Alternative Social Movement

The Alternative Social Movement (Polish: Alternatywa Ruch Społeczny, ARS) was coalition of Polish political parties formed on 18 March 2001 in Warsaw for the 2001 Polish parliamentary election. The grouping was formed from a merger of Confederation of Independent Poland - Patriotic Camp (Polish: Konfederacja Polski Niepodległej - Obóz Patriotyczny, KPN-Ojczyzna) led by Michał Janiszewski, Tomasz Karwowski, and Janina Kraus, together with a group of politicians originating from the Christian National Union (ZChN), including Henryk Goryszewski and Mariusz Olszewski. The coalition was also joined by the Free Trade Union 'August 80' Confederation, led by Daniel Podrzycki and Bogusław Ziętek. The Alternative Social Movement was registered as a political party, and its members mainly became the activists of August 80.

In the 1997–2001 term of the Polish Sejm, ARS was represented by a parliamentary circle Alternative (Polish: Alternatywa), which included Michał Janiszewski, Tomasz Karwowski, Janina Kraus and Mariusz Olszewski (all elected in 1997 from the Solidarity Electoral Action lists). Henryk Goryszewski (also elected from the Solidarity Electoral Action list) was an unaffiliated MP at the time and remained a member of the Christian National Union. The party was a coalition of various political parties, such as Catholic nationalist ones, national conservatives, ecologists, nationalists socialists and lastly various left-wing activists and trade unionists. Ideologically, it was committed to both Catholic nationalism as well as national left, with the latter ultimately prevailing. The party then became a far-left, socialist and anti-capitalist Polish Labour Party - August 80.