"women will overthrow this government"

May 8, 2022 11:49 AM

Philosopher Ewa Majewska on protests for reproductive rights in Poland. The 2016 women’s protests began as a reaction to the bill to add imprisonment to the already harsh restrictions against abortion in Polish law. The Black Protests included a national strike inspired in part by Iceland's 1975 women's strike and 19th century Polish nationalist protests. Polish feminists highlighted the social inequalities of the abortion ban, the fascist policies of the then ruling Law and Justice Party and explicitly connected reproductive rights to labor rights, drawing on the iconography of Solidarność.

Ewa Majewski spoke about her new book Feminist Antifascism - written interview and recorded lecture - in 2021 for Bard College Berlin.

posted by spamandkimchi (3 comments total)

This is the main link for "drawing on the iconography", which also includes the aesthetics of the 19th century protests. And this article includes a discussion of the kerfuffle over the use of the Solidarność iconic poster (tl dr, the designer gave their blessing even if the now right-wing leadership at the union did not).
posted by spamandkimchi at 11:53 AM on May 8, 2022 [1 favorite]

Also previously!
posted by spamandkimchi at 11:57 AM on May 8, 2022

A lot of the articles are older, not taking into account the 2020 ruling that eliminated the "irreversible fetal defect" exception (leaving only health/life of the mother and rape/incest as legally permissible abortion reasons). Unsurprisingly, it already resulted in maternal deaths. The government cracked down on these new protests under the guise of the pandemic laws, but the violence resulted in galvanising a broad opposition coalition - the Women's Strike (Marta Lempart is probably the most media-visible leader), the broader activists against Law and Justice's dismantling of Poland's judiciary, and LGBTQ activists sensitive to the 2019-2020 attempts to paint LGBTQ "ideology" as the enemy of the Polish state.

Altogether, thank FUCK we're in the EU. Not only has it put its foot down for an independent judiciary (holding billions of euro in post-Covid aid hostage) and equal rights (many local governments brought down their "LGBT-free zone" legislation rather than forego funds), but the Schengen zone means that abortion in Germany and Czechia is available to people with enough funds and determination, aided by a robust network of activists and fully Polish-speaking clinics. For the USians, we're about the size of Arizona, except with much better public transport, so travel abroad isn't prohibitive, and our labour laws allow people to take actual time off. Could be worse but...

Okay. Stopping now because I haven't slept and I shouldn't bring up all that anger again.
posted by I claim sanctuary at 3:36 AM on May 9, 2022 [6 favorites]