[Poland] Not a single step back! We keep on fighting!

We are part of a larger feminist coalition that has been organizing the latest protests in Poland. For us, limiting the right to abortion is another cut in medical services, and the position of women will never change if our situation at work, our housing situation and our overburdening with free care work do not improve. We are talking about high rents and high living costs.

For many women, the subsequent drastic difficulties in accessing abortion have simply filled the cup of bitterness. We felt that we were denied the right to medical care and that we are forced to suffer. Due to the anti-social and anti-labor policies of successive governments, we have enough working and living problems, and by changing the abortion law, we have been given even more of those problems.

In recent months, by building a mass, grassroots, determined movement, we have shown that we can go out on the streets with enormous energy, not only for a day or two. We had our own initiatives going on and on, and it was amazing. We have to go further: learn to organize every day, in trade unions, tenants’ associations, at universities, schools, in self-help groups, in neighbourhoods. It is not an easy thing to do. We are told that if you need help, if you are a tenant, employee, unemployed and you demand changes, then you should be ashamed. Are you working on the production line? You deserve nothing: just change job, we have this liberal freedom. You are backward, since you found such a job, you cannot find a better one, you have landed on the street, you no longer have the strength to look after your loved ones for free, and only you are responsible for it. Are you calling for a raise? You are demanding! We hear it often. During the pandemic, it suddenly turned out that nurses, cleaners, employees of warehouses, production and trade are key people for the economy and the whole society. People employed in feminized sectors and those who work for free in caring for children, the disabled and the oldest.

Thanks to the recent protests, we did an important thing – we overcame the reluctance to go out on the streets. We found strength and said: yes, we have the right to have an abortion, yes, I work physically, I earn a minimum wage, I do not have a permanent contract, I do not have insurance, I am not satisfied with my life and work, but I want it to change, I want it to change now. Participation in the demonstration, creating your own slogans or a banner is no longer a reason for us to be ashamed. We learned that in order to effectively change reality, we must act together, in larger groups. We want a better life, self-determination, higher wages, higher benefits! Not a single step back!

Let’s show our determination! Let’s show that we won’t give up so easily! Let’s show what Women’s Day is for us! Let’s meet at the demonstration!

 Inicjatywa Pracownicza (IP): https://ozzip.pl/ 
Socjalny Kongres Kobiet (Women’s Social Congress): https://www.facebook.com/socjalnykk/ 
„Rozbrat” Social Center: https://www.rozbrat.org/ 
Wielkopolskie Stowarzyszenie Lokatorów (Wielkopolska Tenant’s’ Association):  http://www.wsl-poznan.pl/ 

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