21.04.17 – Krytyka Polityczna: to be a leftist intellectual in the post-socialist context

“Krytyka Polityczna” (eng. “Political critique”) is a circle of Polish leftist intellectuals gathered around the magazine founded by Sławomir Sierakowski in 2002. As its task “Krytyka Polityczna” sees the creation of new leftist environment in Poland with the aim of combating various forms of inequality, discrimination, exclusion and exploitation. “Krytyka Polityczna” today is a club, a print and web magazine, a publishing house, they hold exhibitions, educational projects, and debates.

What difficulties did Krytyka Polityczna encounter and continue to face in the former socialist Poland? How to overcome the stereotypes associated with the leftist movement and promote its creative potential where the memory of the painful socialist past is still alive?

The activists of “Krytyka Polityczna” – Agnieszka Wiszniewska, Ela Rutkowska, David Krawczyk, Mikolaj Syska – will tell about their experience.

Agnieszka Wisniewska is the chief editor of the page KrytykaPolityczna.pl, in 2009-2015 she coordinated the club Action of Political Criticism. She is the author of the biography of Heinrich Kshyvonas “Solidarities big, small solidarities” and of an interview with Malgorzata Szumowska “Cinema is a school of survival.” Editor of books on the cinema of the publishing house “Krytyka Polityczna”.