Karol Florek & Steph Mawson, Warsaw
On June 11, 5000 protesters took part in an act of civil disobedience in support of gay and lesbian rights. The march's successful execution was a decisive victory in defence of civil rights and democracy; given that it faced threats of repression from the right-wing mayor and leading presidential candidate Lech Kaczynski.
"They can demonstrate as citizens, but not as homosexuals", Kaczynski reasoned. His refusal to grant the Equality Parade legal status was a political move by the presidential candidate, aimed at winning the votes of a significant conservative and homophobic sector of society. An opinion poll carried out on June 5 for the Gazeta Wyborcza found that 55% of Poles supported Kaczynski's ban on the march.
By contrast, Kaczynski legalised eight out of 17 counter-demonstrations called by the ultra-nationalist All-Polish Youth organisation, skinhead groups, and the youth-wing of his own party, Law and Justice. This manoeuver then allowed him to argue that he could not guarantee the safety of the parade, considering the threat of violence from the right-wing counter-demonstrators.
Despite political pressure to call off the demonstration, the organisers of the Equality Parade refused to be intimidated by Kaczynski's actions and called for broader community support. This call was taken up by numerous Polish and international organisations, left-of-centre parliamentarians, and EU representatives, as well as thousands of Warsaw citizens, who joined the illegal demonstration in support of civil liberties.
Despite Kaczynski's refusal to promise the safety of the rally, the police played a positive role on the day. As protesters took to the streets illegally, police provided a cordon which protected the parade from attack by around 200 right-wing counterdemonstrators, who at times pelted the parade with eggs, stink-bombs and, occasionally, rocks. The crowd of angry young males shouted, "God, honour, motherland! Gas the fags!", and, "Degenerates, you'll be gone by September!" (when elections are due). In response, the parade drowned out their slogans with chants of, "Homophobia is curable!".
In the face of these right-wing attacks, the successful procession of the march through the streets of Warsaw was a victory for the queer movement in an ominous political environment — Kaczynski and his ultra-right party Law and Justice look set to win the next elections.
Kaczynski promises to "complete the Solidarnosc Revolution" by bringing into being the IV Republic — characterised by the repression of social democracy, the ex-Communist and radical left, and minority groups, in pursuit of an ultra-nationalist, Catholic hegemony.
As professor Janusz Reykowski, social psychologist, writes: "We are witness to a right-wing offensive. The right is gaining new bastions, capturing more and more instruments of influence and power. At the same time, the left is fighting a defensive struggle on all fronts. The Polish right is practicing a form of destructive politics — the politics of antagonism and obliteration of alternative thought. In short, the foundations are being laid for a police state."
Far from completing the revolution begun in the 1980s, Kaczynski's program reintroduces repression and censorship, while providing no alternative to the series of neoliberal economic policies that have brought wide-scale poverty, unemployment and homelessness.
While the program of neoliberal reforms since 1989 has caused massive social dissatisfaction, this sentiment has hitherto been co-opted by the radical right. The Equality Parade provides an important example for the kind of tactics that are becoming increasingly necessary to counter the right's weapons of social control — scapegoating and fearmongering.
The parade's success will hopefully encourage others to take further radical action to protect civil rights, open democratic debate and freedom of expression, as well as countering the rising social alienation brought into being by the neoliberal reforms.
From Green Left Weekly, June 22, 2005.
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