Jakub Polák

Who is Jakub Polák?

Jakub Polák was a Czech anarchist and anti-racism activist. Polák was involved particularly in Roma rights and squatters' rights issues.

Polák was born in Karlovy Vary and grew up in Marxist-Leninist Czechoslovakia. He became a dissident in his teens, when he became involved in the Prague Spring of 1968, and as a consequence he was not permitted to attend university. He took part in various dissident and underground movement activities. He was a co-founder of the 1989 strike committee that led to the Velvet Revolution. He was also involved with the Czech branch of the Movement for Civil Society.

After the fall of the Eastern Bloc, Polák openly founded numerous anarchist organizations and publications. He joined the "Levá alternativa", eventually becoming a member of its anarchist wing. The group split, with the anarchist LA becoming the Československé anarchistické sdružení. In 1991, Polák and others from ČAS founded the A-Kontra magazine, which became the central organ of the Czech anarchist movement in the 1990s and early 2000s. Polák remained involved with A-Kontra until his death, working as editor-in-chief with the magazine.