Cowley Club

Shared solidarity and hidden resistance in the Polish-Belarussian woods

Date
Sunday 19th February 2023
Doors
19:00 - 22:00
Members and Guests
12LRSC Members and Guests welcome

Seven months before Ukraine’s mass exodus to the EU, a humanitarian crisis of a different nature was already taking place at the edge of Fortress Europe. Where on one side refugees are met with unanticipated generosity, 100km further north, Poland is constructing a border wall through Europe’s oldest natural forest to prevent the “wrong refugees” from crossing

Shared solidarity and hidden resistance in the Polish-Belarussian woods

Many have frozen to death in the forest, been abused by border guards or pushed back to Belarus countless times. Polish activists supporting people in the emergency state zone, where no human rights observers, journalists or humanitarian aid is allowed, are massively criminalized. In a documentary filmed in June 2022, refugees and activists who uphold these hidden structures of solidarity talk about their experiences and the difficult work that needs to be done