---
title: Polish Grassroots
date: 2018-11-22T19:02:52Z
modified: 2018-12-06T21:46:45Z
permalink: "https://350.org/hope-in-the-land-of-coal/"
type: super_pages
status: publish
excerpt: ""
wpid: 85220
---

### Hope in the land of coal

#### Stories from the grassroots movements in Poland.



[watch & share the film](#video)



This December Poland is hosting the UN climate talks, COP24. The meeting takes place in the city of Katowice, in the heart of the Silesia coal mining region.

The Polish government is notorious for its regressive politics on climate and other burning social and environmental issues.

But there’s another side of the story. **It’s being written right now by grassroots movements inside Poland, growing in number and power.**

**Watch and share the stories of the movements and growing people power.**

[Share the trailer on Facebook](https://www.facebook.com/sharer/sharer.php?u=https%3A//www.facebook.com/350.org/videos/1704418246324969&source=fb_pg_cop24_grassroots_video_061218&utm_medium=fb_pg&utm_source=350_europe&utm_campaign=cop24_grassroots_video_061218) [Share the trailer on Twitter](https://twitter.com/350/status/1070630651127316480?source=tw_share_cop24_grassroots_video_061218&utm_medium=tw_share&utm_source=350_europe&utm_campaign=cop24_grassroots_video_061218)

### The Voices



#### Agata Otrębska
Feminist Initiative

![](https://350.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/agata1.jpg)

_“I was so angry at what the government was doing that I went out and joined a protest.”_



#### Kuba Rok
Camp for the Forest

![](https://350.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/kuba1.jpg)

_“I’m not expecting any changes from the top. This change can only happen bottom-up.”_





#### Monika Sadkowska
Climate Camp

![](https://350.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/monika1.jpg)

_“We’re facing a massive challenge comparable to women gaining the vote or the abolition of slavery. None of these things happened because someone asked nicely and the other side conceded.”_



#### Józef Drzazgowski
Anti-lignite Movement

![](https://350.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/jozef1.jpg)

_“We are completely insignificant, while those who decide about whether or not to build this mine have all the power and the money, and that’s just how it goes.”_



#### Wojciech Kinasiewicz
Citizens of Poland

![](https://350.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/11/wojciech1.jpg)

_“People with a deeply ingrained sense of freedom, who feel this freedom is being taken away from them, get angry.”_











#### A Context Note



Poland has a strong history of protest and solidarity under oppression. Most famously, the anti-communist Solidarity movement has shaped the country’s history and is regarded as a key contributor to the end of Soviet domination more widely.

In today’s increasingly repressive environment, **grassroots activism in Poland has seen a revival.** More and more people have started to organise to defend Poland’s democracy, the Białowieża forest, push back against fascism and tightening abortion laws, fight for clean air, tenants’ and workers’ rights. They are growing, building power and have already achieved some wins.

Poland’s young climate justice movement has been building connections to other movements in the country. They know that all of these struggles are strengthening each other. They are all fighting for rights, justice and a society based on hope, solidarity and care for each other and the natural world. All of these movements together are working to **create the systemic change that is fundamentally necessary to address the climate crisis.**