Julia Zimmermann (Warsaw)- On the 7th of March the XI Great Manifa marched the streets of Warsaw summing up the last ten years of women movements' struggles in Poland.
Every year since 2000 around 8th March, the International Women’s Day, Manifas (Manifa is an abbreviation from the polish word for a manifestation – manifestacja) walk streets of more and more polish cities with the most prominent one taking place in Warsaw on the Sunday closest to the date.
The idea came up in the end of last century when the so-called "consensus on women issues" (meaning "everything is fine just the way it is"), started taking the shape of a dogma. An informal group of feminist activists took the name of the Alliance of Women of 8th March and started fighting for a greater visibility of women’s problems in media. The colourful demonstrations were intended to remind people that women in Poland were a diversified yet discriminated group which, however, was able to speak up for itself. Another aim was reclaiming the International Women’s Day breaking the cliché of communist celebrations of 8th March when women received tights (extremely hard to get at the time) and cheerless wilting carnations in their workplaces; a poster announcing one of the first Warsaw Manifas pictured a woman vomiting with red carnations.
Unchanged demands
However, the demands have remained unchanged for the last 10 years: better payments for nurses; free nurseries and kindergartens; equal rights and duties for both parents, promotion of the paternity leave; changes in the pension laws, so women don’t get pensions significantly lower than men; fighting the practices of outsourcing which break the work code; putting to end all actions of employers using the crisis as an excuse to pay less and fire employees; creating formal protection for one-sex relationships in terms of inheritance laws; banning of illegal evictions and creating an aid system for evicted people; legal counteraction to the economic violence in families; modern antidiscrimination actions, respecting the secularity of the state; full reproductive rights. In recent years new demands have followed newly occurring problems: dismissal of the current Equal Rights Commissioner (not affiliated with the feminist movement), introducing parity in parliamentary elections and public funding of infertility treatment including IVF (after recent suggestions of the right-wing to regulate IVF procedures because of ethical reasons).
The political scene in Poland seems petrified with two leading parties representing national and liberal wings of the conservative movement, thus making any changes in favour of women less probable. The very formula of Manifa was strongly criticised this year by some feminists including organizers of the first Manifas. One of the most important criticisms was that, in search for a wider social base, the core of ideas representing discriminated groups has been lost. This was fuelled by the apparent alliance with the organizers of the Congress of Polish Women: the Congress was dominated by successful businesswomen and other middle class members; traditionally colourful and alternative manifestation was more sombre and plain this year, easier to chew for an everyman/everywoman. Even during the event some people protested against the presence of some participants perceived as too well enrooted in the establishment and too conservative. We can only wait to see effects of the new strategy.
Images: Two shots from the Manifa (upper and lower) and the poster announcing the first edition of the march in 2000 (right) (Piotr Szenajch).
Images: Two shots from the Manifa (upper and lower) and the poster announcing the first edition of the march in 2000 (right) (Piotr Szenajch).
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