1
00:00:03,703 --> 00:00:06,643
Syrena is not a squat

2
00:00:06,879 --> 00:00:13,808
it's a strike

3
00:00:17,458 --> 00:00:20,755
Wilcza street,
in the heart of Warsaw.

4
00:00:20,942 --> 00:00:23,020
Here two worlds pass
each other every day.

5
00:00:23,220 --> 00:00:25,760
The world that devours and the
world that is being devoured,

6
00:00:25,960 --> 00:00:28,300
the world that blinds
and the world that is being blinded.

7
00:00:28,920 --> 00:00:33,140
... a 1490 piece by the
painter La Fuciera ...

8
00:00:34,166 --> 00:00:39,280
A world backed by careers,
power, police, money, the media,

9
00:00:39,520 --> 00:00:43,100
and a world represented by
the naked history of 25 years

10
00:00:43,299 --> 00:00:47,100
of privatization and subjugation,
falling wages and rising rents,

11
00:00:47,300 --> 00:00:50,659
more debt and less hope.

12
00:00:51,721 --> 00:00:56,800
Finally, a burning need to
scream, fight and resist.

13
00:00:57,000 --> 00:01:00,250
Syrena at 30 Wilcza street
doesn't hide behind any facade.

14
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Here, we transform our fears
into the energy to act.

15
00:01:05,498 --> 00:01:10,720
Why do we reappropriate
abandoned buildings?

16
00:01:25,771 --> 00:01:29,568
There's that squatter in 1945.

17
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Here is a squatter family.
They're eating dinner in the ruins.

18
00:01:36,802 --> 00:01:42,907
I think, as wild tenants here we are
part of a strong tradition in Warsaw.

19
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We are the second wave
of wild tenants, squatters.

20
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The first, much larger, mass wave
appeared in Warsaw in 1945.

21
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Not only in this building
but in the entire city.

22
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In 1945, Warsaw rather looked like this.

23
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Besides the Jewish ghetto area, the
city center was the second most destroyed.

24
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In the old town
1 apartment in 15 survived.

25
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Here in the center city
1 apartment in 7 survived.

26
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There would be far fewer of these
old buildings around today

27
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if not for the enormous
wave of people

28
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who came back to the city
and settled the ruins.

29
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The best example of this history
is this building, at 30 Wilcza street.

30
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Half of this street
was destroyed.

31
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Our building was so damaged
that it was slated to be demolished.

32
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The City Reconstruction Office noted:

33
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"In terms of contruction and architecture
the building is too damaged to be rebuilt."

34
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That's a document from 1945.

35
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So what happened?

36
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How come this building
and others are still here?

37
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The same documents show
that these buildings were squatted

38
00:03:01,460 --> 00:03:03,960
even though they
were to be demolished.

39
00:03:04,160 --> 00:03:07,040
And that's
how they survived.

40
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The people who lived here
rebuilt this building themselves

41
00:03:12,620 --> 00:03:18,020
because they wanted to survive,
and that's why it's still here today.

42
00:03:18,236 --> 00:03:22,820
At the beginning of 1945 only the people
were concerned with city reconstruction.

43
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In those first months, the authorities were
more concerned with government buildings.

44
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... In the first place,
we begun the reconstruction

45
00:03:34,760 --> 00:03:39,660
of ministries and other important
central institutions ...

46
00:03:39,860 --> 00:03:45,180
Only in the new year 1946, they started
an official city reconstruction program.

47
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That's when the squatters
who rebuilt their homes

48
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were legalized
and became public tenants.

49
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... Every 10 minutes, in Warsaw
a living quarter is built

50
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which means 6 new quarters
for every hour.

51
00:04:02,945 --> 00:04:06,505
8 hours of work
give 48 quarters,

52
00:04:06,737 --> 00:04:09,977
48 quarters
make a big house.

53
00:04:10,801 --> 00:04:16,801
Yes, it's quite a lot, but still too little
to satisfy the housing need ...

54
00:04:28,029 --> 00:04:31,981
Don't take my picture when
I'm on a smoking break!

55
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Absolutely not.

56
00:04:34,160 --> 00:04:40,128
It was mostly the women of Warsaw
who worked for 50 million hours for free

57
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in what became known as "community work"
[czyn społeczny] but was really free labor

58
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in the hopes of finally
living in dignity and peace in this city.

59
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70 billion was spent on reconstructing the
city: buildings, infrastructure, streets.

60
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All that effort and all that
sweat gave birth to a city,

61
00:05:01,320 --> 00:05:06,720
but today that sweat is forgotten
and the city is being privatized.

62
00:05:06,920 --> 00:05:10,500
People who already once worked for free
are now debtors in the very buildings

63
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that they rebuilt themselves.

64
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As debtors they have to work to pay off
their debt: free labor once more.

65
00:05:19,940 --> 00:05:23,440
So history turns in a circle
and if we don't know our history,

66
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we're forced to repeat it.

67
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We know our history very well and
we're not planning on repeating it.

68
00:05:29,875 --> 00:05:33,905
As that second wave of squatters
we're going to resist with all we've got,

69
00:05:34,147 --> 00:05:38,988
knowing that this city doesn't belong
to developers, it belongs to the people.

70
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We occupy
abandoned buildings

71
00:05:45,280 --> 00:05:48,280
because we don't want
to drown in debt!

72
00:05:48,480 --> 00:05:50,320
Housing in Warsaw
is more expensive

73
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than in Berlin, Vienna,
Copenhagen or Lisbon

74
00:05:52,760 --> 00:05:55,000
even though we earn 4 times less
 in Poland.

75
00:05:55,200 --> 00:05:57,040
If an average person
in this country

76
00:05:57,240 --> 00:05:59,600
decided to spend
the entire earnings

77
00:05:59,800 --> 00:06:01,520
to buy a house or apartment,

78
00:06:01,720 --> 00:06:04,000
they could almost afford
half a single square meter,

79
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almost 2 times less
than they could afford 10 years ago.

80
00:06:07,400 --> 00:06:09,760
In the past 7 years,
private housing prices

81
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and rent in public housing
almost doubled,

82
00:06:14,440 --> 00:06:17,760
while the average wage
only increased by a third.

83
00:06:17,960 --> 00:06:20,569
Soaring housing prices
do not come along in a package

84
00:06:20,796 --> 00:06:22,900
with soaring wages
and stable work contracts.

85
00:06:23,100 --> 00:06:25,220
Instead, we fall further in debt

86
00:06:25,420 --> 00:06:28,334
and hold on to any job,
working almost for free

87
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and in precarious conditions.

88
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The city authorities want to auction
off the Syrena building.

89
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The debt collector [bailiff] wants to inspect
and show Syrena to potential investors.

90
00:06:53,240 --> 00:06:55,640
"Warsaw Tenants' Association" (WSL)"

91
00:06:56,413 --> 00:06:59,660
"Stop looting the city"

92
00:07:12,957 --> 00:07:16,800
I have big money,
I'll buy this building!

93
00:07:16,972 --> 00:07:18,760
And those few people inside,
you know ...

94
00:07:18,960 --> 00:07:20,530
We'll "clean" them out.

95
00:07:20,764 --> 00:07:24,660
The city of Warsaw is the creditor here,
and so the city could take away

96
00:07:24,860 --> 00:07:30,860
these developer's rights to this building,
and reclaim it for public housing.

97
00:07:31,060 --> 00:07:33,959
But the city is not interested
in public housing.

98
00:07:34,240 --> 00:07:37,540
Human capital is the best investment,
I always said it.

99
00:07:37,740 --> 00:07:42,060
And since the shares of
the building are so cheap,

100
00:07:42,260 --> 00:07:45,139
and since the tenants come with it
for free: all the better for me!

101
00:07:45,381 --> 00:07:50,280
This street reflects all the problems
that people face in the entire country.

102
00:07:50,471 --> 00:07:53,071
For one: enormous wealth inequality.

103
00:07:53,300 --> 00:07:56,220
Look, those who think
these here are "dirt."

104
00:07:56,420 --> 00:07:58,140
Do we look dirty to you?

105
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No.

106
00:08:00,320 --> 00:08:08,120
If the city wants to clean out the "dirt,"
the "dirt" will take over the city center.

107
00:08:08,320 --> 00:08:12,795
Tomorrow, at 12 let's meet at the
parliament building and then we'll see.

108
00:08:13,006 --> 00:08:15,888
If you want to create ghettos,
kick out the poor,

109
00:08:16,072 --> 00:08:21,333
then those who are affected
will take over the center.

110
00:08:22,318 --> 00:08:28,057
Evict the politicians!
Evict the politicians!

111
00:08:31,190 --> 00:08:35,760
The housing situation in Poland
and in Warsaw is tragic.

112
00:08:35,960 --> 00:08:39,640
And vacant, abandoned buildings
are scandalous.

113
00:08:39,840 --> 00:08:45,720
So squatting and the whole counter-cultural
movement around squatting

114
00:08:45,920 --> 00:08:51,560
is really practical,
it stirs things up in Polish society.

115
00:08:52,720 --> 00:08:55,220
This building represents the naked truth

116
00:08:55,420 --> 00:09:00,000
about the living conditions
of most people in this country.

117
00:09:00,200 --> 00:09:03,240
And we are in solidarity
with those people.

118
00:09:03,432 --> 00:09:08,275
- Together we challenge Poland's worst myth:
"sacred" private property

119
00:09:08,541 --> 00:09:12,986
which is used to
justify all the worst crimes

120
00:09:13,204 --> 00:09:19,189
against workers, tenants,
and union activists.

121
00:09:19,533 --> 00:09:23,104
- We gave out flyers on this street.

122
00:09:23,320 --> 00:09:26,320
Our neighbors' solidarity
with us is class based.

123
00:09:26,520 --> 00:09:33,825
At the cigar shop or the sushi restaurant,
they said to us: "Get out, you scum!"

124
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At the sewing shop and the kiosk
where the lady lives in Stara Praga

125
00:09:40,720 --> 00:09:44,430
and is in the same situation as we are,
the people stand with us,

126
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because solidarity is
what we have left.

127
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The "sacred" law of private property is so
dearly loved and guarded by those assholes

128
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on the other side of the road, the Congress
of the New Right [Thatcher-Pinochet copy].

129
00:09:58,522 --> 00:10:04,440
That private property is guarded by those
gangsters in uniforms called the police,

130
00:10:04,640 --> 00:10:10,640
and real estate developers, landlords want
even greater protection, as do employers.

131
00:10:10,840 --> 00:10:15,207
Today private property
is the only god in Poland,

132
00:10:15,410 --> 00:10:20,000
it's the only thing of value
to public authorities.

133
00:10:20,200 --> 00:10:23,760
We say that more important than
private property are the people.

134
00:10:23,960 --> 00:10:25,580
We are more important.

135
00:10:25,880 --> 00:10:28,080
Why did I come here?
I was involved

136
00:10:28,280 --> 00:10:31,560
in the underground resistance in the
1980s, and this is a clear continuation

137
00:10:31,760 --> 00:10:33,660
of being on the right side.

138
00:10:33,860 --> 00:10:36,460
It's the sort of imperative
that made me take a day off work

139
00:10:36,660 --> 00:10:39,580
to come here and demonstrate.

140
00:10:39,994 --> 00:10:44,080
After WWII we had a slogan: "The
whole nation rebuilds its capital city."

141
00:10:44,280 --> 00:10:49,160
But today we have the slogan:
"The whole nation works for developers."

142
00:10:49,360 --> 00:10:53,340
Down with the developers,
we've had enough of you.

143
00:10:53,540 --> 00:10:56,780
Warsaw can't be a privately owned city.

144
00:10:57,336 --> 00:10:59,640
- This is not a squat
it's a strike.

145
00:10:59,840 --> 00:11:04,260
A strike against housing politics,
exploitation politics,

146
00:11:04,460 --> 00:11:09,360
and we're going to continue striking
until this situation changes.

147
00:11:10,080 --> 00:11:13,080
"Syrena means fighting"

148
00:11:19,104 --> 00:11:23,040
There's the debt collector Moryc.

149
00:11:23,240 --> 00:11:29,460
"Debt collectors to the basement!
Debt collectors to the basement!"

150
00:11:34,560 --> 00:11:36,920
Mr. debt collector Moryc!

151
00:11:37,120 --> 00:11:43,252
How do you sleep at night after you evicted
2 people to a basement 5 years ago.

152
00:11:43,467 --> 00:11:45,521
And those 2 people died.

153
00:11:45,752 --> 00:11:50,860
And how can you even go
about your so-called duties

154
00:11:51,060 --> 00:11:54,820
when you robbed a woman,
who had cancer,

155
00:11:55,020 --> 00:11:58,700
and illegaly took over her account
and stole her medication money.

156
00:11:58,891 --> 00:12:01,491
You should be evicted
from public service.

157
00:12:01,987 --> 00:12:06,180
- I thought you would give us
a tour of the building today.

158
00:12:06,380 --> 00:12:08,620
- Yes, I am here,
and you can look at the building.

159
00:12:08,920 --> 00:12:10,460
- But only from the outside?

160
00:12:10,660 --> 00:12:13,460
- So I can see the building today?
- Go right ahead.

161
00:12:13,660 --> 00:12:17,540
- But ... Will one of you
go inside with me?

162
00:12:17,920 --> 00:12:19,320
- Because of technical problems ...

163
00:12:19,760 --> 00:12:22,880
- I'm interested in buying this building.

164
00:12:23,080 --> 00:12:25,360
- Come to the auction.
- The auction on Friday?

165
00:12:25,560 --> 00:12:28,580
- Yes.
- You can count on it, I'll be there.

166
00:12:28,780 --> 00:12:32,560
- I can't imagine buying something
that I can't see.

167
00:12:33,360 --> 00:12:38,020
- It's what the police is there for, to ...
- You should ask the police yourself.

168
00:12:38,520 --> 00:12:40,880
The first part of our
struggle is behind us,

169
00:12:41,080 --> 00:12:43,280
We won! We won!

170
00:12:50,261 --> 00:12:52,980
We're staying, we're not moving from here.

171
00:12:53,180 --> 00:12:54,789
We're staying, we're staying,

172
00:12:54,976 --> 00:12:56,860
We're staying, we're staying.

173
00:12:57,060 --> 00:13:00,650
We're not moving from here because
these few walls, that's our home.

174
00:13:04,154 --> 00:13:06,520
The building was empty
so we went in.

175
00:13:06,720 --> 00:13:11,520
We didn't ask anybody, we cleaned up some
rubble, we created our own world.

176
00:13:11,720 --> 00:13:14,123
Though you call us scum and dirt,
don't believe in miracles,

177
00:13:14,332 --> 00:13:16,333
we won't give you 
back the house.

178
00:13:16,550 --> 00:13:18,640
We put in too much work
and too much time.

179
00:13:18,840 --> 00:13:25,534
We're staying, we're staying,
we're not moving from here.

180
00:13:29,182 --> 00:13:31,680
About half of the housing units
constructed today

181
00:13:31,881 --> 00:13:34,920
stand empty and are intended
only for speculation.

182
00:13:35,120 --> 00:13:37,200
Between 2009 and 2010

183
00:13:37,400 --> 00:13:39,440
the number of empty,
brand new housing units

184
00:13:39,640 --> 00:13:42,320
in Warsaw
was exactly 25 thousand.

185
00:13:42,520 --> 00:13:44,600
With no alternative in sight,

186
00:13:44,800 --> 00:13:47,840
meaning an adequate amount
of available public housing units,

187
00:13:48,040 --> 00:13:49,740
the prices of private housing

188
00:13:49,940 --> 00:13:52,340
depend only on how much
can be squeezed out of us:

189
00:13:52,540 --> 00:13:54,840
How much more debt
can we be made to owe?

190
00:13:55,040 --> 00:13:56,740
The speculation bubble grows

191
00:13:56,940 --> 00:13:59,620
and along with it, the number
of people with debt up to their ears

192
00:13:59,820 --> 00:14:02,100
and home mortgages,
that are impossible to pay off.

193
00:14:02,300 --> 00:14:03,360
And also,

194
00:14:03,560 --> 00:14:04,920
the number of homes
without people

195
00:14:05,120 --> 00:14:06,740
and people without homes.

196
00:14:06,940 --> 00:14:09,420
Housing politics have nothing to do
with democracy.

197
00:14:09,620 --> 00:14:14,220
Those who count are banks, developers
and their allies in public office.

198
00:14:21,840 --> 00:14:23,920
Hello!

199
00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:30,240
I have lived in this house
for a year already.

200
00:14:30,440 --> 00:14:36,377
This is my room.
We live here all together.

201
00:14:39,927 --> 00:14:43,400
Before, I lived in Poland for 7 years.

202
00:14:43,600 --> 00:14:47,800
I did't have a home here,
I didn't have anything.

203
00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:51,560
I found work,
but I didn't have any papers.

204
00:14:51,760 --> 00:14:55,680
I was afraid to talk
because I worked illegaly.

205
00:14:55,880 --> 00:15:00,320
I earned money cleaning
houses and streets.

206
00:15:00,520 --> 00:15:06,590
But all the money that I worked so hard for
I had to pay to the landlord.

207
00:15:06,790 --> 00:15:12,860
The landlord who had 10 other
apartments or maybe even 20.

208
00:15:13,060 --> 00:15:16,000
He didn't need that money
but he took it anyway

209
00:15:16,200 --> 00:15:18,820
because he couldn't imagine
taking money from us only

210
00:15:19,020 --> 00:15:21,620
for the actual costs,
like the utilities.

211
00:15:21,820 --> 00:15:23,880
Even though he had
a lot of money

212
00:15:24,080 --> 00:15:29,740
he couldn't back off just a little,
so we were evicted to the street.

213
00:15:29,940 --> 00:15:32,950
At 3 in the morning, the landlord
came and evicted us.

214
00:15:34,459 --> 00:15:39,380
Eviction blockade of an elderly woman,
Warsaw, June 2013.

215
00:15:39,760 --> 00:15:42,070
I am the court debt collector...

216
00:15:42,270 --> 00:15:43,590
- Hello!

217
00:15:43,790 --> 00:15:48,150
Hello, I ask you all
to please leave this corridor

218
00:15:48,350 --> 00:15:52,210
because you're preventing a public official
from performing his duties.

219
00:15:52,870 --> 00:15:55,710
I said, if you have a heart,
if you're human,

220
00:15:55,910 --> 00:15:58,430
let us stay until the morning
because the children are sleeping.

221
00:15:58,630 --> 00:15:59,830
"No!"

222
00:16:01,440 --> 00:16:07,440
- Hello, here is my [medical] exemption.
[An attempt to stop the eviction]

223
00:16:22,804 --> 00:16:26,219
- Alright, your appeal for an exemption...

224
00:16:26,422 --> 00:16:28,024
I dismiss it.

225
00:16:28,203 --> 00:16:30,740
- But you can't dismiss it!
- And you can't refuse to accept it.

226
00:16:30,940 --> 00:16:33,220
- I accept it and dismiss this appeal.

227
00:16:33,440 --> 00:16:35,240
- That's not legally possible.

228
00:16:35,440 --> 00:16:37,480
- You can't do that all by yourself.

229
00:16:37,640 --> 00:16:39,788
- I'm a one-person public administration...

230
00:16:39,999 --> 00:16:41,980
- It's the court that has to decide.

231
00:16:42,180 --> 00:16:45,260
- Ok, the court will examine this appeal,
but that won't stop the eviction.

232
00:16:45,455 --> 00:16:47,220
- At this point you can only perform

233
00:16:47,420 --> 00:16:52,260
the most necessary debt collection
enforcement proceedings ...

234
00:16:52,460 --> 00:16:56,889
- And this eviction is exactly
necessary proceeding.

235
00:16:58,320 --> 00:17:02,120
- I hope the police takes
that into consideration.

236
00:17:02,320 --> 00:17:04,480
- Alright, you all leave
this corridor now.

237
00:17:04,680 --> 00:17:06,900
- They won't leave here,
because we need a place to live

238
00:17:07,100 --> 00:17:10,040
and we're waiting
for social housing.

239
00:17:10,240 --> 00:17:12,720
- And you can't just evict an elderly
woman onto the street...

240
00:17:12,920 --> 00:17:16,280
- I'm not evicting onto the street.

241
00:17:16,480 --> 00:17:17,560
- So where?

242
00:17:17,760 --> 00:17:19,480
- A temporary housing facility.

243
00:17:19,680 --> 00:17:21,460
- What then?

244
00:17:22,660 --> 00:17:27,180
- How long can she stay
in temporary housing?

245
00:17:28,380 --> 00:17:30,980
- All of that is described in the
appropriate legal act.

246
00:17:31,180 --> 00:17:32,980
- How long?

247
00:17:33,920 --> 00:17:35,640
He kicked us out.

248
00:17:35,840 --> 00:17:37,200
We were on the street.

249
00:17:37,400 --> 00:17:42,620
We spent the night at the train station
and we decided to go to Germany.

250
00:17:42,820 --> 00:17:46,540
There, they told us that Poland
invited us back [as refugees],

251
00:17:46,740 --> 00:17:51,900
that we will get a place to live,
a home, everything.

252
00:17:52,622 --> 00:17:58,020
That was a great joy to hear; my kids
really wanted to come back to this place

253
00:17:58,220 --> 00:18:02,660
and live here because they came here first
and here they learned about life,

254
00:18:02,860 --> 00:18:08,860
childhood, school, happiness,
all of that they learned in Poland.

255
00:18:09,060 --> 00:18:11,140
And what ...

256
00:18:11,480 --> 00:18:18,280
Again we spent a week at the train station,
then we slept in some basement,

257
00:18:18,480 --> 00:18:22,950
then in the park with the kids.

258
00:18:23,530 --> 00:18:30,250
You know, it was too cold, and too hot,
the kids didn't understand.

259
00:18:30,450 --> 00:18:33,395
I kept telling them
that our train hadn't come yet,

260
00:18:33,619 --> 00:18:36,950
that it was supposed to come for us
and take us away from here.

261
00:18:38,550 --> 00:18:41,630
- We will not leave here ...

262
00:18:41,830 --> 00:18:46,400
- Today this lady is sick, but yesterday
she was in my office and she was healthy!

263
00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:49,280
- And what do you expect
from a 78 year old woman!

264
00:18:49,480 --> 00:18:52,620
- You want her to run a marathon?
Maybe she should jump over hurdles?

265
00:18:52,820 --> 00:18:54,640
- What sort of argument is that, she's 78!

266
00:18:54,840 --> 00:18:56,560
- And what role do you play in all this?

267
00:18:56,760 --> 00:19:00,560
- I'm from the housing cooperative.

268
00:19:01,236 --> 00:19:06,200
Then they locked us up
in a detention camp.

269
00:19:06,400 --> 00:19:13,000
They accused us of crossing
the border illegaly [to Germany].

270
00:19:13,200 --> 00:19:15,400
And what was I supposed to do?

271
00:19:15,600 --> 00:19:19,640
I didn't want to go
back to Chechnya.

272
00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:25,940
I hadn't been there for 9 years already,
and I don't ever want to go back there.

273
00:19:26,140 --> 00:19:33,340
Then I received a paper telling me I had to
leave Polish territory within 2 hours.

274
00:19:33,540 --> 00:19:38,220
When I got that paper,
I didn't do anything.

275
00:19:38,420 --> 00:19:40,020
I didn't have any problems
with anybody,

276
00:19:40,220 --> 00:19:42,460
not with the police,
not with criminals.

277
00:19:42,660 --> 00:19:46,440
I lived quietly
and in peace along with my kids.

278
00:19:46,632 --> 00:19:49,831
Where to find bread,
that was my main concern.

279
00:19:50,928 --> 00:19:53,904
- I understand all that but ...

280
00:19:54,092 --> 00:19:57,040
- If someone was condemned
to life in prison,

281
00:19:57,240 --> 00:20:00,340
would you be there
protesting and blocking?

282
00:20:00,540 --> 00:20:04,660
- But this lady didn't commit any crime!

283
00:20:06,181 --> 00:20:15,076
Tenants are not a commodity!
Tenants are not a commodity!

284
00:20:19,036 --> 00:20:23,520
Demonstration against nationalism,
Warsaw, November 8, 2014:

285
00:20:23,720 --> 00:20:27,004
Polish, elderly, grandmothers
live with us here in this house.

286
00:20:27,270 --> 00:20:29,470
You evicted them
out of their homes.

287
00:20:29,670 --> 00:20:32,180
Once they were young
they had work and bread.

288
00:20:32,380 --> 00:20:34,420
They're parents
like any other.

289
00:20:34,620 --> 00:20:40,060
You throw them out onto the street,
and they go around digging in the trash.

290
00:20:40,260 --> 00:20:42,860
That's your culture.

291
00:20:43,249 --> 00:20:48,880
We support people, who were
evicted from their homes,

292
00:20:49,080 --> 00:20:53,120
older folks who had made their nest,
where they planned to spend their old age,

293
00:20:53,320 --> 00:20:55,120
where they had everything.

294
00:20:55,280 --> 00:20:59,620
How can older folks
be thrown out onto the street

295
00:20:59,820 --> 00:21:02,062
where they can't live?

296
00:21:02,280 --> 00:21:04,830
These are the sorts of people
who live here.

297
00:21:05,561 --> 00:21:07,370
According to a government report,

298
00:21:07,570 --> 00:21:09,250
6.5 million people in Poland

299
00:21:09,450 --> 00:21:11,390
live in conditions of housing poverty:

300
00:21:11,590 --> 00:21:14,750
Overcrowding, too little space,
degrading conditions.

301
00:21:14,950 --> 00:21:16,550
But that's only half of the truth,

302
00:21:16,785 --> 00:21:18,199
and the other half?

303
00:21:18,449 --> 00:21:20,183
We take over abandoned houses

304
00:21:20,402 --> 00:21:24,870
because empty homes mean
profit at the people's cost.

305
00:21:28,680 --> 00:21:30,400
To provide housing
and a place to rest,

306
00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:33,440
that's one of the city's
most important missions.

307
00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:36,340
In Zoliborz, Kolo,
Ochota and Mokotow,

308
00:21:36,547 --> 00:21:40,107
comfortable and healthy housing
is being built.

309
00:21:40,512 --> 00:21:42,340
- The struggle
for just housing in Warsaw

310
00:21:42,540 --> 00:21:45,480
has an exceptionally beautiful
and dramatic history.

311
00:21:45,680 --> 00:21:48,800
The only uprising
that was succesful in this city

312
00:21:49,000 --> 00:21:52,020
was the people's rising up,
out of those ruins.

313
00:21:52,220 --> 00:21:55,720
Armed with trowels in hand, they wanted
to finally build a city for themselves.

314
00:21:55,920 --> 00:21:57,720
They didn't plan on rebuilding
a playing field

315
00:21:57,920 --> 00:22:01,099
for speculation, evictions,
high rents, and low wages.

316
00:22:02,813 --> 00:22:05,520
The residents have a place
to rest after work

317
00:22:05,720 --> 00:22:10,448
in the restored public parks and gardens:
the lungs of the modern city.

318
00:22:11,920 --> 00:22:14,740
- They brought the city back to life
with their collective effort,

319
00:22:14,940 --> 00:22:17,150
so that the city would become
collective property.

320
00:22:18,338 --> 00:22:23,160
In order to motivate people to rebuild,
the authorities also celebrated

321
00:22:23,360 --> 00:22:29,036
the "social deed", they kept talking about
"our" Warsaw, "our" capital" ...

322
00:22:31,160 --> 00:22:34,740
We are all building Warsaw:
the bricklayer who lays the foundations

323
00:22:34,940 --> 00:22:38,620
and everyone donates
to the city's social rebuilding fund.

324
00:22:38,820 --> 00:22:44,820
Because rebuilding Warsaw is the
responsibility and honor of every Pole.

325
00:23:01,003 --> 00:23:03,667
"Seating for city council members"

326
00:23:12,856 --> 00:23:16,600
After some time,
the tenant-workers entrusted

327
00:23:16,816 --> 00:23:19,556
the fruits of their labor
to the management of those in power.

328
00:23:19,940 --> 00:23:22,908
- They're expropriating,
expropriating ...

329
00:23:24,809 --> 00:23:28,720
- They allowed themselves to be disarmed,
in exchange for the new regime's promise

330
00:23:28,920 --> 00:23:31,634
that a time had finally come,
in which there would be no more

331
00:23:31,837 --> 00:23:35,300
rent exploitation, no more
overcrowding, no more housing poverty.

332
00:23:35,500 --> 00:23:38,980
Indeed, for the first time
in this country's history,

333
00:23:39,180 --> 00:23:42,820
cheap public housing
was created.

334
00:23:49,840 --> 00:23:55,004
"Tenants are not a commodity!
Tenants are not a commodity!"

335
00:23:56,207 --> 00:23:59,832
- Because they believed
in what they were doing.

336
00:24:00,082 --> 00:24:03,901
- And why did they believe?

337
00:24:04,120 --> 00:24:08,416
- It was their city, and now it's not.

338
00:24:11,151 --> 00:24:14,500
Something went wrong.

339
00:24:14,700 --> 00:24:16,825
Today we see
that what appeared to be

340
00:24:17,036 --> 00:24:19,740
a final break with the
logic of housing speculation,

341
00:24:19,931 --> 00:24:25,405
after 1989 turned out to have been just
accumulation of capital frozen in time.

342
00:24:25,609 --> 00:24:29,668
If not for all of that free labor
in hopes of justice,

343
00:24:29,879 --> 00:24:32,771
the capitalists today wouldn't have
anything to privatize.

344
00:24:32,981 --> 00:24:36,096
That's the whole point
of this great swindle.

345
00:24:36,300 --> 00:24:40,596
Years later, the authorities
treat these buildings

346
00:24:40,807 --> 00:24:44,680
like their own
and privatize them.

347
00:24:59,636 --> 00:25:04,194
That's why we remember this story
of hope and deception.

348
00:25:04,429 --> 00:25:07,329
In this house,
we won't be disarmed.

349
00:25:07,525 --> 00:25:12,555
Syrena fights not only for public housing:
we show the strength of housing communes.

350
00:25:12,758 --> 00:25:15,867
It's not about quaint
legends and identities

351
00:25:16,062 --> 00:25:18,562
but about organizing
methods that work,

352
00:25:18,773 --> 00:25:21,758
strategies of organizing
common struggles

353
00:25:21,953 --> 00:25:24,803
in defence of our
homes and other benefits.

354
00:25:25,006 --> 00:25:29,600
It's the sort of idea,
that cannot be evicted.

355
00:26:49,512 --> 00:26:51,770
The biggest crises
of the past years,

356
00:26:51,973 --> 00:26:55,059
from the US to Spain,
began with mass evictions.

357
00:26:55,262 --> 00:26:56,668
Speculation bubbles

358
00:26:56,864 --> 00:26:57,980
burst!

359
00:26:58,183 --> 00:27:00,374
And you just can't pay off
a high mortgage.

360
00:27:00,562 --> 00:27:02,453
The most common image
of failed cities

361
00:27:02,663 --> 00:27:04,562
are streets filled with
empty homes.

362
00:27:04,757 --> 00:27:06,257
In response to such crises

363
00:27:06,453 --> 00:27:07,671
more and more cities

364
00:27:07,859 --> 00:27:08,890
decide

365
00:27:09,093 --> 00:27:10,288
to take over and settle

366
00:27:10,492 --> 00:27:12,406
abandoned housing
left to waste.

367
00:27:12,593 --> 00:27:15,015
Often it's the people
themselves

368
00:27:15,203 --> 00:27:16,880
who decide to move
into a vacant building,

369
00:27:17,091 --> 00:27:20,576
to rebuild it themselves
and to live there.

370
00:27:21,201 --> 00:27:23,685
In Poland, dilapidated,
abandoned buildings

371
00:27:23,880 --> 00:27:26,076
are a blatant image of the
battered condition

372
00:27:26,280 --> 00:27:29,677
of many city residents
who face the same dilemma:

373
00:27:29,880 --> 00:27:31,073
Take out a mortgage?

374
00:27:31,272 --> 00:27:32,350
Emigrate?

375
00:27:32,553 --> 00:27:34,053
Or shoot myself in the head?

376
00:27:34,272 --> 00:27:35,717
Are there any alternatives?

377
00:27:35,912 --> 00:27:37,123
Together ...

378
00:27:39,115 --> 00:27:41,029
Together we act,

379
00:27:41,225 --> 00:27:42,709
we find another route.

380
00:27:42,912 --> 00:27:44,107
Defend yourself!

381
00:27:44,310 --> 00:27:45,717
Take the initiative!

382
00:27:45,920 --> 00:27:48,107
Take your life
into your own hands!

383
00:27:48,303 --> 00:27:49,623
Refuse service!

384
00:27:49,826 --> 00:27:51,326
Take over empty buildings!

385
00:27:51,537 --> 00:27:52,576
Occupy!

386
00:27:52,794 --> 00:27:54,083
Resist!

387
00:28:14,385 --> 00:28:18,348
Listen up, Syrena
is really only a symbol.

388
00:28:18,543 --> 00:28:20,551
This situation
has a much wider dimension.

389
00:28:20,746 --> 00:28:24,644
It concerns people, children,
older folks,

390
00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:28,246
homeless folks ...
because the city is giving away,

391
00:28:28,440 --> 00:28:32,619
public property
where there are schools, preschools.

392
00:28:32,815 --> 00:28:39,297
What I can't stand, is when tenants
are accused of demanding too much.

393
00:28:39,508 --> 00:28:44,879
Look at the sort of money
that flows into developers' pockets,

394
00:28:45,082 --> 00:28:47,981
money and the fruits of the labor

395
00:28:48,184 --> 00:28:52,582
of tens of thousands of
working people in this city.

396
00:28:52,793 --> 00:28:54,805
Who is really demanding too much?

397
00:28:55,222 --> 00:28:57,108
The right to housing
for everyone

398
00:28:57,311 --> 00:29:00,959
is just far more important
than the accumulation of wealth.

399
00:29:01,936 --> 00:29:07,835
- Instead of believing in all those lies
that we are indebt, that we want too much

400
00:29:08,046 --> 00:29:14,361
we should finally ask for those 70 billion
in reparations from the authorities

401
00:29:14,564 --> 00:29:19,556
who don't give a shit about us
because they think they deserve everything.

402
00:29:19,767 --> 00:29:22,782
I think they deserve rubble
from all those ruins ...

403
00:29:22,993 --> 00:29:25,688
... or a brick on the head.