"Acting locally - we act globally"
"Tour de Constitution PL" is an apolitical project of the Congress of Civic Democratic Movement (KORD) Foundation. It is a nationwide event for all citizens, activists from formal and informal groups, representatives of the judiciary, prosecutors' offices and the bar and legal advisers, as well as influential cultural figures. The main theme of the project is the question: "what should a civic state based on constitutional values look like?".
The first edition of Tour de Constitution started on June 4th 2021 in Radom. An appropriately prepared and marked Tour-BUS served as transport for event guests. They included, among others: Adam Bodnar, Andrzej Chyra, Anna Głowacka, Joanna Hetnarowicz-Sikora, Zbigniew Hołdys, Paweł Juszczyszyn, Ewa Łętowska, Hanna Machińska, Beata Morawiec, Jarosław Onyszczuk, Danuta Przywara, Marek Safjan, Igor Tuleya, Włodzimierz Wróbel, Ewa Wrzosek, Waldemar Żurek.
The project was also supported by Manuela Gretkowska, Agnieszka Holland, Krystyna Janda, Andrzej Krzywy, Andrzej Mleczko, Tomasz Lis, Olgierd Łukaszewicz, Jurek Owsiak, Janusz Panasewicz, Jerzy Radziwiłowicz, Olga Tokarczuk, Wanda Traczyk Stawska, Wilhelm Sasnal, Wojciech Smarzowski, Muniek Staszczyk, Maciej Stuhr, Michał Urbaniak, Urszula, Krzysztof Zalewski and many other great people.
The Tour-BUS also transported the scroll of the Constitution, information materials and gadgets (stamps, pens, flags, etc.) and served as a mobile reporting studio.
Events prepared by local civic groups included guest speakers, debates, trial simulations, participant discussions, concerts, quizzes and educational games. Thanks to an interactive map the route of the Tour-BUS could be tracked. You could check where local events had already taken place and where the next ones were going to be. A scroll of the Polish Constitution, prepared especially for the occasion, transported from event to event and signed by its participants, became a common document reasserting the importance of civil rights. During local events "independent citizen tables" were set up where people could talk to lawyers.
Activists from all regions of Poland, pro-democracy organisations and associations, cultural figures, leaders of opinion were invited toparticipate in the "Tour de Constitution PL". Due to the pandemic and ever-changing sanitary restrictions, it was difficult to predict the number of people taking part in local events. Travelling nearly 10 000 km, Tour de Constitution PL ultimately reached over 100 towns and cities, distributing over 13 000 copies of the Constitution, 12 000 information leaflets and 8000 mini brochures. We managed to reach over100 000 recipient through civic media and independent commercial media, among others Gazeta Wyborcza, OKO Press, Newsweek, Radio Tok FM, The Guardian and TVN24.
This innovative civic project involving a series of events throughout Poland allowed us to reachsmaller towns as well as major cities. In June this year, we are going on tour again. The secondedition will be devoted not only to the Constitution, but also to the European Union. Like lastyear, we want each meeting to be interesting, joyful and substantive. In addition to regular stops,we are planning to make extra stops at major cultural events such as Pol’and’Rock (in the WestPomeranian town of Czaplinek), Open'er Festival (in Gdynia) and Góry Literatury in Nowa Ruda.We are also planning to visit our neighbours just across the Polish border.
Our motto are the words of Henryk Wujec:
"It is never the case that we have no influence. Even when I feel helpless or powerless, it can never justifydoing nothing".
