Jail for a Che teeshirt?

Those promoting communism will be prosecuted, leads Rzeczpospolita. According to recently adopted amendments to the penal code, anyone found guilty of propagating communist symbols is liable to spend up to two years in prison. The new law thus clarifies the constitutional regulation that bans organisations employing or endorsing the totalitarian methods and practices of Nazism, fascism, and communism. And it gives public prosecutors the right to prosecute communism-leaning organisations and also to close down websites that promote the ideology. The National Remembrance Institute (IPN), which has drawn up a list of street names and monuments to be removed, will find the new law useful. According to some prosecutors, the regulations may affect those selling communist symbols, e.g. Che Guevara teeshirts. The leftwing periodical Krytyka Polityczna, criticises the new law, pointing out differences between communism and Nazism. The former, it explains, has “obviously positive intentions and continues to inspire philosophers.” The Democratic Left Alliance (SLD – founded in 1999 by former communist party members) has already appealed against the new law in the Constitutional Court.