All-Polish Youth
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| “ | Youth! Faith! Nationalism! | „ |
| ~ The slogan of All-Polish Youth |
The All-Polish Youth (Polish: Młodzież Wszechpolska) refers to two inter-linked Polish far-right ultranationalist youth organizations, with a Catholic-nationalist philosophy. Its agenda declares that its aim is "to raise Polish youth in a Catholic and patriotic spirit".
The inter-war incarnation was created in 1922 as part of the National Democracy movement, and was modelled after the inter-war fascist movement Falanga. During World War II it operated underground and was clamped down on the break of 1945/1946 by the Communist authorities.
The present incarnation was created on December 2, 1989. Its manifesto from 1989 states that "one's country is the greatest earthly good. After God, your foremost love belongs to the Homeland, and foremost after God you must serve your own country," and declares itself opposed to "doctrines promoting liberalism, tolerance, and relativism.
The All-Polish Youth was affiliated with the League of Polish Families (2001-2006), but was never officially its youth wing. In the 21st Century it has been a fierce opponent of LGBT rights leading it to be widely condemned as homophobic by various organisations.
The All-Polish Youth has strong alliance with National Movement party, but is independent and not part of this party.
Background edit
Inter-war All-Polish Youth edit
The organisation, properly the Academic Union "All-Polish Youth" (Związek Akademicki "Młodzież Wszechpolska"), was founded in 1922 as an ideological youth organisation with a strong nationalist sentiment, and was the largest student organisation in the Second Polish Republic. The Founding Convention of the All-Polish youth took place in March 1922, with Roman Dmowski being selected honorary chairman.
The term "All-Polish" is intended to represent a desire to unify all Polish lands, and accentuate national ties and the equality of all people of Polish origin regardless of their wealth or social status. The idea for creating the organization occurred when Poland was partitioned and not officially on the world map, therefore it aimed to unite Poles from all three partitions. In the inter-war period, members of the organisation participated actively in academic life, and became the heads of many student organisations. The All-Polish Youth was the largest student organization in Poland during the 1930s. The goals of the organization were mainly focused on three issues:
- Defending the autonomy of universities against centralising forces of the government
- Campaigning for lower tuition fees
- Limitation of non-Polish, especially Jewish students, from higher education
All-Polish Youth was the least radical of organizations of the National Democracy camp. Nevertheless, some of its members praised Mussolini and his Italian fascism for its hardline stances towards the left and realisation of "national revolution". Part of the members, including Jędrzej Giertych, also praised Hitler's Germany economical changes, but understood that it is with the contradiction with Polish national interests and changed his views a year after NSDAP obtained power in Germany. According to Jan Mosdorf, a pre-war chairman of All-Polish Youth who was murdered in Auschwitz, the organization was against fascists and Hitlerites. Some Members of the All-Polish Youth also praised authoritarian regimes of the Mediterranean, Salazar's Portugal and Franco's Spain.[citation needed]
They also favoured economically boycotting the Jews and limiting their access to higher education (numerus clausus). The All-Polish Youth also actively campaigned for ghetto benches, segregated seating for Jewish students.
Modern days edit
The modern incarnation of the All-Polish Youth was founded in Poznań in 1989, on the initiative of Roman Giertych, the former leader of the League of Polish Families (LPR). Continuing the tradition of its precursors, the organisation maintains its aim of raising youth with their ideology, and operates across all of Poland, working with high-school and university students.
In 2006, the Polish Public Prosecutor's office launched an investigation after a video recording from a private party was leaked to the Polish press. It was considered that All-Polish Youth members including Leokadia Wiącek, a personal assistant of Maciej Giertych (member of the European Parliament), were seen fraternizing with Neo-Nazi skinheads, listening to Neo-Nazi bands, and saluting the swastika. Following the incident, Leokadia Wiącek was expelled from All-Polish Youth, and the League of Polish Families cut ties with the group. As it was later determined, during the private party Leokodia Wącek was not a member of the organisation and the main Polish television channel Telewizja Polska apologized to All-Polish Youth for accusing them of neo-nazi connotations.
All-Polish Youth have declared that it is only by making Poland a Catholic state that its future will be secured, and chairman Konrad Bonisławski has stated "We do not want to become like Holland with its free drugs and gay marriage. Since joining the European Union we have seen attempts to destroy our Catholic values."
All-Polish Youth have gained considerable press coverage due to their staunch opposition of abortion and, particularly, homosexuality (which their website condemns as "unnatural behaviour" and describes gay rights marches as "militant homosexualism"). This has led to (sometimes violent) clashes with pro-choice and gay rights demonstrators.
All-Polish Youth have been widely condemned as homophobic by various organisations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and even the United Nations (which, in their Universal Periodic Review, describes All-Polish Youth as an "extremist homophobic grouping"), as well as a multitude of gay rights organisations such as OutRage! and the Polish Campaign Against Homophobia. In 2004, 2005, and 2006, All-Polish Youth members and sympathizers violently attacked people who were taking part in pro-gay demonstrations, throwing eggs, bottles and rocks at them, and were reported to have shouted "Send the fags to the hospital", "Perverts, get out of Kraków", "Let's gas the fags" and "We'll do to you what Hitler did to the Jews".
From 2012 onwards, the organisation has been heavily involved in playing a major role as part of the National Movement party, a party which the organisation was one of the several co-founders.
In January 2019, the organisation's leader from 2015 to 2016, Adam Andruszkiewicz, was appointed as Poland's deputy minister for digital affairs.
Former member (joined 2000), Lubusz chapter leader (2003–2004) and chairman (2005 and 2006) Krzysztof Bosak became the Confederate Party candidate for the presidential election 2020 after winning the presidential primaries held at the party convention in Warsaw on January 18, 2020.
In August 2019, the Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination called the Polish government to delegalize and criminalize All-Polish Youth (along with several others) for promoting and inciting racial discrimination.
Villainy edit
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Trivia edit
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