Miasto Jest Nasze

Miasto Jest Nasze, commonly abbreviated as MJN and translated as The City Is Ours, is an independent civic platform and registered non-profit association based in Warsaw, Poland. It emerged in 2013 from local urban activism and was formally registered as a civic association in 2014. Rather than operating as a conventional commercial brand, MJN functions as a public-interest organization, campaign platform, watchdog, electoral vehicle, and source of urban-policy proposals. The organization concentrates on Warsaw’s governance and built environment. Its work includes monitoring politicians and municipal officials, publicizing alleged irregularities in city management, advocating for access to public information, and encouraging residents to participate in consultations and participatory budgeting. Its policy agenda covers sustainable public transport, pedestrian and cycling infrastructure, protection of green areas, air-quality improvement, landscape policy, control of visual advertising, tenant and community rights, and the management of Warsaw’s land and housing resources. MJN became particularly prominent through its criticism of the reprivatisation of Warsaw properties. It published maps and other materials intended to show relationships among politicians, lawyers, business figures, property companies, and real-estate transactions. The organization faced lawsuits from some people identified in those materials and, according to the available reference account, prevailed in all of those cases. The reprivatisation campaign helped establish MJN as one of Poland’s best-known urban movements and brought attention to issues of accountability, conflicts of interest, housing rights, and the social effects of redevelopment. Environmental campaigning is another important part of the organization’s public identity. MJN promoted Warsaw Smog Alert, publicized information about coal-burning heating systems through the Warsaw Map of Dirty Stoves, and used highly visible public interventions to draw attention to air pollution. In 2017 it operated a temporary shop styled around “cigarettes for children”; the space was actually a Smog Information Center designed to communicate the health risks of polluted air. Other campaigns addressed advertising clutter, pedestrian access, public transport, bicycle infrastructure, and the preservation of neighborhoods and green spaces. MJN also participates directly in elections. It won seven seats in Warsaw district councils in the 2014 local elections. In 2018, a coalition of urban movements led by MJN received 5.72 percent of the vote and won 22 seats across seven district councils. Its mayoral candidate, Justyna Glusman, received 2.32 percent of the Warsaw vote and later joined the Warsaw mayor’s board as coordinator for sustainable development, green-area management, and anti-smog policy. For the 2024 local elections, MJN entered an electoral agreement with the Left Together on 29 January 2024 and ran on The Left’s lists, gaining three seats in the Warsaw City Council and twelve district-council seats. The movement is generally positioned on the left of the political center. It combines green politics, tenant advocacy, egalitarianism, and participatory democracy with strong criticism of neoliberal urban development, privatization, gentrification, and profit-driven planning. It has organized actions supporting residents threatened with eviction or displacement and has advocated housing and city planning policies that prioritize communities over speculative returns. Its approach combines grassroots mobilization, electoral politics, research, public campaigning, conferences, and expert reports. MJN has more than 300 members as of June 2024 and is present in 12 of Warsaw’s 18 districts. It is also a member of the Urban Movement Congress, a federation bringing together approximately 40 organizations from around 20 Polish cities. Internationally, it has participated in the Fearless Cities municipalist network, including the 2017 summit in Barcelona, and hosted the Fearless Cities CEE International Municipalist Summit in Warsaw in 2018. The organization remains primarily Warsaw-focused, but its methods and campaigns have contributed to wider discussion of municipal accountability and urban activism in Poland and Central and Eastern Europe.

Miasto Jest Nasze began in Warsaw in 2013 as an independent urban movement responding to local concerns about the direction of the capital's development and the limited influence of residents over municipal decisions. It was registered as a non-profit civic association in 2014. From the beginning, the movement combined neighborhood organizing with policy advocacy and public scrutiny of city institutions. This hybrid structure allowed it to operate simultaneously as a grassroots residents' group, a civic watchdog, a source of research, and an electoral platform. Its early public activity centered on Warsaw's urban policy, housing, land management, and the accountability of local government. MJN argued for a compact city with diverse functions, stronger landscape policy, and planning that served residents rather than speculative interests. It opposed what it regarded as undemocratic or excessively profit-oriented forms of development, including displacement, gentrification, and the destruction of socially important neighborhoods. The organization also supported blockades and other forms of community action intended to prevent evictions or the loss of local cultural and residential spaces. A defining part of MJN's history has been its investigation of Warsaw's reprivatisation process. The organization criticized the return of properties to pre-communist owners or their alleged successors following the political transformation, especially where such transactions appeared to affect tenants or reveal conflicts of interest. Its maps and public materials presented connections among political figures, lawyers, businesspeople, property companies, and reprivatisation cases. Some individuals shown in the maps brought lawsuits against the organization; the available account states that MJN won all of those cases. The campaign substantially increased the movement's national visibility and established its reputation as an aggressive municipal accountability organization. MJN also developed a significant environmental and transport portfolio. It advocated expanded public transport, cycling infrastructure, and pedestrian-oriented streets, including public actions under the name Pedestrian Critical Mass. It campaigned against visual advertising clutter through Żegnamy Reklamy, or We Say Goodbye to Advertisements. In environmental policy, the movement focused on smog, coal-burning household heating, and the protection and management of Warsaw's green areas. It helped promote Warsaw Smog Alert and published the Warsaw Map of Dirty Stoves, using public information and mapping to show where low-quality solid-fuel heating contributed to air pollution. A 2017 temporary “cigarettes for children” shop, which actually served as a Smog Information Center, attracted nationwide media interest through its deliberately provocative presentation. Electoral participation became another turning point. In the 2014 Warsaw local elections, MJN won seven district-council seats in Śródmieście, Praga-Północ, and Żoliborz. In 2018 it led a coalition of local urban movements that obtained 5.72 percent of the vote and won 22 seats in seven district councils. Its candidate for mayor of Warsaw, Justyna Glusman, received 2.32 percent. After the election, Glusman joined the Warsaw mayor's board, where she was assigned responsibilities relating to sustainable development, green areas, and smog policy. The organization also used the 2018 election to encourage non-Polish European Union citizens living in Warsaw to register and vote, providing a tool that generated a simplified registration application. The movement's international profile grew through municipalist cooperation. MJN joined the Urban Movement Congress, a federation of urban organizations from Polish cities. Its members attended the Fearless Cities Summit in Barcelona in 2017, and in July 2018 MJN hosted the first Fearless Cities CEE International Municipalist Summit in Warsaw. The event brought together more than one hundred participants and organizations from Central and Eastern Europe, including groups from Sofia, Belgrade, Prague, and Tbilisi. Ideologically, MJN is located to the left of the political center and combines green politics with tenant organizing, egalitarianism, and participatory democracy. It criticizes neoliberalism, privatization, and capitalist power structures in urban governance, while arguing for housing, environmental protection, and decision-making systems that give residents greater influence. Its campaigns use demonstrations, public events, reports, maps, social communication, election candidacies, and alliances with other movements. By June 2024, MJN reported more than 300 members and activity in 12 of Warsaw's 18 districts. In the 2024 local elections it entered an agreement with The Left Together and ran on The Left lists. It won three seats in the Warsaw City Council and twelve district-council seats. The organization therefore remains a Warsaw-centered civic movement whose influence extends beyond electoral representation into public oversight, environmental advocacy, housing politics, and debates about the future of Polish cities.

• 2024

  Electoral agreement with The Left

  [1]The City Is Oursen.wikipedia.org

  MJN signed an electoral agreement with The Left Together and subsequently gained seats in Warsaw's city and district councils.

• 2018

  Urban-movement coalition wins 22 district seats

  [1]The City Is Oursen.wikipedia.org

  A coalition led by MJN received 5.72 percent of the vote and won 22 seats in seven Warsaw district councils.

• 2018

  Fearless Cities CEE summit hosted in Warsaw

  [1]The City Is Oursen.wikipedia.org

  MJN hosted a regional municipalist summit attended by more than one hundred participants from Central and Eastern Europe.

• 2017

  Smog Information Center campaign

  [1]The City Is Oursen.wikipedia.org

  MJN used a temporary shop styled as a children's cigarette store to highlight the dangers of air pollution.

• 2014

  Registered as a civic association

  [1]The City Is Oursen.wikipedia.org

  The organization became a registered non-profit civic association and won seven seats in three Warsaw district councils.

• 2013

  Movement launched in Warsaw

  [1]The City Is Oursen.wikipedia.org

  Miasto Jest Nasze emerged as an independent Warsaw urban movement.

A left-leaning, grassroots urban movement and civic watchdog advocating transparent municipal government, participatory democracy, tenant and community rights, sustainable transport, environmental protection, and socially inclusive urban development.

• Civic research and mapping

  Map of Reprivatisation

  A public-facing research and visualization project examining Warsaw property reprivatisation and presenting alleged links among political actors, legal representatives, businesspeople, property companies, and affected real estate. The map became one of MJN's most recognizable accountability tools and helped focus public debate on transparency, conflicts of interest, tenant rights, and the social consequences of property restitution.

• Environmental campaign

  Warsaw Smog Alert

  An anti-air-pollution initiative drawing attention to smog in Warsaw and pressing municipal authorities to adopt more effective environmental policies. It forms part of MJN's broader work on clean air, green-space management, and the public-health consequences of household heating and transport emissions.

• Environmental data project

  Warsaw Map of Dirty Stoves

  A mapping project identifying buildings using low-quality coal or other polluting solid-fuel stoves. MJN used the project to make the geographic sources of urban air pollution more visible and to support calls for cleaner heating and stronger municipal action.

• Urban landscape campaign

  Żegnamy Reklamy

  A campaign against visual advertising disorder in Warsaw. It supports stronger landscape policy and limits on intrusive advertising as part of MJN's vision of a more coherent, readable, and resident-oriented urban environment.

• Sustainable transport campaign

  Pedestrian Critical Mass

  A public-action format promoting pedestrian-friendly streets and greater priority for walking in Warsaw's transport policy. It complements MJN's support for public transport and cycling infrastructure and its criticism of planning that gives disproportionate space to private cars.

• 2018EU Citizen Voter Registration Campaign

  Warsaw

  MJN created an informational initiative encouraging European Union citizens living in Warsaw to register and vote in local elections. The campaign included a tool for generating a simplified registration application.

  Outcome. The initiative was presented as an effort to broaden local electoral participation among Warsaw's foreign residents.

  Source
• 2017Smog Information Center

  Warsaw · Poland

  MJN opened a temporary shop presented as a place selling cigarettes for children. The installation was actually an information center about smog and the health risks of polluted air.

  Outcome. The deliberately provocative campaign attracted substantial attention from nationwide media.

  Source
• Żegnamy Reklamy

  Warsaw

  A campaign opposing advertising clutter and advocating an active landscape policy for Warsaw.

  Source
• Pedestrian Critical Mass

  Warsaw

  A public campaign promoting pedestrian-oriented urban space and better conditions for walking.

  Source

• 2024

  Electoral agreement with The Left TogetherStrategy

  Background

  MJN prepared to participate in the 2024 Warsaw local elections while maintaining its urban-movement identity.

  Action taken

  On 29 January 2024, it agreed to run candidates on The Left electoral lists.

  Aftermath

  MJN gained three Warsaw City Council seats and twelve district-council seats.

  Source

• 2018

  MJN leads a coalition of urban movements in local electionsStrategy

  Background

  MJN sought to translate its urban-activist agenda into institutional representation in Warsaw.

  Action taken

  It led a coalition of local urban movements in the Warsaw local elections.

  Aftermath

  The coalition received 5.72 percent of the vote and won 22 seats in seven district councils.

  Source

1. 1The City Is Oursen.wikipedia.org
2. 2Miasto Jest Nasze official websitemiastojestnasze.org