Social work
Action by Syrena Colective
S. Rassalski, Voluntary workers tidying debris from Nowolipki Street in Warsaw. Courtesy of National Digital Archive
Syrena Collective invites to participation in the "Social Work" action:
"During the reconstruction of Warsaw between 1945 and 1959 Varsovians worked 50 million hours for free. It was accompanied by an applause of elites of that time. With the transformation afer the year 1989 new priorities emerged, inscribed in bills, expressed in plans of authorities. Socially built capital of Warsaw – real estate – remain immobile, but their creators became victims. Social workers praised in the past are being marginalized. It refers to other groups living in Warsaw and Poland as well, perceived according to the needs of the market – either as human capital or as useless groups. We protest against it. Social work is not finished yet, let it last, even against the will of present authorities. With the hands of "useless generations" 1945-2015 we will take on work, which will make it impossible to forget about us and about them."
Syrena Collective is an autonomous space of initiatives, located in the recuperated tenement house at 30, Wilcza Street in Warsaw. Space functions as place for non-commercial actions and support for local initiatives and inhabitants. Syrena Collective "uses space as source of direct interventions and confrontation with the politics of the city and private investors, which in line with the priority for profit, deny the inhabitants their right to the city".
Collective members speak of themselves: "We regain the city at different fields: from direct actions such as blockades of frequent and illegal evictions to support for proscribed immigrants, workers hired at junk contracts, inhabitants defending public spaces and all people discriminated by the law and authorities".
