Suppressing Anti-NATO Protests in Poland

Reprinted from off guardian

We are republishing two linked Katehon articles on Poland. The first, by Mateusz Piskorski (translated by Jafe Arnold), NATO will suppress protests in Poland, is followed by Katehon’s account of the reprisals Polish special services have launched against NATO opponents.

On May 18th, 2016, the well-known Polish politician Mateusz Piskorski was arrested on charges of spying for “third countries.” Shortly before, he wrote an article that predicted the beginning of mass political repressions against NATO opponents in Poland and Europe as a whole. He was right.

Predictions concerning the upcoming NATO summit in July in Warsaw are beginning to clearly indicate that today the alliance’s goal is first and foremost preventing the emergence of social movements demanding the liberation of Europe from underneath the tutelage of the United States.  As can be seen, the Financial Times’ inadvertent [?] publication of the words of one of the Polish Army’s senior commanders show just what decisions can be expected this summer. These are decisions which completely undermine not only the sovereignty of Warsaw in the field of foreign policy, but also clearly speak to the fact that from this moment on NATO is supposed to be a police force ready to participate in the pacification of eventual social protests or intervene in the affairs of domestic Polish politics.

The actual intentions of the alliance’s latest decisions were revealed honestly and in a frankly military way by Brigade General Krzysztof Krol, the commander of the Multinational Corps Northeast. The issue under consideration was the concept of the so-called NATO spearhead advocated for years by the Americans and longed for by the Polish politicians of both the former and current government. Let us give the floor to the general: “The VJTF (Very High Readiness Joint Task Force) is to deal with Article 4 situations [of the North-Atlantic Treaty] and that is our intention with it.” Article 4 speaks of cooperation and consultation between member states which cannot be described as in article 5 as experiencing armed aggression against any of them, but rather subjective feelings of para-military threats. What kind of situations are we dealing with here? General Krol leaves no doubt: “The plan was developed to react to hybrid threats in our area of operation. Our plans are scaleable to the situation,” he told the Financial Times.

The concept of hybrid war or hybrid actions has blossomed as a definition of the activities of Russia following the Ukrainian revolution of 2014. But what is interesting is that to this day it has not attained any unambiguous academic interpretation and various authors and experts define its scope in different ways. In The Financial Times, however, we read that the NATO spearhead has the right to take action in the case of the destabilization of the international situation in the country triggered by, for example, public protests.

What does this mean in practice? Any internal disturbance could be treated and presented by native as well as American “spearheadologists” as part of the activities vaguely defined as hybrid war. This might lead to the case in which protests against the effects of the TTIP Agreement supported by the Polish state could be treated as “hybrid activities.” Poles’ protests against crimes committed by US Army soldiers stationed in Poland could also turn out to be “hybrid war.” Antoni Macierewicz’s sick imagination could suggest dozens of different theories. After all, the current defense minister is so divorced from common sense that he believes that Radoslaw Sikorski, another pro-American hawk, is actually working for Moscow. Social unrest, protests, strikes, attempts to form information resources independent from the establishment, demanding transparency in the defense and foreign policies of the Polish authorities – all of these could become pretexts for one or another swing into action of advisers from NATO (mainly from the USA), who would provide “brotherly aid” to the Polish units and services subordinated to them. In this situation, all that is left is to hope that officers and officials will not want to stay in an “oral relationship” (the colorful expression of Sikorski) with their American overlords, will remind themselves of the dignity of the Polish uniform, and send all those representatives of foreign interests “concerned about our security” far back across the Atlantic Ocean. Meanwhile, we have been left with one thing: to loudly protest and by all law-abiding means block the realization of NATO’s plans which it will announce in July in Warsaw. It is also worth organizing a social movement for Poland’s exit from this pact as a condition of gaining elementary state sovereignty and a real sense of security.


A witch hunt is in full swing in Poland. The country’s repressive organs have arrested the well-known politician and leader of the party Zmiana (Change), Mateusz Piskorski. Piskorski was charged with spying for “third countries” as pro-government media accused him of working for Russian and Chinese intelligence services. Piskorski’s arrest followed his warning that the Polish government is “cleaning” the political space of the country of unwanted elements in the run-up to the NATO summit in Warsaw to be held on July 8th-9th, 2016. The members of the Change party are currently being searched. The Polish Internal Security Agency has seized the documents, personal computers, and cell phones of party members.

Left and Right against [Neo]Liberalism

Mateusz Piskorski, former deputy of the Polish Sejm for the party “Self-Defense of the Republic of Poland”, founded Zmiana in 2015. The backbone of the party consists of activists from both left and right-wing anti-liberal political structures who decided to act together against liberal hegemony in support of traditional values, Polish national identity, and social justice. Piskorski’s party managed to transcend the “left-right” division and establish a consolidated anti-liberal political force. Undoubtedly, one of the purposes of the repression against Zmiana was destroying this dangerous ideological enemy of the pseudo-conservatives of the ruling Law and Justice party.

Anti-Atlanticist party

Another reason for the repression against Zmiana is its anti-Atlanticist geopolitical position. The party and its leader are in favor of the restoration of Poland’s sovereignty, stand against the Republic of Poland’s membership in NATO, and have criticized the transformation of the country into an American colony which is being dragged into a possible confrontation with Russia. Piskorski and fellow activists visited Russian Crimea, where they participated as observers of the referendum on Crimea’s self-determination, and supported the peoples republics of Donbass against the Bandera regime in Kiev. Mateusz Piskorski is one of the leaders of the European Center for Geopolitical Analysis, a Euro-continentalist think thank.

Other repressions

Zmiana is not the only anti-Atlanticist structure which has endured repressions in Poland. Recently, anti-NATO activists of the Communist Party of Poland and the Grunwald Patriotic Workers’ Union were sentenced to “restricted liberty” for the “promotion of totalitarianism.” The repressions ongoing against Zmiana are mass-scale and grotesque, and simultaneously remind one of the political processes of totalitarian regimes from the ’30’s of the last century or the American witch hunt of the 1950’s.

Preparing for War

Poland has been transformed into a front line for the NATO-Russia confrontation. An additional contingent of NATO troops has been deployed to the country and part of the US missile defense system’s launchers, which can be used to house medium-range, nuclear-warhead missiles aimed at Russia, is planned to be placed in Poland. From the point of view of US strategists, Poles are expected to ensure the strengthening of American influence in Belarus and Ukraine. NATO military analysis are not embarrassed to talk about a possible military confrontation between NATO and Russia in which Poland would take part. The totalitarian repression against anti-Atlanticist forces in Poland anticipates the West’s further deterioration of relations with Russia. The chances of a new conflict (either a hybrid war or direct military clashes) on the territory of Ukraine or in the northwest of Russia have been evaluated as very high.