Self-Defence Rebirth
Self-Defence Rebirth is a Polish political party founded by the former Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland activists. The party was founded by the former lawyer of Andrzej Lepper, Henryk Dzido, who split off from the main Self-Defence party following numerous scandals and the electoral collapse of Samoobrona. Self-Defence Rebirth was also created over concerns that Samoobrona might form a coalition with the right-wing League of Polish Families. Zbigniew Witaszek is one of the key activists of the new party. The party describes itself as Catholic socialist, agrarian socialist, Soft Eurosceptic and left-wing.
The main goal of Self-Defence Rebirth to unite all movements that have distanced themselves from Lepper's party but are still based on the Samoobrona party. According to its founder Henryk Dzido, Self-Defence Rebirth is strictly left-wing and aspired to follow the original program of the Samoobrona movement from the 1990s. The party is concerned by the rise of right-wing movements in Poland such as the League of Polish Families. The party also focuses on promoting agrarian and rural interests, with the current leader of the party, Sławomir Izdebski, being a prominent member of a rural national trade union center All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions.
History
The party was formed in July 2007 from a merger of the Self-Defence Social Movement party and several other marginal groups formed by splitters from the Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland. Other parties that participated in the founding of the party were Self-Defence of the Polish Nation, Patriotic Self-Defence, as well regionalist Self-Defence factions of Gorzów and Radom. The main reason behind the creation of Self-Defence Rebirth was to protest the concept of League and Self-Defence, which would be a merger of Self-Defence with far-right League of Polish Families. SO also seceded over the promissory notes scandal; the issue of promissory notes in Self-Defence became notorious in late 2006, when several MPs left the Samoobrona parliamentary club. The party then announced the "launch" of promissory notes against the defectors, which the MPs had signed before the election. This obliged the defectors to pay compensation to the party, which often amounted to several hundred thousand PLN.Self-Defence Rebirth stems from the Social Movement faction within Samoobrona, which emerged in early 2000s amongst local party activists in Mazowsze; the faction became known for social justice actions such as obstructing and proesting evictions. The faction also focused on rural and agrarian issues, and organized local rural trade unions. This made the faction be considered a peasant movement, which became popular in the countryside.
Conflict between Social Movement and original Samoobrona emerged in early 2006, as electoral lists that the party would register for the 2006 Polish local elections excluded many long-time party activists in favour of new but connected members or independent candidates that the party established cooperation with. This made Sławomir Izdebski, the leader of the faction, enter a personal conflict with the leader of the region Krzysztof Filipek. Ultimately, Izdebski confronted the leader of the party Andrzej Lepper, demanding removal of Filipek from the structures of the party. Lepper dismissed the demand and expelled Izdebski from the party, which sparked the exodus of Social Movement faction from the party.
Soon, the problem of SRP's electoral lists turned into a scandal, as it was alleged that Lepper promised places on electoral lists and would exclude those who did not have enough money; this turned into a practice of candidates buying positions on the party's list. Izdebski declared that he was one of the victims to the party's electoral list trading, as it was demanded of him to be included in the list only to be excluded when someone paid more for his place. The existence of numerous irregularities within the party was to be confirmed by further reports of breaches of the law by Lepper and his associates; on the eve of the conclusion of the coalition agreement with the Law and Justice party in 2016, information emerged about recordings of MP Wiśniewski's telephone conversations, which were said to indicate illegal financing of the 2005 election campaign by sympathetic businessmen.
The faction then decided to form a separate political part, gathering 2300 members in total. The party was formally registered in March, and the national founding convention of the Self-Defence Social Movement was held on 12 March 2006, in Czosnów. It was attended by around 100 people - expelled by Lepper from the party and in conflict with the authorities of Samoobrona. Those taking part in the convention, in accordance with the new party's statute, democratically elected the authorities of Self-Defence Social Movement, with Sławomir Izdebski as chairman, former senator Henryk Dzido, former Samoobrona MP Tadeusz Wojtkowiak and Zbigniew Łuczak as vice-chairmen, former MP Zbigniew Witaszek became the treasurer.
Party leaders included fifth-term senator Henryk Dzido, fifth-term MP Alfred Budner and fourth-term MPs Marian Curyło, Waldemar Borczyk and Zbigniew Witaszek. The party also included Sławomir Izdebski, a prominent agrarian trade unions activists related to Polish People's Party and the peasant movement.
In the parliamentary elections in 2007, Alfred Budner and Sławomir Izdebski ran for the Sejm from the Law and Justice list, but did not obtain a seat as an MP. In Konin electoral district, Alfred Budner received 6736 votes, and Sławomir Izdebski in Siedlce electoral district received 3838 votes.
In November 2007, another new party that split from Samoobrona was created - the Party of Regions created out of the regionalist wing of Samoobrona. As Self-Defence Rebirth itself was closely aligned to Samoobrona regionalist, the party postponed their convention in order to start merger talks with the Party of Regions.
By the end of 2007, most of Samoobrona Odrodzenie's activists joined other groups - including Party of Regions, PSL and PiS. On 2 September 2008 it was deleted from the register of political parties.
Following the suicide of Andrzej Lepper in 2011, Self-Defence Rebirth under the leadership of Henryk Dzido sought to revitalise the Samoobrona movement by uniting various minor fractured parties and movements under the single banner of Self-Defence Rebirth. Dzido was considered a conciliatory figure acceptable to all former factions and wings of Samoobrona.
After an unsuccessful attempt to take over Samoobrona following the death of Andrzej Lepper in 2011, Henryk Dzido decided to relaunch Samoobrona Odrodzenie. An application for party registration was submitted in 2012, and as a result of a court order of 10 January 2013, the party was again listed in the register of political parties. The party tried to re-organize and revive the Samoobrona movement after the death of its leader - in an interview, Henryk Dzido stated that many sympathizers of Samoobrona became active after Lepper's and were interested in making it a political force again. SO stated its belief that while Polish political scene was becoming consolidated between two major parties, this situation would be temporary as "the dominance of two right-wing parties is not normal". In 2014, the party started cooperating with Stronnictwo Polska Racja Stanu, among others. At the time, it failed to agree on a joint run in the 2014 Polish local elections with Organisation of the Polish Nation - Polish League. The SO fielded one election list each for the mazowieckie and podkarpackie assemblies.
During the convention of re-registered Self-Defence Rebirth, its leader at the time, Henryk Dzido, emphasised that the party wishes to "continue the noble ideals and program" of the original Self-Defence of the Republic of Poland party, although Dzido emphasised that the program of Self-Defence Rebirth was "modified according to the times". The party released a statement stating that only grassroots support and local structures will allow the Samoobrona movement to enter politics again, and that Self-Defence Rebirth wants to dedicate itself to building "a solid and stable membership base". Regardings its ideology, Self-Defence Rebirth announced a return "to the best traditions of Samoobrona RP", although the party also stated that it wants to abandon the common image of Self-Defence as a protest party.
In 2011, the party became active in regional farmer councils, with party members such as Stanisław Izdebski becoming members of the Council of the Chamber of Agriculture in Siedlce. The party also reached out to Polish miners, considering them fellow allies of the agrarian movement and calling for protectionist measures that would allow the local mining industry to develop instead of importing coal from the East. SO continued the tradition of organizing prominent farmer protests - an action that original Samoobrona became infamous for in the 1990s. The party condemned fellow trade unionists that decided to negotiate with the government, and continued 2011 protests in order to extract further concessions.
In 2014, Self-Defence Rebirth accepted the invitation of Samoobrona's leader Lech Kuropatwiński, with the goal of the meeting being stated as "unity in the local government elections as well as in post-election activities". As a result of the meeting, the two parties agreed on a joint election committee called "Self-Defence ONP-LP". However, the planned coalition was cancelled a few days later because the activists of Polish Independence Assembly and the Organisation of the Polish Nation - Polish League withdrew from coalition-talks. As such, the electoral committee "Self-Defence ONP-LP" was annulled.
In the second round of the 2015 Polish presidential election, the SO supported Andrzej Duda of PiS. In the 2015 Polish parliamentary election, the party did not run. The party extended its cooperation with agrarian trade unions in 2015, organizing the congress of Farmers and Agricultural Organisations at the Warsaw University of Life Sciences. The congress was attended by around 300 farmers, and several road blockades by agrarian activists were subsequently planned and carried out. SO demanded financial compensation to farmers by the government due to declining prices, compensation for crops destroyed by wild boards, as well as speeding up the payment of EU subsidies. Political commentators focused on the emergence of Stanisław Izdebski as a prominent figure within the party, portraying him as "growing into a Lepper".
Sławomir Izdebski became the head of the All-Poland Agreement of Trade Unions of Farmers and Agricultural Organisations, and also became a co-founder of the Social Movement of the Republic of Poland. The new organization was founded together with the far-left Social Justice Movement, and was to be an alternative to centre-left parties such as Democratic Left Alliance and Palikot Movement; it represents the interests of farmers, trade unions, disabled, unemployed and regionalist activists.
In August 2018, the party established cooperation with Samoobrona. On 7 October of the same year, the chairman of the grouping, Henryk Dzido, died. In the 2018 Polish local elections and in the 2019 Polish parliamentary election, SO did not run.
In the 2023 Polish parliamentary election, the new leader of the party Sławomir Izdebski attacked the leader of AGROunia, a left-wing agrarian party inspired by Samoobrona, for joining the Civic Coalition. Izbedski declared that "no one has ever before in history humiliated Polish farmers in the way that Michał Kołodziejczak has done", and invited AGROunia members to join Self-Defence Rebirth and the adjacent rural trade union All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions of Farmers and Agricultural Organisations. SO stated that it will continue to defend the interests of Polish farmers and trade unions. Izdeski also formed three main demands to parties competing in the election, which included less predatory credits for farmers, more accessible building credits and construction of additional agrarian warehouses.
The party formulated "The Farmers' Twelve Points" for the 2023 election in cooperation with representatives of agrarian trade unions. The points included long-term loans for farmers, land-leasing, increased investment in animal husbandry research and reduced imports of agricultural products from abroad. Three of main political parties agreed to these demands - Law and Justice, Confederation Liberty and Independence and Polish People's Party. The party spoke particularly warmly of Polish People's Party, but it refrained from making an endorsement because the coalition partner of PSL, Poland 2050, rejected the twelve points. Original Samoobrona also made no endorsement and asked its supporters to vote with their conscience, although it criticized Law and Justice in its statement, arguing that the party betrayed Lepper and SRP back in 2007.
In 2024, Sławomir Izdebski and the party supported the 2024 Polish farmers' protests, and Izdebski's trade union also voted in favour of joining the protests. Izdebski criticized individual farmer groups that signed an agreement with the government, arguing that the agreements signed are worthless and do not take into account most of the problems that forced the farmers to protest in the first place. Izdebski demanded that the EU-imposed restrictions on fur farming be lifted, along with special subsidies to farmers. The demands of Self-Defence Rebirth farmers also included protectionist measures against the Ukrainian grain.