This video in honor of Joanne Landy was made at the request of Piotr Niemczyk, an activist in the 1980’s in the Polish independent peace group “Freedom and Peace.” It was shown at an event in New York City on June 1, 2017, honoring Joanne Landy.
What follows is a loose translation of the Polish description of the video:
Thirty years ago, during the Polish activist movement in defense of peace, democracy and human rights, Joanne Landy came regularly to Poland from New York to talk about human rights and freedom for political prisoners, mobilize American public opinion and support the oppressed. It has been a long time.
In the 60’s, Joanne participated in protests against the imprisonment of Jacek Kuron and Karol Modzelewski, co-authors of The Open Letter to the Party, which criticized a new ruling and bureaucratic class in Poland and suggested replacing the existing system with workers' democracy (first published in English by New Politics.) Joanne responds and intervenes wherever human rights are violated, no matter who violates them and why. She can be met among people who are fighting for human rights and justice in Syria, Greece, Iraq, Afghanistan, South America, Asia.
Unfortunately, she now has a severe disease. She's undergoing a long and difficult therapy. A group of friends is having a meeting today (June 1, 2017) in New York to celebrate her, to show support and gratitude to her. A group of friends from Poland decided to be present at this meeting and therefore we made a special film for Joanne. Each and every one of us is indebted to her, which is why we want to express our solidarity. Especially thanks to the people who participated in the video preparation.
In the video are Danuta Kuron (underground Solidarnosc activist and widow of Jacek Kuron; Karol Modzelewski; former Solidarnosc activist Wldyslaw Frasyniuk; Leszek Budrewicz, poet and journalist, former Freedom and Peace (F&P) and Solidarnosc activist; Wojciech Jankowski, former F&P activist; Krzysztof Skiba (vocalist of the popular Polish rock band, Big Cyc and former F&P activist); Malgorzata Tarasiewicz (feminist, former F&P activist); Malgorzata Gorczewska, librarian, former F&P activist; Wojciech Bankyo Jankowski, former F&P activist; Szymon Dajewski, rap musician, performing at an anti-Nazi rally in Wroclaw; Pawel Kasprzak, Piotr Niemczyk, and Slawek Dutkiewicz, former F&P activists. And first of all Pawel Wrabec, without whom most of the photos (those of good quality) could not have been made.
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