The City Is Ours

The City Is Ours Miasto Jest Nasze
Abbreviation	MJN
Chairperson	Eryk Baczyński[1]
Founded	30 December 2014[2]
Headquarters	Gabriela Piotra Boduena 4, 00-011 Warsaw[2]
Ideology	Socialism[3] Anti-capitalism[4] Anti-neoliberalism[4] Environmentalism[5]
Political position	Centre-left[6] to left-wing[7]
National affiliation	The Left (2024 Warsaw local elections)
Colours	Yellow
Warsaw City Council	3 / 60
Warsaw district councils[8]	13 / 425
Website
www.miastojestnasze.org
Politics of Poland Political parties Elections

Miasto Jest Nasze members, 2018

Map of reprivatisation 2.0.

"Cigarettes for children" campaign

Election campaign

The City Is Ours (Polish: Miasto Jest Nasze, MJN) is an independent citizen platform launched in 2013 in Warsaw, as of 2014 registered as a non-profit civic association. Miasto Jest Nasze is considered to be one of the major urban movements in Poland. In 2018 Polish local elections coalition formed by Miasto Jest Nasze took 22 seats in Warsaw district councils.

Organization

Miasto Jest Nasze counts more than 250 members (February 2023) and is led by board headed by Barbara Jędrzejczyk. The association is present in 12 of 18 Warsaw districts.^[9]

Activity

Since its beginning, Miasto Jest Nasze focuses on exposing and publicizing malfunctions of Warsaw authorities. It supports transparency across all city functions as well as civic participation through participatory budgets and public consultations. As part of its activity, it monitors the work of politicians and city officials by publicizing irregularities in Warsaw's management and pressing on the importance of accountability. MJN uses tools typical to bottom-up organization (e.g. throwing up a street dance party)^[10][11] political party (e.g. running in elections) and think tanks (organizing conferences^[12] and publishing expert reports presenting alternative solutions^[13]).

Among its scope of interests are such issues as: sustainable transport in the city, community rights, environment (especially smog and preserving green areas in the city), land management,^[14] reprivatisation of Warsaw properties,^[15] participatory democracy.^[16]

Miasto Jest Nasze activity has been focusing on identifying and addressing critical issues, inter alia including the following:

• Urban development: promoting the long-term urban policy for a compact and functionally diverse city, the need of applying an active landscape policy for Warsaw and fighting visual advertisement chaos, example being the campaign “Żegnamy Reklamy” (“We say goodbye to advertisements”).^[17]
• Sustainable transport: supporting good practices in the further development of public transport and bicycle road infrastructure, promoting pedestrian-friendly space within the framework of the “Pedestrian Critical Mass”.^[18]
• Environment: recognizing the need for well-thought-out and environment-friendly solutions in the city, effective green area management and the urgency to fight smog.^[19] In 2017 MJN opened a temporary shop with “cigarettes for children”, in fact being a "Smog Information Center"– social campaign which met with a wide interest from nationwide media.^[20][21]
• Reprivatisation of Warsaw properties: Miasto Jest Nasze contributed to revealing the chaos and ambiguities around the process of real estate reprivatisation in Warsaw taking place in the capital intensely in the 1990s and 2000s (i.e. the handing back of properties to pre-communist owners due to change of political system).^[22] Broad publicity received maps revealing connections between politicians, including the mayor of Warsaw, lawyers, business people, and real estate companies.^[23] Miasto Jest Nasze was sued by some of individuals showed on the maps but won all cases.^[24]

Over the past years the activity of Miasto Jest Nasze has also been commented on in various foreign non-English press articles (including Frankfurter Rundschau,^[25] Mitteldeutscher Rundfunk,^[26] Le Monde,^[27] as well as Czech^[28][29] or Slovak^[30][31] media).

Warsaw municipal elections

2014

In 2014 local elections MJN won 7 seats in three Warsaw district councils (4 seats in Śródmieście, 2 in Praga-Północ, and 1 in Żoliborz).^[32][33]

2018

2018 local elections the coalition of local urban movements led by MJN received 5,72% of votes, winning 22 seats in 7 district councils (Mokotów, Ochota, Rembertów, Wawer, Wesoła, Wola, Żoliborz). Justyna Glusman, MJN candidate for mayor of Warsaw, received 2,32% of votes.^[34] After the election she became member of the Warsaw mayor board as the Warsaw City Hall coordinator responsible for sustainable development, green area management and fighting smog.^[35]

In the local elections of 2018, Miasto Jest Nasza launched an informative campaign to encourage EU citizens living in Warsaw to register and vote in the elections. The site allowed to generate a fast and user-friendly registration application, an innovative solution aiming at promoting the participation of the wide group of foreigners living in the capital.^[36]

2024

Upon the 2024 local elections MJN signed an electoral agreement with the Left Together on 29 January 2024,^[37][38][39] and run from The Left electoral lists.^[40][41] They gained three seats in the Warsaw City Council and twelve seats in Warsaw district councils.^[42][43]

International cooperation

Miasto jest Nasze is a member of the federation "Urban Movement Congress", which groups 40 organizations from around 20 Polish cities.^[44]

In June 2017 Miasto Jest Nasze members participated in the Fearless Cities Summit in Barcelona, organized by Barcelona en Comú within the global municipalist movement “Fearless Cities network”.^[45] In July 2018, Miasto Jest Nasze hosted the Fearless Cities CEE International Municipalist Summit in Warsaw. The first such conference to be held, it was a platform to exchange experiences on urban activism in the region, regrouping more than a hundred participants from Central and Eastern European municipalist movement organizations (including Spasi Sofia from Sofia,^[46] Ne Davimo Beograd from Belgrade, Praha sobě from Prague and Iare Pekhit from Tbilisi).^[12][47]

Ideology

The main goal of the association is to protest undemocratic and profit-driven forms of urban planning, such as reprivatization and gentrification projects. The party organized blockades to prevent evictions as well as destruction of districts that house low-income tenants or which are important for local culture. The association argues that city authorities in Poland have developed a "mechanism of destroying the everything in order to make money". Miasto Jest Nasze is strongly critical of neoliberal policies, which it sees as the cause of growing wealth inequality; it is also strongly critical of the Civic Platform party, arguing that despite being the main rival to populist Law and Justice, it fails to provide a real alternative given its support for privatization and neoliberal policies.^[5]

The association also promotes green politics and sustainable economics, including environmentalist urban planning methods.^[5] It advocate the development of green cities and serves as a watchdog for environmental causes, campaigning on the need to curb air pollution and smog in Warsaw.^[48] It is particularly well-known for publishing the "Map of Reprivatisation", which exposes connection bewteen politician and real estate companies involved in corruption and reprivatization programs.^[49] It also launched Warsaw Smog Alert and published the "Warsaw Map of Dirty Stoves", providing data about buildings that use low-quality coal stoves and their contribution to air pollution.^[50]

The association is positioned left of the political centre and advocates for egalitarianism and participatory democracy in urban planning. It aims to represents 'communities marginalised the in the mainstream (neo)liberal discourse' and is considered a tenant committee as well as a radical democracy association. It seeks to alleviate wealth inequality in the cities and urban decision-making, contents the capitalist-based power hierarchies in the cities, and challenge the "impenetrable ruling political class". Miasto Jest Nasze is strongly critical of capitalism as well as neoliberalism.^[4] It advocates a socialist economic system, and is known for slogans such as "housing for millions, not for millionaires" and "strike, strike against capitalism, our way is socialism".^[3]

Election results

Warsaw mayoral election

Election	Candidate	1st round		2nd round		Result
		Votes	%	Votes	%
2018	Justyna Glusman	20,643	2.32 (#5)	—		Lost[51]
2024	Supported Magdalena Biejat[52][53]	99,442	12.86 (#3)	—		Lost

Warsaw City Council

Election	Votes	%	Seats	−/+
2018	50,002	5.72 (#4)	0 / 60	New[54]
2024	102,009	13.30 (#3)	3 / 60	3
	As part of The Left which won 8 seats in total.

Warsaw district councils

Election	Seats	−/+
2014	7 / 423	New[33]
2018	22 / 425	15[55]
2024	12 / 420	10
	As part of The Left which won 29 seats in total.

References

1. "Ludzie — Miasto Jest Nasze". miastojestnasze.org. Retrieved 22 June 2024.
2. "MIASTO JEST NASZE". rejestr.io (in Polish). National Court Register. 2024.
3. ""Zero szans na mieszkanie!" – relacja z protestu przeciwko kredytowi 0%". faktyianalizy.info (in Polish). Archived from the original on 14 September 2024. Jan Mencwel ze stowarzyszenia Miasto Jest Nasze, który został wybrany na radnego Rady Warszawy, powiedział, że jedynym efektem programu kredyt 0% jest kolejny skokowy wzrost cen mieszkań. „Dziś, aby kupić sobie mieszkanie w Warszawie, trzeba być milionerem" – dodał. Zebrani skandowali „Mieszkania dla milionów, nie dla milionerów" oraz „uderz, uderz w kapitalizm, naszą drogą jest socjalizm". [Jan Mencwel of the City Is Ours association, who was elected as a councillor on the Warsaw City Council, said that the only effect of the 0% loan programme is another spike in housing prices. ‘Today, to buy a flat in Warsaw, you have to be a millionaire’. - he added. Those gathered chanted ‘Housing for millions, not for millionaires’ and ‘strike, strike capitalism, our way is socialism’.]
4. Moskalewicz, Marcin; Przybylski, Wojciech (2018). Understanding Central Europe. Routledge. p. 327. ISBN 978-1-315-15773-3. The most radical in common perception and at the same time advocating for the embodiment of the widest egalitarian ideal of democracy is the leftist emancipatory understanding of participatory democracy. It should not be associated with left-wing mainstream national parties, but rather with academic circles and NGOs – often very locally bounded – representing communities marginalised the in the mainstream (neo)liberal discourse. The examples can be tenant committees, radical democracy associations, groups such as Miasto jest Nasze (The City is Ours) or Polska Społeczna (Social Poland, with its most active branch Social Warsaw). Rooted in traditions of contestating the dominant power hierarchy, these perspectives emphasise the emancipatory and equalising potential of participation and argue that sensible use of participatory mechanisms can be a tool for combatting social exclusion. They attach a reformative touch to the overall systemic status quo, aspire to alleviate current inequality of access to political decisionmaking (and thus inequality in a wider sense) and aim for more egalitarianism in power relations. Participation in this understanding builds a foundation of a completely new democratic order, challenging not only impenetrable ruling political class, but also capitalism and (neo)liberal tale of urban development.
5. O’Dwyer, Conor (2021). "What is to be Done? Framings of Urban Populism in Prague and Warsaw" (PDF). Urbana. 22 (1). University of Florida: 57–58.
6. Błoński, Jan (10 June 2016). "Transformacja na pół gwizdka". wszystkoconajwazniejsze.pl (in Polish). Miasto Jest Nasze można by określić – używając łatek – jako centrolewicowe. [The City Is Ours could be described - using labels - as centre-left.]
7. "Lewica - jej walka o wpływy, kulturę i historię w Polsce". Szturm (in Polish). 29 August 2016. Archived from the original on 25 February 2017. Pokłosiem tego były oświadczenia marginalnych, lewackich stowarzyszeń i partii (np. Miasto Jest Nasze, partia Razem, 11listopada.org). [This was followed by statements from marginal, left-wing associations and parties (e.g. the City Is Ours, the Together party, 11listopada.org).]
8. "Radni MJN — Miasto Jest Nasze". miastojestnasze.org. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
9. "Poznaj nas". Miasto Jest Nasze (in Polish). Archived from the original on 2023-02-24. Retrieved 2023-05-16.
10. "Dziękujemy za wspaniałą Żoliborską Potańcówkę!". Miasto Jest Nasze. 26 June 2017.
11. "Międzypokoleniowa potańcówka na Żoliborzu". Miasto Jest Nasze. 8 June 2015.
12. "Fearless Cities CEE: 13-15 of July, Warsaw".
13. "#buspasyDlaWarszawy". Miasto Jest Nasze. 5 April 2018.
14. "Warsaw mayor in corruption probe: report". Radio Poland. 8 February 2017.
15. Berendt, Joanna (2018-06-10). "In Poland, 'a Narrow Window to Do Justice' for Those Robbed by Nazis". The New York Times. Retrieved 2018-12-03.
16. Rushton, Steve (26 September 2018). "In Warsaw, Right to the City Means Clean Air and Affordable Homes". Resilience.
17. "Żegnamy Reklamy!". www.zegnamyreklamy.pl. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
18. "Piesza Polska: koalicja – dołącz do nas! – Piesza Masa Krytyczna" (in Polish). Retrieved 2019-02-13.
19. Perry, Francesca (2017-02-16). "'You can taste it in the air': your stories of life in polluted cities". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
20. "Sklep z papierosami dla dzieci. Już wiadomo, o co chodzi". www.fakt.pl. 2017-02-27. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
21. "Controversial anti-smog campaign sparks debate in Poland - Xinhua | English.news.cn". www.xinhuanet.com. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
22. Davies, Christian (2017-12-18). "'They stole the soul of the city': how Warsaw's reprivatisation is causing chaos". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
23. Wasik, Zosia (26 September 2017). "Polish activists turn to digital democracy". Financial Times.
24. Dymek, Jakub (29 August 2016). "Your house is now ours". Krytyka Polityczna & European Alternatives.
25. Opielka, Jan (2016-07-25). "Chmielna-Fall: Dubiose Eigentümer". www.fr.de (in German). Retrieved 2019-02-13.
26. "Anti-Smog-Kampagne: Zigarettenladen für Kinder | MDR.DE". www.mdr.de (in German). 2017-03-03. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
27. Iwaniuk, Jakub (2018-10-19). "La bataille de Varsovie, enjeu-clé des élections locales en Pologne" (in French). Retrieved 2019-02-13.
28. "Církev si ve Varšavě na nejdražším polském pozemku postaví "dvojčata" – mrakodrapy". Novinky.cz. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
29. "Všechny nás neupálíte". A2larm (in Czech). Retrieved 2019-02-13.
30. "Vyraziť do Poľska na nákupy nemusí byť lacná záležitosť. Vláda zvažuje zavedenie mýta". www.noviny.sk. 2018-04-01. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
31. "Ekológovia chystajú sťažnosť na poľskú vládu. Dôvodom je smog". Pravda.sk (in Slovak). 2017-02-10. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
32. "Radni dzielnicowi wybrani. Oficjalne wyniki". TVN24.pl. TVN. 24 November 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
33. "Obwieszczenie Komisarza Wyborczego w Warszawie z dnia 22 listopada 2014 r. o wynikach wyborów do rad na obszarze województwa mazowieckiego" (PDF). warszawa.kbw.gov.pl. National Electoral Office. 22 November 2014. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
34. "Wyniki wyborów Prezydenta i do Rady m.st. Warszawy". Państwowa Komisja Wyborcza (National Electoral Commission). 2018.
35. "Justyna Glusman w zespole Rafała Trzaskowskiego w ratuszu". www.rp.pl (in Polish). Retrieved 2019-02-13.
36. "Foreigners living in Warsaw encouraged to vote in local elections | Polska Agencja Prasowa SA". www.pap.pl. 2018-10-08. Retrieved 2019-02-13.
37. "Pakt „Marzenie o Warszawie" podpisany. Lewica Razem i „Miasto Jest Nasze" wspólnie do wyborów". warszawa.tvp.pl. Telewizja Polska. 29 January 2024. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
38. "Lewica Razem i Miasto Jest Nasze łączą siły. Wystartują wspólnie w wyborach samorządowych". TVN24.pl. TVN. 29 January 2024. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
39. Szyda, Jakub (29 January 2024). "Lewica Razem i Miasto Jest Nasze łączą siły". rmf24.pl. RMF FM. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
40. "Liderki i liderzy KKW Lewica do Rady Warszawa — Miasto Jest Nasze". miastojestnasze.org. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
41. Durlik, Mateusz (5 March 2024). "Wybory samorządowe 2024: Lewica i MJN zatwierdziły listy na Żoliborzu". Gazeta Żoliborza. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
42. "Sukces wyborczy Miasto Jest Nasze — Miasto Jest Nasze". miastojestnasze.org. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
43. "Powrót Lewicy do Rady Warszawy. Jest jedno zaskoczenie". TVN24.pl. TVN. 9 April 2024. Retrieved 11 April 2024.
44. "Kongres Ruchów Miejskich (Urban Movement Congress)".
45. "MJN na światowym kongresie ruchów miejskich w Barcelonie". Miasto Jest Nasze. 11 June 2017.
46. ""To pozostałości linii tramwajowej". Spasi Sofia odpowiada Jakiemu". TVN Warszawa. 23 August 2018.
47. "Fearless Cities Municipalist Manual" (PDF). 2019.
48. Barcelona En Comú; Debbie Bookchin; Ada Colau (2019). Fearless Cities: A Guide to the Global Municipalist Movement (PDF). New Internationalist Publications Ltd. p. 185. ISBN 978-1-78026-504-9.
49. Kubicki, Paweł (2020). "Inventing Urbanity: Urban Movement in Poland". Society Register. 4 (4): 98. doi:10.14746/sr.2020.4.4.04. ISSN 2544-5502.
50. Putkowska-Smoter, Renata; Frankowski, Jan (2020). "Right to the map? Counter-mapping practices of smog alerts and ubran greenery movements in Poland". Society Register. 4 (4): 136. doi:10.14746/sr.2020.4.4.06. ISSN 2544-5502.
51. "Wybory samorządowe 2018". wybory2018.pkw.gov.pl. National Electoral Commission. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
52. Kolanko, Michał (14 February 2024). "Magdalena Biejat kandydatką Lewicy i stowarzyszenia Miasto Jest Nasze w Warszawie". Rzeczpospolita. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
53. "Magda Biejat – nasza kandydatka na Prezydentkę Warszawy — Miasto Jest Nasze". miastojestnasze.org. 15 February 2024. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
54. "Wybory samorządowe 2018". wybory2018.pkw.gov.pl. National Electoral Commission. Retrieved 30 March 2024.
55. "Obwieszczenie Komisarza Wyborczego w Warszawie I z dnia 25 października 2018 r. o wynikach wyborów do rad na obszarze województwa mazowieckiego". warszawa.kbw.gov.pl. National Electoral Office. 25 October 2018. Retrieved 30 March 2024.

External links

• Official website