WARSAW, Poland, October 24, 2016 (LifeSiteNews) — Radical feminists and lesbians continue to protest in Poland despite the government’s recent decision to abandon a proposed abortion ban.
On Sunday and Monday, a group of radical feminists linked to the former government organized another wave of protests. Picketers dressed mainly in black staged protests in major cities such as Warsaw, Krakow, and Poznań. Some carried umbrellas, the symbol of the strike, even though there was no rain.
The first demonstrations, called “Black Protest,” took place at the beginning of October to protest the proposed abortion ban. Marta Lempart, a lesbian and the main organizer of the event in early October, warned that if the abortion ban passed there would be more strikes on October 24. The abortion ban failed and yet Lempart’s group protested anyway.
Further pressure on Poland’s government to reject the abortion ban came from the European Union and from another lesbian, Urlike Lunacek. At the beginning of October, Lunacek conducted a “debate” on Polish “women’s rights” in the European Parliament with many abortion groups present.
The pressure tactics were well organized and promoted by the media throughout the world, with pictures taken by drones and live streaming on the Internet.
A group known as High Ground Alliance for Choice and Dignity was formed in June. Glamour described it as “a new organization specifically aimed at combating what they see as broad and sweeping attacks on the rights of women, gays, secularists, and minorities.” The High Ground members consist of the notorious Catholics for Choice and International Planned Parenthood Federation, as well as the European Parliamentary Forum on Population and Development, the European Humanist Federation, the International LGBTI Association, and the European Women's Lobby.
Law and Justice, the Conservative ruling party, reacted in early October as the abortion lobby wanted, killing the abortion ban within days of the Black Protest. However, this did not make the lesbians happy or stop Monday’s demonstrations.
It is not a surprising turn of events, though. Feminists’ raison d’être is to attack even if things go their way. Femen, a group known for bare-breasted demonstrations, has organized protests in countries with abortion on demand such as France, Sweden, and Canada.
Polish feminists are no different, aggressively copying the tactics of their “foreign sisters.” They took the idea for Monday’s protest from Iceland, even though the goal of the 1975 Icelandic strike was to protest the wage discrepancy and unfair employment practices, not abortion. The Global Nonviolent Action database wrote that as many as 90 percent of Icelandic women participated then in the protest and it had an impact in the country. One of their methods, which the Polish sought to copy, was to block roads and create traffic jams.
But what worked 41 years ago with a totally different goal will have the opposite impact in Poland. Their radical and vulgar tactics will cause a backlash from women who originally saw some common ground with the feminists.
Aggressive protests under the slogan “No to scorn and violence against women” will not find sympathy with the majority of Polish women. The same is true with the slogan “No to Church interference in politics,” which shows the true colors of the organizers.
Anti-Church rhetoric betrays one target of their attacks. The other is the ruling Law and Justice party. The instigators attacked Education Minister Anna Zalewska, who, according to the feminists, “is demolishing the educational system.” Hidden under their long list of demands, which starts with “We’ve had enough,” are three tenets of feminists: abortion, birth control, and sex education. In fact, the list of demands is never-ending.
It became crystal clear when wp.pl reported that Warsaw organizer Agata Czarnacka yelled Sunday, “Now we want everything! Respect, civil rights, equality! But we especially want to stop being afraid!” Czarnacka, the editor of the left-wing website lewica24.pl, used to work for post-Communist Democratic Left Alliance.
During the demonstration, a manifest was read where the feminists complained that “the state allows for shocking vulgarity against women in the language of the representatives of the elite and even among the high ranking politicians.” The participants were supposed to sign a petition to the Parliament with 11 demands ranging from “reproductive rights” to “an educational program for public sector workers,” and “a halt to the policy of militarization.”
Only about 2,500 people took part in the Warsaw demonstration and so the petition failed to generate much support there.
The size of this second wave of protests was much smaller overall. Some events were organized by the anti-government Committee for the Defense of Democracy, with politicians from the party simply called Modern, as well as the Democratic Left Alliance and Civic Platform.
In fact, Lempart, the main organizer of the protests, worked for the former government ruled by the Civic Platform in the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy and other institutions. Her current involvement with the Committee for the Defense of Democracy again points to another goal of the protest, which is the overturn of the Law and Justice administration.