchowicz’s reportage showing the abuse of director Paweł Passini during his graduation performance rehearsals.
Patrycja Babicka – an author of theatrical plays, a promotion specialist. One of the employees that initiated the accusations of molestation and mobbing against Henryk Jacek Schoen, the director of Teatr Bagatela.
Bartosz Szydłowski – a theatrical director. A founder and an artistic director of Teatr Łaźnia Nowa in Cracow, an artistic curator of Teatr im. Słowackiego in Cracow, an artistic director of Międzynarodowy Festiwal Teatralny Boska Komedia (International Theatre Festival Divine Comedy). A producer of many artistic and cultural projects.
Monika Klonowska – a psychologist, a coach, and a consultant. She leads her own workshops for managers and employees, as well as programs about acting against mobbing and discrimination. She is a co-author of the Anti-mobbing and Anti-discrimination project devoted to implementing ethics in business and good management practices.
In October 2019, nine female employees of Teatr Bagatela in Cracow accused the director, Henryk Jacek Schoen, of molestation and mobbing. One year later, violent practices of Włodzimierz Staniewski - a director of a legendary Ośrodek Praktyk Teatralnych “Gardzienice” (Centre for Theatre Practices "Gardzienice") - came out. A few months later, female students that were taking part in rehearsals of Paweł Pasiini’s graduation performance spoke out, and in March of 2021 uncompromising post of Anna Paliga showed the scale of abuse that female and male students of Film School in Łódź had to endure at the hands of lecturers.
Since then, almost every day new testimonies have been published, stories of people that experienced abuse, molestation, or mobbing at theatrical academies, or while working in a theatre at the hands of their female and male lecturers and directors. These stories - so far told secretly - show the dirty backstage of Polish theatre. As an environment, we stand in front of an unprecedented systemic change, and the future of institutional culture in Poland will depend on the way we conduct it. We can no longer hide systemic and deeply rooted issues in our environment, and that’s why this year’s Forum of Culture’s Future will finish with a meeting about violence in theatre.
