Today, March 8th, is International Women’s Day,\u00a0Women across Poland are staging rallies and marches to demand protection against violence, equal rights and respect.<\/p>\n
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<\/a>Photo credit http:\/\/www.weau.com<\/p><\/div>\n
Hollywood actress Jessica Chastain took part in a protest walk across the street in downtown Warsaw. She was in the city for a gala screening of her latest movie “The Zookeeper’s Wife.”<\/p>\n
Hundreds of women also gathered in front of the offices of the head of the ruling conservative party, Jaros\u0142aw Kaczy\u0144ski, who is Poland’s most powerful politician. The government promotes Catholic values and is trying to ban abortion.<\/p>\n
The women demanded\u00a0equal rights and protested violence.\u00a0Protests were also held in dozens of other cities in Poland.<\/p>\n
Political resistance, as history has taught us, does not guarantee political change \u2014 but the first step to finding out is showing up. In Iceland and Poland, where two of the world\u2019s most successful large-scale women\u2019s strikes in recent history took place, there wasn\u2019t time to deliberate about hows and ifs: There was only forward action. Uncertain beginnings, broad, lofty goals, and resistance were not enough to get in their way. Women of both countries didn\u2019t know whether there would be a significant turnout, or if positive political change would be the result of their participation. All they knew was they had a choice to either strike or not. Today, American women will confront a similar challenge. And if the only way to find out if it striking works is to show up, the question is, will we?<\/p>\n
Iceland\u2019s first ever Women\u2019s Day Off came out of the worldwide women\u2019s liberation movement in the 1970s. Originally the brainchild of the country\u2019s Redstockings feminist group, the women\u2019s strike\u2019s message was simple: By going on strike, women wanted to show how much influence their work outside of the home and within the home had.<\/p>\n
This past October, Polish women took inspiration from Iceland\u2019s Women\u2019s Day Off and called for a national protest against proposed legislation that would put a total ban on abortion \u2014 and its beginnings were equally uncertain.\u00a0The organization of the strike was a very short, intense process.\u00a0The call for the strike came less than a week before the day it actually happened, and organizing it was absolutely crazy. No one knew whether taking to the streets would convince the Polish parliament to vote down the legislation, but, even if the bill wasn\u2019t shut down, Polish women would be united and motivated to keep going.\u00a0On October 3, 2016, women gathered in the streets of more than 90 Polish cities, carrying wall-to-wall open umbrellas \u2014 both a protection from the elements and a symbolic image.\u00a0 Only a few hundred women had been expected to show up, but more than 25,000 women flooded Castle Square in Warsaw alone, and an estimated 100,000 women gathered in other cities nationwide. In addition to the strike and marches, there were blood-donation drives and book readings, and some teachers taught classes while wearing all black. \u00a0Two days following Poland\u2019s massive protests, the controversial abortion ban was voted down in the Polish parliament by a vote of 352 to 58!<\/p>\n
We made this thing work together!<\/p>\n