Anarchists, being against both political parties and informal right wing groups, have quite a lot of enemies on the political scene (if you choose to see it that way). While parties tied to the state have the most real power to oppress us and to shape a reality which is enimical to our existence as free individuals and supportive of economic exploitation, militarism and imperialism, these parties work behind the edifice of government; we rarely meet such politicians face to face. It's a different story with certain right-wing formations, in particular groups composed of radical youth; these we are more likely to encounter on the streets where they have been known to actively engage in counter-demonstrations and sometimes attacks on people from the anarchist scene and others, for example feminists, homosexuals and foreigners. It is because of these confrontations that many anarchists see the fight against such groups as somewhat more immediate than that against the state. Whether or not it is, we can leave for another discussion; suffice it to say that such confrontations may force people to actively seek a way to stop these attacks.

Perhaps the most popular way of fighting such attacks is just plain violence. Although I'd consider such violence self-defense and therefore completely justified, there are those people who are repelled by the prospect of such physical attacks. Or, we can assume, do not feel in a position to defend themselves in such a way. It is likely this is the position of some feminists.

In Poland, activists were greatly upset last year when extreme right groups attacked a gay rights march in Krakow. They also mobilized in Warsaw, but there was a counter mobilization of both anarchists and police and no major incidents occured. (One gay man had an egg thrown at him and one anarchist had a minor scuffle, but it was hardly a bloodbath.) Among the groups on the right-wing scene which is likely to appear at feminist actions is Mlodziez Wszechpolska, a group (re) founded by the leader of the party League of Polish Families, which is both in the government and represented in the European Parliament. Last year they through rocks at the feminist parade; this year they counterdemonstrated but there were no physical altercations.

MW is an extremely troubling phenomenon, particularly due to its links to the League of Polish Families (LPR) which is one of the more popular parties in Poland. It was founded in 1922 by the grandfather of the current leader of the LPR but was delegalized in 1931 because of violence against leftists and Jews. As an illegal organization, it existed until 1945 and was pro-fascist and anti-semitic. Although these elements are toned down in its current ideology, its nationalism, religious zeal and anti-woman, anti-gay ideas and activities are clearly abhorrent.

MW and the LPR are clearly political tendencies which are growing in Poland and which need to be fought. The parliamentary left, which was so rife with corruption, which took part in corrupt privitization scams and worked in a direction against national economic interests, is clearly going to lose out to the right in these elections. The LPR, ironically, has chosen to pick up some causes which the left has ignored or betrayed and thus appears to be quite reasonable in certain matters; its strategy of having a more radical youth group under a different name allows it to distance itself from any thuggery which may occur in the streets. Nonetheless, it is perfectly easy to criticize and fight this MW/LPR phenomena as most people simply to do agree with their politics.

Unfortunately, the left, including feminists, gays and anarchists, have been rather lax to do this. Amongst these people, for example, there are dozens of prominent academics, writers and even TV stars. Feminists, who are heavily funded by things ranging from the EU to the US Embassy, also have quite regular access to the mainstream press. Some feminists are columnists in the main newspapers. All have access to alternative media. The mainstream media often feature feminists in quirky lifestyle pieces; women I know had their pictures all over newspapers and magazines this week. They held their own press conference and published a very detailed account of the issues spoken about. Although the right-wing nature of some parties were mentioned for example at the press conference, it seems amazing that with all that opportunity to confront MW specifically, it just wasn't done. Over the last 5 years, I can probably count the number of critical pieces on such groups as MW on my fingers; most of these are done by liberal anti-fascists. The campaign against MW has been less than a failure - it can be called non-existant.

Now, however, feminists have started a campaign against MW - a campaign to outlaw it. I should add that anarcha-feminists have a hand in this and maybe even wrote the call.

Again we are disappointed at the legalist influence that feminist NGOs have had on the anarcha-feminist movement. There is no reason that anarcha-feminists couldn't have engaged in a broader campaign against MW - they have been invited, or they could do it themselves.

Anarchists shouldn't go to the state to solve their problems, unless there is a real emergency which cannot be handled any other way. Even the threat of MW throwing some rocks at activists can be handled another way - it's enough that people organize self-defense. Squatters apparently tried to give strategic defensive training to feminists from NGOs this year. And, actually, nothing really happened. MW came with their counterdemonstration. 3000 people on the feminist demo vs. 50. What was so traumatic that people would ask the state to criminalize the organization?

We always have to remember that we too do counter demonstrations - at least I've been at LPR's demonstration with some provocative placards and some anarchists harrass them. The feminist leaflet complains that MW made problems at the pro-EU Schumann Parade; so did we. I suppose that by the same logic, we should be considered criminals.