They painted dwarfs on walls, handed out sanitary pads, and planted onions in green spaces in cities. Such were the absurd methods by which the Orange Alternative fought against communism in the 1980s.

The social movement referred to as the Orange Alternative came into existence in Wrocław at the initiative of Waldemar Fydrych, aka “the Major”. During the student strikes in November and December 1981, the Major and his friends launched a strike newspaper that bore the same name as the movement. He also wrote Manifest surrealizmu socjalistycznego [The Manifesto of Socialist Surrealism]. Back then, the Polish public was engaged in a silent war against the communist authorities, which played out on the streets of Polish cities. People would