Pride and Poland: The Deterioration of LGBT and Women’s Rights
Written By: Ky Brooks
Since the destruction of the Polish People’s Republic in 1989, Poland has witnessed a steep rise in the forces of reaction within the Polish government as well as a decline in the rights of women and the working class. In recent years, the rights of the LGBTQ+ community and women have come under heightened attack with the introduction of various anti-LGBT and anti-women laws targeted at the freedoms and safety of these groups.
As seen frequently in 2019 and 2020, right-wing groups, supported by the police force, are free to march down the streets of Poland and, without suffering any major consequences for their actions, viciously assault members of the LGBT community, burning the rainbow pride flags these people so bravely carry. Strikes and protests of a considerable size are organised by women, the LGBT community and progressives across the country, but are often met with harsh brutality and repression from both the police and nationalists alike. For all the progressive people in Poland this is an ongoing battle fought every day that demonstrates the desperate need for revolution, and the even greater need for Socialism.
The life of LGBT+ people in Poland is a life of fear and hardship, with countless legal and social inequalities being faced on a daily basis. These struggles include the sheer lack of legal recognition for LGBT couples, the inability for these couples to adopt, and a complete absence of protection against the hate crimes and hate speech that occur frequently in modern Poland (1). In addition to this, as of June 2020, a hundred municipalities have declared themselves LGBT-Free zones (2). Covering approximately one third of Poland, these zones have heavily stigmatised all LGBT+ people and work towards the unconstitutional prevention of all forms of pride demonstrations such as parades and protests from taking place (3).
When demonstrations of LGBT pride, or, more broadly, when demonstrations of any progressive nature take place throughout Poland, they receive sustained abuse and vicious confrontation from the right-wing and the police, with attacks on members of the LGBT community occurring quite frequently. A large number of activists have been arrested and placed in pretrial detention with no access to a lawyer or their basic freedoms (4).
As well as this, legal conversion therapy remains very much a reality in Poland. As of late August 2020, the Polish Episcopal Conference (the central organ of the Polish catholic church) began recommending the construction of counselling centres "to help people who want to regain their sexual health and natural sexual orientation", which, in reality, is an attempt on behalf of the reactionary government and the catholic church to further stigmatise LGBT people in Poland and work towards the removal of them from Polish society (5).
“The ruling elite have torn apart the Polish working class, and have made organising and engaging in class struggle, an extremely difficult task for many to perform”
Already the maintenance of this horrendous and inhumane therapy by the Polish ruling class has resulted in many living each day shrouded in fear and insecurity merely because of their own sexuality and/or gender. The ruling elite have torn apart the Polish working class, and have made living a normal life, let alone organising and engaging in class struggle, an extremely difficult task for many to perform. For members of the LGBT+ community, every trip to the store has ample opportunity to end in physical or verbal harassment, or in serious cases, the sustainment of heavy, sometimes life-threatening injuries.
Women in Poland also face constant hardships due to the right-wing government’s introduction of many conservative policies that infringe on individual freedoms and fundamental human rights. Since October 2020, the Polish government imposed further restrictions on the already immensely strict abortion laws, concluding that women shall only have access to abortion services in the case of incest, rape, or if the mother’s health is at serious risk (6). In addition to this, terminations in the case of a severe foetal disability, which account for 98 percent of terminations conducted in Poland, have been unlawfully banned (6). As a result, almost all abortions have been completely outlawed.
Not only have these severe limitations on the freedoms of women prevented much needed access to crucial health services, but they have also promoted the generation of rape culture, which puts the lives and well-being of women at a much greater risk. To say that women do not deserve access to health services and fundamental rights unless violated or raped is to normalise this repulsive behaviour that continues to degrade and demean them.
In response to these appalling actions on behalf of the ruling class, tens of thousands of people have taken to the streets of Poland to protest the ban on abortion and the deterioration of women’s rights (7). Beginning on 22nd October 2020, these ongoing demonstrations have been met constantly with violence and brutality from the police and various right-wing groups, all of which seek to safeguard the bigoted policies of the government and maintain its rule over the polish working class. On 28th October, a nationwide women's strike was initiated under the slogan "I'm not going to work", which saw a total of approximately 430,000 people refuse to work and, instead, protest against the reactionary government, with 410 protests held across Poland (9).
The far-right and nationalist militias responded with the violent removal of protesters from churches and the brutalisation of those fighting for fundamental rights and revolutionary change. This is one of many large-scale protests organized in Poland in recent months, with approximately 100,000 people participating in another mass protest held in Warsaw on 30th October and several others since then (10). The capitalist class have and continue to strip away the rights of women and violently repress those who seek progressive change, thus making the need for socialism more apparent and significant in Polish society.
If the deterioration of the rights of women and the LGBT community has proven one thing, it is the significance of socialism in defeating the forces of reaction securing this deterioration, and in the restoration of the rights violently wrested from the working class. The women and LGBT of Poland, and the entire progressive working class for that matter, have endured frequent brutality and persecution, a significant loss of rights and freedoms, and mass inequalities in day-to-day life and in the workplace.
They have taken a stand against the reactionary actions of the ruling class with the organisation of dozens of strikes across Poland, in which all the oppressed people’s stand side by side fighting for peace and social justice. The struggle against the ruling elite and forces of reaction is an ongoing struggle filled with much difficulty and violent resistance, but is a necessary struggle to ensure the liberation of the working class from these forces. It has been made evident via the ceaseless protests organised across Poland that the working class shall continue to struggle against the forces of bigotry and reaction until justice prevails.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
1) Reuters.com. (2019). Poland Rules in Favour of Printer Convicted Over Refusing LGBT Posters.
https://www.reuters.com/article/poland-lgbt-constitution-idUSL8N23X4D4
2) Ciobanu. (2020). A Third of Poland Declared “LGBT Free Zone”
https://balkaninsight.com/2020/02/25/a-third-of-poland-declared-lgbt-free-zone/
3) Salon24 News. (2020). A court in Gliwice annulled the resolution on the "LGBT-free zone" in the commune of Istebna https://www.salon24.pl/newsroom/1063498,sad-w-gliwicach-uniewaznil-uchwale-o-strefie-wolnej-od-lgbt-w-gminie-istebna
4) Knight, Dam. (2020). Poland Punishes LGBT Rights Activist with Pretrial Detention
https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/08/12/poland-punishes-lgbt-rights-activist-pretrial-detention
5) Springer. (2020). The Church wants to create counseling centers for LGBT people. It's about "wanting to regain their natural sexual orientation"
https://www.onet.pl/informacje/onetwiadomosci/kosciol-chce-tworzyc-poradnie-dla-osob-lgbt/pfr6q4g,79cfc278
6) Easton. (2020). Poland abortion: Top court bans almost all terminations
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-54642108
7) Donadio. (2020). Poland's assault on women's rights is just the beginning
https://euobserver.com/opinion/149889
8) Magdziarz, Santora. (2020). Women Converge on Warsaw, Heightening Poland’s Largest Protests in Decades
https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/30/world/europe/poland-abortion-women-protests.html
9) Kuźniar. (2020). Police Commander in Chief about the protests: nearly 80 people were detained; over 100 devastation proceedings are conducted
https://www.gazetaprawna.pl/wiadomosci/artykuly/1494857,komendant-glowny-policji-o-protestach-zatrzymano-blisko-80-osob-prowadzonych-jest-ponad-100-postepowan-ws-dewastacji.html
10) Springer. (2020) Protests across Poland against aggravating abortion The "March to Warsaw" is underway, there have been clashes
https://wiadomosci.onet.pl/kraj/strajk-kobiet-trwaja-protesty-ws-aborcji-w-polskich-miastach-relacja-na-zywo/y9we7n1?utm_source=en.wikipedia.org_viasg_wiadomosci&utm_medium=referal&utm_campaign=leo_automatic&srcc=ucs&utm_v=2