Modern Days
The modern incarnation of the All-Polish Youth was founded in Poznań in 1989, on the initiative of Roman Giertych, the former leader of the League of Polish Families (LPR). Continuing the tradition of its precursors, the organisation maintains its aim of raising youth with their ideology, and operates across all of Poland, working with high-school and university students. The membership of the organisation is approximately 3,000 people.
In 2006, the Polish Public Prosecutor's office launched an investigation after a video recording from a private party was leaked to the Polish press. In the video, All-Polish Youth members including Leokadia Wiącek, a personal assistant of Maciej Giertych (member of the European Parliament), were seen fraternizing with Neo-Nazi skinheads, listening to Neo-Nazi bands, and saluting the swastika. Following the incident, Leokadia Wiącek was expelled from All-Polish Youth however it caused the League of Polish Families to cut their political ties with All-Polish Youth because of their links to Neo-Nazism.
All-Polish Youth have declared that it is only by making Poland a Catholic state that its future will be secured, and chairman Konrad Bonislawski has stated "We do not want to become like Holland with its free drugs and gay marriage....since joining the European Union we have seen attempts to destroy our Catholic values."
All-Polish Youth have gained considerable press coverage due to their staunch opposition of abortion and, particularly, homosexuality (which their website condemns as "unnatural behaviour" and describes Gay Rights marches as "militant homosexualism"). This has led to (sometimes violent) clashes with Pro-choice and Gay Rights demonstrators.
All-Polish Youth have been widely condemned as homophobic by various organisations including Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and even the United Nations (which, in their Universal Periodic Review, describes All-Polish Youth as an "extremist homophobic grouping"), as well as a multitude of Gay Rights organisations such as OutRage! and the Polish Campaign Against Homophobia. In 2004, 2005, and 2006, All-Polish Youth members and sympathizers violently attacked people who were taking part in pro-gay demonstrations, throwing eggs, bottles and rocks at them, and were reported to have shouted "Send the fags to the hospital", "Perverts, get out of Cracow", "Let's gas the fags" and "We'll do to you what Hitler did to the Jews".
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