Below we present in full the statement by the Bolesławiec Women's Strike. It refers to yesterday's publication: Former Solidarity activists lash out at young people protesting in the streets.
The pseudo-ruling of Julia Przyłębska's Constitutional Tribunal, issued at Jarosław Kaczyński's request on October 22, struck more than half of the citizens of our country—women. This was Jarosław's cynical and cowardly move; at a time when we should be focusing on our health and safety during a pandemic, he is endangering his fellow citizens and taking away their ability to protest safely by pushing such legislation through. In addition, PiS leader Jarosław Kaczyński called for hatred in his televised speech, which most Poles compared to Jaruzelski's speech introducing martial law.
While you, the activists of the first Solidarity, are so fiercely trying to defend a few destroyed bricks, several daubed walls or monuments, the government is destroying the lives of many women in Poland. These are lives the authorities have a duty to protect!
Returning to the local arena, your letter shows that you have no idea what is happening on the streets of Bolesławiec. Our marches have passed by Bolesławiec churches several times, and not a single stone—or even an unkind word—has ever been directed at them. None of the protesters is destroying property, littering or behaving aggressively. What is more, we respond to aggression directed at us with smiles, kindness and applause. No one has suffered any harm from us. I suggest believing less of the government propaganda trickling from screens through Jacek Kurski's television station. During the PRL, the communist authorities also used this tool to portray you and your protests in a bad light. Various people march among us, of different ages and beliefs; believers also take part in the protests. Besides, are we attacking your Church? Isn't the Church for everyone?
Another issue is our anonymity. None of us is anonymous, and it would probably be difficult to remain anonymous in a city like Bolesławiec. We take part in every protest, write posts and participate in discussions in electronic media.
Do vulgar slogans at our protests bother you? I wonder what words you had on your lips when you overthrew communism in Poland. Did you ask the PRL government to kindly leave our homeland quickly? Or were the words more forceful? Were your strikes and actions legal under the law at the time? Didn't various groups issue hundreds of appeals for you to come to your senses? Didn't the authorities, followed by many citizens, call you arsonists, troublemakers and ill-mannered “brats”? Didn't you receive enough abuse back then? Or perhaps your struggle was “unseemly,” illegal and loud? Maybe the strikes made life difficult for your fellow citizens rather than for the authorities, which, through Urban, boasted that “the government will feed itself”?
We appeal to you to remember your years of youth and your struggle for your rights, to remember how hard you fought to be able to feel at home in your country. We are fighting for exactly the same thing: to be able to feel at home in our homeland. Perhaps we understand this differently from you today, but we strongly feel that we are right. The overwhelming majority of Polish women and men feel the same, as evidenced by the scale of these protests. It may be difficult for you to believe, but over the past two weeks we have witnessed the largest demonstrations in Poland's history. On Friday alone, October 30, more than a million residents took to the streets of Polish cities and towns. Our main demand is for the most harmful, inept, cynical, thieving and treacherous government to finally retire—as deserved—to spend its retirement in correctional facilities.
Bolesławiec Women's Strike
P.S. So many men, and only four women, signed your letter. This is also what our struggle today is about: ensuring that women's voices are represented with greater strength—the strength they deserve!