Manifa

Manifa is an annual feminist demonstration organized in connection with International Women's Day on March 8th in various parts of Poland.[1] In Warsaw it is organized by the informal group Alliance of Women. The name comes from the slang abbreviation for the word manifestacja, used in this form by the anti-government opposition in the 1980s. In 2007 the Manifa was called the "March of Women's Solidarity" (alluding to the Solidarity movement) and emphasizing the commonalities of women's struggles.[2]

Manifa 2019 in Kraków
(one for all, all for one)

The first Manifa in 2000 was organized to protest against a violent enforcement of anti-abortion law in Lubliniec, where police officers detained a gynecologist patient during an examination and forced her to undergo a forensic examination.[2] It turned into a nationwide feminist, anti-discrimination, and anti-clerical demonstration. The motto of the first Manifa was "Democracy without women is only half-democracy."[3] In later demonstrations, the focus shifted to economic and employment issues. The motto of the 2011 Manifa was "Enough of exploitation! We give notice!" and was attended by the All-Poland Alliance of Trade Unions, the Polish Trade Union of Nurses and Midwives, the August 80 Free Trade Union, and the Polish Teachers' Association.[3]In March 2017, 4,000 people marched under the slogan “Against the Violence of Power” in Warsaw, along with protesters in eight other cities in Poland. The crowd was larger than usually, after the opposition movement blossomed in Poland since the election of Law and Justice Party in October 2015.[4] The 19th Manifa in 2018 was focused on Poland’s strict anti-abortion law. Approximately 2,000 women walked through Warsaw for an annual Women’s Day march in defense of women’s rights, including unrestricted right to abortion. The march focused on Poland’s strict anti-abortion law and was a response to Poland’s ruling party's plan to ban the possibility of abortion of sick fetuses, which has drawn vehement protests from women’s organizations.[5]

References
  1. Galasińska, Aleksandra (2010). The Post-Communist Condition: Public and private discourses of transformation. John Benjamins Publishing. pp. 126–127.
  2. Linch, Amy (2013). Postcommunism from Within: Social Justice, Mobilization, and Hegemony. NYU Press. pp. 163–164.
  3. Roosalu, Triin (2016). Rethinking Gender, Work and Care in a New Europe: Theorising Markets and Societies in the Post-Postsocialist Era. Springer. p. 363.
  4. "Strike to Win: Can Polish Feminists Turn Protest Into Power?". dissentmagazine.org. Retrieved 2020-06-20.
  5. "Poland: Abortion rights focus of annual women's rights march". apnews.com. Retrieved 2020-06-20.
  • Media related to Manifa at Wikimedia Commons



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