Polish Independence Day March in Warsaw. Is it going to be the biggest march yet?

Right, im outta here, love you all even the bitter ones. See you on Sunday.

@dolnoslask
that leftist mayor you said about banning marches. they are bringing back the ban from communist time that was once implemented from the former communist government. it was the same communist that fought against the solidarity movement and call lech Walesa a nazi supremacist and trying to stop them from taking power in the name of their democracy. so is nothing new there.

That's the problem with banning marches , let the people march let the protesters protest, let the public decide and make their choice and voice their opinion at the ballot box.

Today its PiS and its policies , after the next ballot things maybe different, but above all the people decide the future based on what they see and hear, freedom and democracy I love it.

Well, HGW with her ban on march has enraged not only right-wingers and conservatives but she is also being criticized by centrists and even left-wingers like Barbara Nowacka.

Many moderate and centrist public figures and political commentators like Cezary Gmyz and Krzysztof Stanowski have publicly declared that they will attend Independence March to make a statement that are against limiting civil rights of Poles.

Thank you spike wolność (freedom) worth marching for.

At the risk of sounding boring and repetitive,this is the problem with the British and Americans living in Poland.
They think,because they live there,that they have their "Fingers on the Pulse".....but stats prove nothing.....those of us who truly understand Poles,Polish culture and Polish history get it.

You guys,just don't.....

Just don't complain when other countries take the banners seriously....

g3.gazetaprawna.pl/p/_wspolne/pliki/3154000/3154897-marsz-niepodleglosci-657-323.jpg

What guarantee that those charmers won't declare _you_ an enemy of the homeland....

Sorry you won't get your point across, strange I spent fifty years of my life living in the UK, but as a child brought up in a Polish household and the Polish community, I moved to Poland and it was just like being a kid again everything was familiar and comfortable, food even the jokes, oh and you still not allowed sit on stone or concrete without being told you will catch a cold or get piles lol.

I guess you have to be it to get it, I can understand outsiders struggling with it.

As a foreigner you won't get it, just leave us alone Poland has no history of imperialism or empire like your own , Poland for the better part to my knowledge has only taken up the Szabla (sword) for her own freedom, reflect on your own lands , leave peaceful Poland alone.

Summed up in a sentence.....brilliant post!
Yes,you have to be it to get it.....

You mean leave xenophobic, illegal marches alone? I think the mayor should send in the riot police to break a few heads. We all know what cowards these hooligans really are when stripped of their so called solidarity.

What exactly is wrong with xenophobia, if someone wants nothing to do with people from another country whats the problem?

If someone sees you as an ambassador of Britain and does not want anything to do with you then whats wrong with that?

I someone invades your country and enslaves you then you might have an argument against them,

Yes - they do. As Mafs' post states. Poles don't want these illiterate hooligans busting up their neighbourhood on their stupid "marches. In fact they should go out of their homes and fight them.


Are you on the sauce Dolno? Nobody is enslaving anybody. Or rather, these villagers are enslaving Warsaw residents for the day - who have to leave their homes for the day for some peace and quiet. this is BANG out of order.

Millions of Poles are very happy to have "something to do" with people from another country, when they live in that country and reap the benefits. Time for the small minority to be ignored, and legislated against.

Racist scum. It really IS that simple. And under EU law, clearly actionable.

Well we need to let you city slicker expats know that Poland does not revolve around you, that's why Dolno will be going to town on Sunday, plus Sunday night I get to have a drink whoopee.

Doug all this xenophobia stuff is a legacy or burden that is carried by ex imperialist and empire nations, all a totally alien concept to Poland. we made no sins in that respect and we don't need to make up for them, Poland is open to legal migrants you and the other expats here are prime examples.

You were part of the coalition that invaded Iraq....Next? PS Your "empire" stretched all the way to the Black Sea and Odessa I seem to recall?

Oh and you as a Brit weren't.

The difference between me and these marchers is that they are pro-military and state legislated force. I am against foreign intervention. As are the majority of Poles, as per Mafs' post.

Defence only mate, if Poland invades somewhere the start bleating I will join you.

Iraq war started by dumb politicians, who were joined by dumb politicians, all modern politicians are dumb and will send everyone but themselves into battle and death. have you not worked out the world order yet Doug, tip don't support any politician or party

Polish empire stretching?? me thinks you are talking about the Prussians.

Why are 40 percent of Warsaw's policemen on sick leave? Obviously because the budget and 500 plus dictates that they are not paid properly. There should be a general strike to force the governments' hand, the result being that in future policemen are properly paid, and those who do not fulfill their civic duty are fired. There are plenty of worse jobs than being a policeman - maybe Poland tries to copy the American model, where the policeman is your "buddy", as "Our Jacek's a policeman...."

In the UK, they are untouchables. Nobody speaks to them. They have their "own" pubs, their own circle. Nobody wants to associate with a copper, for obvious reason. They are never off duty. So they are paid subsidies according to their "pariah" status.

Only then, when it is "us and them" meaning the public separated from the police, can we have a real state where the police act as a buffer between factions. It's so bloody obvious from the outside - but then again America is ****** up, so it's no surprise that Poland is as well:(

Until then, we have a dangerous situation, like on Sunday - where all these policemen are running scared. And I don't blame them. Why should they do the courts' dirty work for them?

You would be safer in Warsaw the London, lets see.

What your problem with coppers, it seems not just here but back in the UK.

Doug do you realise that the march has always been arranged by the people and for the people, the politicians have always run scarred.

There are some random loonies that should not be there agreed, but a part of you must think like me, its the people that count not politicians and anything that shows politicians who think they have ultimate power that they are not necessarily in control is a good thing, feet to the fire and all that.

It has been arranged by that right wing mob, as per Delphs' posts. And the history of the last two years tells us that it cannot be allowed to stand. Do you really want your country called into disrepute by 2 percent of the population?

I don't. Where it happens in Britain, and the minority try to hijack our democracy, these people go to prison, whether they be that (white) Robinson bloke, or that (black) Al Hansa bloke.

I've lived in Poland a lot longer than you, probably speak and read Polish better than you, and you want me out of the country? Or don't want me to express my opinion when it's different from yours?

Did you ever express if your opinion in the UK, non-English guy?

Not because they were too moral or saintly Dolno. History just didn't work out that way for them. Not a seafaring nation, politically weak and unstable for much of her history, industrially undeveloped, somewhat insular in outlook etc. But I've mentioned a few times the colonial ambitions they had back in the early years of the twentieth century. As soon as Poland had her independence she was angling for colonies and in fact that's why there's such a sizeable Polish diaspora in Brazil.

Now I'm not suggesting that Poland would have invaded and killed people but then neither did the Brits in India for example. It all started out as a commercial enterprise with the East India Company. In the same way, Poland saw the South American continent as an opportunity to make money.

Arch is right and the interwar Polish state was also quite aggressive - choking off access to Lithuania and annexing part of Czechoslovakia in 1938. Of course I know there are 2 sides to both of those stories but we should not pretend Polish nationalism has always been about volleyball and Chopin.

I didn't say that don't put words into my mouth, your Polish maybe perfect and probably is better and more up to date than mine, the fact is you were not nurtured within a Polish family from a young age and probably did not go through the catholic path, many keystones and building blocks will be missing, and appear to me to be missing.

Tell me the truth, do you feel that you fit in to this country, your posts here show that you seem very disgruntled about many things in Poland.

Don't take what I have said as a personal attack it is not meant to be, I know that Poland can be a bit of a shock for non poles come to make a life here. Just my observation

Dolno, I'm a Catholic, more Catholic perhaps than some Poles in the sense that I was educated in Catholic schools from the age of four so the Catholic ethos was there all day every day, not just at home. In primary school our desks were inscribed with 'Be Prepared' meaning be in a state of grace at all times in readiness for sudden death! We had Holy Mary Mother of God and the Sacred Heart of Jesus 24/7, yet I don't 'get it' either. The present day Polish Nationalist movement has nothing to do with the Catholic path.

What are you talking about? It was arranged by MW and ONR, two far right groups. "The people" have never been involved with it. They're political organisations, just as PiS and PO are. The rubbish about it being "grassroots" is just that, rubbish. It came originally from the two groups essentially inviting football ultras to come to Warsaw to "show their strength", because the government then (and previous governments) had miserably failed at putting on any real large-scale events in the capital.

I believe that you don't know Polish, because you don't seem to know even the most basic things about events in this country.


Lithuania, 1920. Zaolzie, 1938. Czechoslovakia, 1968. Iraq, 2003.

They'd all like to talk to you about "Poles taking up the sword for her own freedom".

Maybe we are at odds , for me a patriot/nationalist is someone who is proud of their heritage and country and is happy to celebrate that fact.

You are using the word nationalist to describe right wing nazis, stop it, its a Marxist construct to destabilise countries

I am proud of my country I do not support radical left or right, how can I given my history.

I do not recognise the use of nationalist in the same context as radical right wing nazi scum,

I will not be forced into cowering in the corner by left wing nutters because I am proud of my country and I am prepared to show it.

You are clutching at straws apart with border skirmishes with known enemies of Poland you are dragging in wars that were ordered by the soviet occupiers.

As to the Iraq war Poland was drawn in due to a pack of lies by Britain and America relating to weapons of mass destruction that never existed.