On 24 October 2016, in Warsaw the women’s rights movement organised a day of action under the banner of Czarny Protest (Black Protest), building on earlier mobilisations in September and October. On this day, a procession called the Konferencja Episkopatu Polek (Conference of Polish Women Bishops) walked along the Royal Route (Trakt Królewski) and stopped at several churches, including St. Krzyż, Visitation, Seminary, St. Anna and St. John’s Cathedral. The participants carried banners saying “Women’s rights are not on prescription,” “Secular state,” “No to Church interference in politics,” and walked dressed mostly in black.
At the same time, other gatherings of the Black Protest took place around the Metro Centrum area and at churches, where the protesters delivered a petition to the government and parliament demanding protection of women’s rights in pregnancy, punishment for gender-based violence, sexual education, access to contraception and a secular public sphere. Slogans such as “Freedom is woman,” “Women’s rights not bishops’ business,” and “We have enough of the good change” were heard.
The action was sparked by proposed legislation to further restrict abortion in Poland and by strong involvement of the Catholic Church in public policy debates. It underscored frustration with both law and politics, and with what many women saw as the subordination of women’s autonomy to political and religious interests.
The 24 October 2016 action illustrated how the Black Protest movement was evolving beyond one-day strikes and broad marches into targeted interventions in symbolic public spaces (churches, religious-political routes). It represented a moment where women’s rights activism in Poland asserted itself in the face of both governmental and ecclesiastical power.
