Female protesters along the route of the Nationalist March

A several minute-long video of the event was published by Wyborcza.pl. The footage shows a group of women, who first assembled around a banner which read “Stop Fascism” on the route taken by the participants of the nationalist march. Near the National Museum they sat down on the street and started chanting anti-fascist slogans. A struggle with the demonstrators ensued. Offensive words were heard and the banner was torn to pieces. More aggressive men were held back by other participants and guards. At one point, they cordoned the sitting women off. The atmosphere was very tense. The Police did not interfere. The women were carried away and one of them needed medical assistance (she probably hit her head on the tarmac).

On Sunday, the Obywatele RP NGO called a press conference to address the events. The details of the assault were described by the involved, including Ewa Błaszczyk of Obywatele RP. She said that eight women marched along with the masses from Rondo Dmowskiego and unfolded their banner as they reached the National Museum. There, they were joined by four ladies from Strajk Kobiet, another NGO. “There was a handful of us. We had a banner with a straightforward slogan. But the fact of our existence is a provocation in itself. I did not go there to provoke anybody, I was there to provide the authorities of my city and of my country with proof of something that has been obvious for so many years. Yesterday and today, you could see all of that condense into one huge pill of hatred,” Ewa Błaszczyk said.

She also talked about the physical injuries the women sustained. “I have marks all over my body, just like other women from our movement. There was no struggle, no interaction. We were the ones shoved and pushed around, we were spat on and insulted with words from the most heinous fascist vocabulary. When we were pushed, we fell to the ground. It lasted for 15-20 minutes,” she recounted.

Zofia Marcinek of Warsaw’s Strajk Kobiet NGO also talked about the aggressors’ behaviour. “The participants, who like to call themselves regular patriots, were appallingly aggressive, even bestially vicious, I would say, but I don’t like making such comparisons. I don’t know what you can call a man who, upon seeing a woman sitting on the ground, goes over and kicks her in the back or in the stomach with all his force; a man who takes a woman by the hair and drags her along the tarmac and who is then able to follow the woman, insult her and spit on her as she is being dragged along,” the woman continued. “Their only strength is in numbers, they like putting up slogans about respecting women on their banners, when in fact they have no respect for anybody,” she said.

The Strajk Kobiet member also emphasized that the “Stop Fascism” banner that they unfolded should not inspire aggression. “It is not insulting to anybody. The slogan carries a message that should be obvious to all of us, a message against fascism. If somebody reacts the way they did, it should be obvious that the message clashes with ideas that some people are trying to disguise under a different name. But they are aware that there is little difference between those ideas and fascism,” she summed up.

Warsaw City authorities and opposition parties were criticized at the conference for their idleness. “Before the march, we demanded that an observer from the City Hall be sent to the site, in order to disband the march if law was broken. Criminal offences, hate speech, threats and punishable acts are part and parcel of these demonstrations,” said Paweł Kasprzak, Obywatele RP leader. “Yesterday, 12 extremely brave women stood in the demonstrators’ path, but they were not there to provoke anybody. They faced the marching masses instead of the law enforcement officers,” he emphasized.

Kasprzak argued that the mass use of pyrotechnical devices was a breach of the law, which should result in the immediate disbanding of the – as he called it – “roguish gathering, the brown march”.

Other incidents which took place on 11 November were also discussed. “Fifty of our activists stood on the pavement before the march took off. We were carried away and taken to a police station, where we were held until late in the evening. In Warsaw, during the service at St. Barbara’s Church, a “Black Mass” of Polish nationalists was held. One of our campaigners protested, displaying a banner with a quote from John Paul II, who called racism a grave sin. She was kicked and thrown out of the church, dragged along the floor. The priest did not stop his sermon, not even for a moment,” Kasprzak said.

Źródło: tvn24.pl/tłumaczenie Intertext.com.pl