Polish political parties

Last modified: 2022-11-19 by rob raeside
Keywords: political parties | solidarnosc | opzz | upr | pzpr | zsl | sam |
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• Solidarność
• Solidarność other flag
• All Poland Trade Union Alliance
• Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, PZPR  (Polish United Workerś Party)
• Ruch Autonomii Slaska (Silesian Autonomy Movement)
• Nowa Lewica (New Left)
• Zjednoczone Stronnictwo Ludowe, ZSL (United Peasantś Party)
• UPR
• Committee for the Defence of Democracy
• Polish Socialist Party
• Democratic Party
• Civic Platform
• Movement of Social Justice

• Poland

Solidarność flag

Solidarność: Lech Walesa's party which struggled for liberty: Polish flag with the Solidarność signature on the white stripe.
Luc Baronian, 18 May 1999

"Solidarnosc" ("Solidarity") is not the party, but trade union. The full name is: Niezalezny Samorzadny Zwiazek Zawodowy "Solidarnosc" (Independent Self-Governing Trade Union "Solidarity"). Created 1980.
Flag of "Solidarity" is plain white with the signature. White-red bicolor with signature on white stripe might be used during
anti-communist demonstrations in 1980-es, but was never official flag of "Solidarity".
Grzegorz Skrukwa, 2 Aug 2001

Solidarność other flag

All Poland Trade Union Alliance (Ogólnopolskie Porozumienie Związków Zawodowych)

Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, PZPR  (Polish United Workerś Party)

Flags of political parties under communist regime in Poland 1948-1989
Polska Zjednoczona Partia Robotnicza, PZPR  (Polish United Workerś Party, i.e. communist party) had plain red flag. Called "workerś movement flag" or "international workerś movement flag".
Grzegorz Skrukwa, 6 Apr 2002

Ruch Autonomii Śląska (Silesian Autonomy Movement)

Ruch Autonomii Śląska (Czech: Hnutí autonomie Slezska; English: Silesian Autonomy Movement)
The homepage of this party was last updated in 2001, just before the 2001 elections in Poland, where it presented four candidates as Members of Parliament. The movement wants the reunion of all Silesias in Poland, Germany and Czechia (8 million inhabitants on 44.000 km².)
On its page with photographs are several flags:
- hor NRW 1:2:1 (probably students union)
- hor YB with Coat of Arms in the center (Coat of Arms, probably yellow Silesian eagle on blue, hardly visible) - Landmannschaft's Fahne?
- Blue field with yellow capitals RUCH AUTONOMII ŚLĄSKA.
- Blue field with yellow sun; flying through the sun a black swallow. (that's also the party's logo)
Jarig Bakker, 28 Aug 2002

An article about the autonomy of this region of Poland.
Can anyone identify the two flags? I don't recognize the exact eagle design on the yellow/blue flag.
Johnny Andersson, 20 May 2008

The flags pictured are of Lower Silesia (Dolny Slask-Niederschlesien) -white over yellow - and Upper Silesia (Górny Slask-Oberschlesien) -yellow over blue, with or without respective arms.
The gold eagle on blue shield with the scythe and the coal minerś tools is a traditional emblem of Upper Silesia.
The article is about the demonstration in Warsaw by the Silesian Autonomy Movement (Ruch Autonomii Slaska) in support of the autonomy for Silesia and also about the Silesian autonomy question in general.
The Silesian Autonomy Movement's flag is shown above.
Wikipedia presents a very good articles on Silesia and Silesian Autonomy Movement here and here.
It should be stressed it is not a separatist movement, rather for the re-establishment of the autonomy that Polish part of Upper Silesia enjoyed in the inter-war years. The movement is relatively small, although growing, and with the member of the minority at the helm of the government in Poland now (Donald Tusk - a Kashubian) with
prospects for the better understanding in Warsaw.

The gold eagle alone on the blue shield is a symbol of the Silesian Voivodship (Województwo Śląskie) in Poland and, presumably, also a symbol of all Silesia envisioned as a autonomous territory by the Silesian Autonomous Movement and including entire Opole Voivodship and the lion part of the Silesian Voivodship up to Czestochowa.
Chrystian Kretowicz, 21 May 2008

Nowa Lewica (New Left)

New Left (Polish: Nowa Lewica), founded in 2003, is an alter-globalist Socialist party [1]. Its flag, as shown at the party website [2] and a gallery of photos from 01-05-2008 demonstrations [3], has party name inscribed in two rows in white, all letters lowercase, on red field.
The typeface used is Arial Black. The flag can also be seen at websites of numerous other parties and organizations which frequently co-operate with the New Left (the cited sources are only those related to the party itself).
Sources:
[1] Wikipedia page about the New Left (in Polish).
[2] New Left website.
[3] 01-05-2008 demonstrations photo gallery.
Tomislav Todorovic, 13 Jul 2009

Tomislav Todorovic, 16 Feb 2016

A less used variant of the flag has the inscription in all letters uppercase, typeface Swiss 721 Black Condensed, both rows centered. It was used either with the other variant, or without it. The photos can be found here.

In 2011, the party was de-registered by the court decision, because it failed to submit the legally required financial information for the previous year. The activities were continued by the NGO named Office for Social Justice (Kancelaria Sprawiedliwości Społecznej) until 2014, when a new party was formed under the name Movement for Social Justice (Ruch Sprawiedliwości Społecznej). (see below)
Tomislav Todorovic, 16 Feb 2016

Zjednoczone Stronnictwo Ludowe, ZSL (United Peasantś Party)

Two other parties were de facto puppets.
Zjednoczone Stronnictwo Ludowe, ZSL (United Peasantś Party) had plain green flag. Seen rarely.
Stronnictwo Demokratyczne, SD (Democratic Party) didn't have own flag.
Grzegorz Skrukwa, 6 Apr 2002

UPR flag

UPR is Unia Polityki Realnej, a Conservative Liberal Party in Poland. Its flag is at this URL:
Jarig Bakker, 5 Jun 1999

Committee for the Defence of Democracy

The Committee for the Defence of Democracy (Polish: Komitet Obrony Demokracji, KOD) is a Polish citizens' organization founded in November 2015.

Mateusz Kijowski is the founder of the organization, which gained more than 75,000 supporters on Facebook in the first month of its existence. KOD follows the tradition of the former anti-communist Workers' Defence Committee (Polish: Komitet Obrony Robotników, KOR), established in 1976, a precursor of the Solidarity movement that led to the downfall of the communist regime. The Committee is not affiliated with any political party; its members come from a broad range of the political spectrum, with the exception of the PiS and Kukiz'15 parties as well as the extreme right wing groups.

KOD was formed in opposition to actions taken by the governing party, Law and Justice (Polish: Prawo i Sprawiedliwość, PiS), which in October 2015 became the first party in post-communist Polish history to control an absolute majority of the seats in the Polish Parliament and the Presidency at the same time. ...

The flag is white with the logo of KOD.
Jens Pattke, 24 Dec 2015

Polish Socialist Party

Polish Socialist Party (Polska Partia Socjalistyczna; PPS) was originally founded in 1892 in Paris by leftist emigrants from Poland. The membership in Poland drastically increased after the Revolution of 1905 in the Russian Empire, making it one of the most important Polish parties. The party greatly contributed the creation of Second Republic, but remained in opposition during most of its existence due to the authoritarian nature of the regime. In WW2, it was active in the resistance movement. After the war, it split in 1948, one faction merging with the Communists into the Polish United Workers' Party, the other being quickly suppressed, surviving only in exile. The party was refounded in Poland in 1987 by leftist anti-Communists and merged with the exiled party in 1990, but has not regained its original political influence so far.

The party uses red flag charged with large initials PPS in white. One of its latest photos, taken in Bełchatów in January 2014, can be found here. Earlier photos, taken in Warsaw in 2006, can be found here and here and one dating from 2007 (place unspecified) here.

The pre-1948 party has also used such flags, as visible in a black and white photo taken some time before the WW2 (conclusion after the people's clothing), available here. While the letters are far from being completely visible, still they are visible enough to reveal the abbreviation PPS inscribed in a sans-serif typeface. Another evidence of the flag use is a poster from 1947, also made in Bydgoszcz, which can be viewed here. The flag finial depicted here reveals the use of three arrows, a symbol borrowed from German Social Democrats and Iron Front and used much in the years prior to WW2.

image by Tomislav Todorović, 7 Feb 2016

In 2015, a new flag was introduced, on which the white initials PPS, smaller in size and fimbriated red, are placed over a golden symbol which consists of three arrows, conjoined by their heads and pointing towards the bottom hoist, placed over and conjoined with a ring. This is another variation of a symbol used before the WW2, which also came to be used as part of the party logo after the war and is still used, in form of encircled letters PPS placed over three arrows as one of the party logos. (See here)

The historical party logo which is still widely used, consists of two arms depicted as both holding a hammer and handshaking, with the party name initials above all. Its use on the flags has not been verified so far.

After the WW2, three arrows, with a superimposed square charged with the initials PPS, came to be used by the Polish Socialist Party as the part of its logo, as shown here and and here: here.
Tomislav Todorović, 7 Feb 2016

image by Tomislav Todorović, 28 November 2021

In early 2019, the red flag charged with the historical party logo in white has appeared; since that time, it came to be widely used, although the old red flag with white initials PPS can still be seen sometimes. The logo, which was brought back into widespread use by then as well, consists of two arms depicted as both holding a hammer and handshaking, with the party name initials above, all within a ring. The logo size seems to vary a bit, although it is typically about 3/4 of the flag width. The flag ratio also varies, going between 2:3 and 3:5, although it typically seems to be close to 5:8.

Image of described flag derived from the SVG image of the logo from Wikimedia Commons: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Logo_PPS.svg
(version uploaded on 2009-04-01 @19:05 was used, since it is the best match to the flags seen in the source photos)

Source:
Polish Socialist Party at Facebook - Photos: https://www.facebook.com/PolskaPartiaSocjalistyczna/photos
Tomislav Todorović, 28 November 2021

Socialist Action

Socialist Action (Akcja Socjalistyczna) was a militia founded in 1934 by the Polish Socialist Party to oppose the growing influence of various Fascist groups. It was modeled after the Iron Front of Germany and active until the beginning of WW2. After the Nazi conquest of Poland, its members joined the resistance movement. The flags of Socialist Action were charged with the three arrows, the symbol originally used by the Iron Front. Two variants of the flag have been recorded. On one of them, shorter arrows were placed within a ring. The photo of this flag can be found here.

On the other flag, three longer arrows were conjoined with their heads, as shown here
Tomislav Todorović, 7 Feb 2016

Democratic Party

Democratic Party (Stronnictwo Demokratyczne; SD - occasionally translated as Alliance of Democrats) is a liberal political party in Poland. It considers the year 1937, when the first Democratic Club (Klub Demokratyczny), an anti-authoritarian and anti-nationalist political association, was founded in Warsaw, to be its founding date. In 1939, the Democratic Clubs (Kluby Demokratyczne), already founded in all major cities, have united into the Democratic Party. During the World War II, party members actively participated in the resistance movement. After the war, the party has survived as a satellite party of the Polish United Workers' Party, from which it distanced in 1989, joining the first post-war democratic government. During later years, the party decreased, many members having joined other parties, but was revived in late 2000's. Since 2009, it is a member of the European Democratic Party.

Current party flag is dark blue, charged with large logo and party name inscribed below, all in white. The logo is a stylized, hyper-simplified representation of crowned eagle. According to the official description of the logo, which is available (in PDF format) from the party website. The shade of blue is Pantone Reflex Blue CVC 80%, and the typeface is Garamond Bold. Photos of the flag can be found here and here, the latter of these revealing that the shade of blue is the same, or nearly same, as the one used on the flag of European union.

Image of above flag is derived from the image of the logo (in CDR format) available for download from the party website.

image by Tomislav Todorović, 12 Feb 2016

Before 1990, the eagle was without the crown and depicted in an even more simplified way, as shown here. The flag has had red field, with ratio 1:1, and the party name was inscribed in two rows beneath the eagle, as shown here Both of these photos were taken in the town of Sęmpólno Krajeńskie in 1988. This form of the eagle was also depicted with the crown and with the date 1937 inscribed below, as shown here, but it is not clear whether this is the original pre-WW2 logo or the early post-Communist version. The form of eagle has varied somewhat, as well as the typeface, as is evident in this photo (time and place of making not specified)
Tomislav Todorović, 12 Feb 2016

Civic Platform

Civic Platform (Platforma Obywatelska) is a center-right party which was founded in 2001. From 2007 to 2015, it was leading the governing coalition in Poland. On the level of European Union, it is member of the European People's Party. [1] As described in Article 1 of the party Statute, the party emblem consists of two orange shapes on blue field, which represent a smile inscribed within the contour of the map of Poland. The logo adds the party name to the symbol, inscribed in two rows in white, in Swiss 721 Hv PL typeface. The logo may also be depicted with blue and white colors reversed. Orange color is officially defined as Pantone 151 CVC (RGB values 252-162-65) and blue as 287 CVC (RGB values 2-61-171). [2,3] The party flag is usually blue, with ratio of about 2:3, charged with the party symbol in orange and party name in white. Small hand-waving flags are the most visible online. The photos can be found here, here, here and here.

Much less used version of the flag has white field, with the party symbol in orange and party name in blue. The photo showing hand-waving flags can be seen here and the photo of a large flag, here. A photo showing both versions of hand-waving flags used together can be seen here.

Regional branches of the party may use the flags with the party symbol and name moved closer to the top and name of the region inscribed in the bottom. These may be used either with blue or with white field. Examples for these can be seen here, here and here.
Tomislav Todorović, 16 Feb 2016

Movement of Social Justice

Movement of Social Justice (Ruch Sprawiedliwości Społecznej) was founded in 2014 by transformation of the Office of Social Justice (Kancelaria Sprawiedliwości Społecznej), the NGO which was founded in 2011 in place of the de-registered party New Left (above).

Party flag is red, charged with the party logo in white. The logo consists of the equality sigh within a stylized/simplified outline of the map of Poland and the party name inscribed in three row next to it. Photos of the flag can be found here, here, here and here.
Tomislav Todorović, 20 Feb 2016