Intersectional organising for change

At the end of 2019 – in the aftermath of Poland’s parliamentary elections – we found ourselves at an exciting crossroads. As Polish activists organising in the UK for several years, we had witnessed one of the largest shifts in public attitudes among the Polish diaspora. This shift included historic voter turnout rates, greater interest in democratic participation and feminist organising, and growing progressive political consciousness, especially among women and LGBTQ+ people.

As POMOC co-founders, both of us had lived experience of the sharp end of the hostile environment. Marzena Zukowska (they/​them) had lived undocumented in the US for 14 years. They faced intersecting challenges as a queer and nonbinary/​transmasc individual growing up in the conservative Polish community in Chicago, and became activated in the 2010s during the Dreamers Movement and the fight for domestic workers rights. Magda Fabianczyk (she/​her) arrived in the UK before Poland joined the EU, starting her journey as an undocumented migrant, who worked in precarious sectors, such as domestic work and hospitality. For a decade and a half, she has worked on socially engaged art projects across several countries, and in 2016 she began organising the UK Polish community in response to ongoing attacks on human rights in Poland.

By 2019, both of us had had years of experience organising and mobilising tens of thousands of Polish people and other diasporic communities in support of migrants and workers rights, Black liberation, reproductive justice, LGBTQ+ equality, and pro-democracy efforts. We built this work across multiple countries, from the US to Poland to the UK. We brought expertise from diverse disciplines including community and electoral organising, mediation, socially-engaged art, co-creation, narrative and cultural strategy, ethical storytelling, and innovative research methodologies. We had launched and managed campaigns at local, national and international levels, and we had already built community trust and strong partnerships with Polish, Roma, Eastern European and migrant community groups in various cities across the UK. Many of those communities emphasised to us the need for deeper, continuous and more intersectional organising in their local regions.

It was at this juncture that POMOC was born, as a grassroots political home for Eastern European migrants of marginalised genders living in the UK to organise for dignity, power and justice. 

In just four years, despite the limitations of the Covid-19 pandemic, POMOC evolved from a small project to a multi-staff organisation, reaching thousands across several UK regions. To date, we are the only national nonprofit organising and mobilising Eastern European migrants around social justice issues. As a unique and leading voice in migrants rights, we contribute to forums that shape the direction and practice of sectors we work in from philanthropy to democracy. We have trained and supported 100+ leaders and mobilised thousands through leadership in and contribution to national campaigns like WeVote (founded by POMOC and formerly known as SheVotes), Our Home Our Vote (in collaboration with Migrant Democracy Project), and Solidarity Knows No Borders (in collaboration with Migrants Organise).