A-Infos (en) Alt. Media, Jakub PolÃk, doyen of the Czech anarchist scene, dies aged 60

The death has been announced of the veteran anarchist Jakub PolÃk, 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, PolÃk was 
perhaps best known for his public â and at times unpopular â defence of the Roma 
community. ---- At both public rallies and in courtroom debates, Jakub PolÃk 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 
OndÅej SlaÄÃlek, who announced his death â shortly after his 60th birthday - to the media. 
He had this to say about his friend.

âJakub 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.â

A dissident and member of the underground in communist times, Jakub PolÃk 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 PÃsek in September 1993. OndÅej SlaÄÃlek says it was largely thanks to 
PolÃkâs tireless campaigning that Danihelâs killers were finally put behind bars:
âBack 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 didnât 
really mean to hurt anybody. I think even the state prosecutor used the word âboyish 
prankâ. 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.â

PolÃkâs 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 ZdenÄk ZboÅil 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 PolÃk and several left-wingers were also 
invited to address the class. PolÃk and others defended ZboÅilâs decision at a time when 
he was roundly condemned by academics and politicians including the prime minister of the 
time, Milos Zeman.

PolÃk â who died of cancer â 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.
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