The death has been announced of the veteran anarchist Jakub Pol?k, regarded as the leading
light of the Czechoslovak and later Czech anarchist movement. The founder of numerous
anarchist initiatives and long-time editor of the anarchist paper A-kontra, Pol?k was
perhaps best known for his public ? and at times unpopular ? defence of the Roma
community. ---- At both public rallies and in courtroom debates, Jakub Pol?k was an
unmistakeable presence: his wild, unkempt hair, grey beard and crooked teeth giving him a
slightly wolfish appearance. He was certainly several dozen years older than most of the
young anarchists gathered around him, and became something of a doyen of the anarchist
movement. One of his closest acquaintances was political scientist and fellow anarchist
Ond?ej Sla??lek, who announced his death ? shortly after his 60th birthday - to the media.
He had this to say about his friend.
?Jakub Polak was truly an unchained element. If anyone personified not only anarchism but
anarchy, unleased energy - it was to a great extent him. He was driven by a powerful
refusal to let himself be restrained by any kind of obstacle standing in his path, whether
it was a police cordon or ideas about ideological purity.?
A dissident and member of the underground in communist times, Jakub Pol?k launched
numerous anarchist initiatives after the fall of communism in 1989, quickly becoming
involved with a number of causes he felt passionate about. One was discrimination and
hostility towards the Roma community; hostility that spilled over into acts of wanton
violence in the early 1990s.
One of the most notorious race-related killings in the early years of the independent
Czech Republic was the drowning of the Roma teenager Tibor Danihel by neo-Nazi skinheads
in the town of P?sek in September 1993. Ond?ej Sla??lek says it was largely thanks to
Pol?k?s tireless campaigning that Danihel?s killers were finally put behind bars:
?Back then there was a general tendency to play down the seriousness of such crimes. You
know, that it was just a boyish prank that got out of hand, that the skinheads didn?t
really mean to hurt anybody. I think even the state prosecutor used the word ?boyish
prank?. There was also an attempt by these small town local officials to sweep the whole
thing under the carpet, and the skinheads were initially given suspended sentences. Jakub
got involved with his typical energy and dedication, broke apart the manipulated police
version of events, and after an endless round of appeals managed to get them properly
punished.?
Pol?k?s contemporaries say he was primarily motivated by a sense of justice, something he
believed that was worth fighting for. But he also felt strongly about the freedom of
speech. He defended extremism expert Zden?k Zbo?il after the political science professor
was severely reprimanded by Charles University for inviting far-right extremists to speak
at his class on political extremism. Jakub Pol?k and several left-wingers were also
invited to address the class. Pol?k and others defended Zbo?il?s decision at a time when
he was roundly condemned by academics and politicians including the prime minister of the
time, Milos Zeman.
Pol?k ? who died of cancer ? was honoured in 2001 by the Charter 77 Foundation for his
long battle against prejudice and police apathy in cases of racially-motivated murder in
the Czech Republic.
Bron : a-infos-en@ainfos.ca
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