Warsaw Fellowship 2016

Standing Up to the Man – A Case for Grassroots Activism

Heather Murray
2016 Ideas Incubator Fellow, USA

It’s been no secret throughout this fellowship that Poland has problems. But who’s responsible for fixing them? Who can make a difference? In our session on grassroots activism, Fellows were challenged with understanding the issues Warsaw faces, studying rising levels of hate speech in Poland, and training in the art of using social media as a tool for activism. Though the surface of these sessions makes each topic seem disconnected, we probed deeper into what they had in common: each case showed that anyone--even you--can make a difference, even with no resources other than your own voice.

Our first session, Challenges for Modern Cities, was led by 2008 HIA Senior Fellow and leader of The City is Ours initiative Jan Spiewak and Kuba Grzegorczyk of the Warsaw Tenant Association. Together, Spiewak and Grzegorczyk captivated our Fellows with their outlines of the state of Warsaw politics and their theory of “right to the city,” the idea that every citizen--regardless of race, class, gender, and sexual orientation--has a right to a space in public life. Though this theory might seem like common sense to some, the current politics of Warsaw as presented by the speakers painted a different picture: the neediest districts in Warsaw are in desperate need of renovation, historical neighborhoods are being gentrified at the expense of long-time residents who can no longer afford to live in their homes, the air quality of the city is very low in comparison to other EU cities, and public spaces such as benches are being designed with barriers for the purpose of keeping the homeless from sleeping on them. These issues, which are often ignored or supported by politicians, threaten the right to the city for Warsaw citizens. Spiewak cited his own foray into politics as a councilman and his opponents’ attempts to fight his anti-corruption rhetoric with lawsuits (which Spiewak won).

Our next speaker, Milosz Hodun of the Hejtstop initiative, presented the facts on hate speech to our Fellows. He described the process of dehumanization those who are subjects of hate speech undergo and how the image of someone as less than human helps those who hate to justify violence against that group. Hodun also noted how accepting or ignoring hate speech on a daily basis can lead to a trend of accepting or ignoring hate crimes. Finally, the presentation gave a list of options for people to use in response to hate speech, such as using the report option on social media posts that include hate speech, reporting illegal hate speech to authorities, removing hate graffiti from buildings, and combatting public hate speech with public anti-hate speech initiatives.

Our day ended with a presentation from social activist Alexey Sidorenko on how to use the platform of social media to amplify the voice of a cause. He helped our Fellows to identify their online competition (hate speech and animal videos), form a timeline for posting (6 times a day is recommended, with high-impact messages saved for high traffic hours), and understand different mediums of communication (photos, videos, infographs, memes, .gifs).

Each speaker told stories of using few resources and a lot of passion to create impactful change. Grassroots activism is what we as activists are all about: the people being affected by an issue work together to solve problems and bring their community closer together. It is the most equitable form of activism because anyone can be a part of it--it doesn’t take a fancy NGO job or an internship with a government agency. You can make a difference. What’s stopping you?

Heather Murray