Wednesday 7 December 2011

Citizen's Militia Formed

In connection to arson attacks in the Praga district of Warsaw, some members of ZSP have started a self-defense patrol with neighbours.  Posters are going up warning arsonists and telling speculators and other scum to keep their hands off our neighbourhood.

The group is named "Okrzejówki", after Stefan Okrzeja, workers' activist and socialist, executed in 1905.  He was one of the main people in the socialists' combat organization. His group of ten attacked high-ranking tsarist police officers and officials. He bombed the tsarist police station in Praga but was caught and executed.

One of the main streets in Praga, which is now in the center of gentrification, is named after Okrzeja. Although Okrzeja was a socialist militant and the right changed the name of most streets named after socialists, this street kept the name, because he was also appreciated as an anti-tsarist.