Sign in. It’s quick, free and it’s up to you.
An account is an optional way to support the work we do. Find out more.
POLISH WOMEN DONNED black, waved black flags and took to Poland’s streets today, boycotting their jobs and classes as part of a nationwide strike waged to protest a legislative proposal for a total ban on abortion.
Many men also joined women on the streets of Warsaw, Gdansk and elsewhere across the largely Catholic nation on what has been dubbed “Black Monday”.
The country already has one of Europe’s most restrictive abortion laws and opinion surveys show very little support for an even stricter law, despite the nation’s deep Catholicism.
The strike and street demonstrations follow a street protest by thousands on Saturday in front of the parliament in Warsaw.
Women were wearing black in a sign of mourning for the feared loss of reproductive rights and for the deaths that they feel some women will face if the proposal passes as it stands now.
Under the existing law, in force since 1993, abortion is banned except in cases where the woman’s life is in danger, the fetus is irreparably damaged or the pregnancy results from rape or incest.
The new proposal, now being examined by a parliamentary commission, would make all abortions illegal, even in cases of rape or when the woman’s life is at risk, with prison terms of up to five years for women seeking abortion and doctors who perform them.
The proposal for the stricter law came from a pro-life citizens’ initiative that had gathered 450,000 signatures.
While it was difficult to gauge participation in small towns and rural area, which tend to be conservative, participation in the cities appeared to be significant this morning.
A large crowd gathered in central Warsaw and people were also out on the streets in other cities.
The private all-news broadcaster, TVN24, with some of its own newscasters in black, broadcast images of establishments joining the strike: a restaurant in Wroclaw that closed to let female employees participate, a museum in Krakow where none of the women showed up to work.
In Czestochowa, perhaps the most Catholic city in the overwhelmingly Catholic nation, the city hall reported that some 60% of female workers refused to show up to work.
The day of action also included a call for housewives to refuse to do housework.
The organisers of today’s strike took their inspiration from a strike by women in Iceland in 1975 when 90% of women refused to work, clean or look after children, to voice anger at discrimination in the workplace.
The strike was seen as success, raising awareness of women’s plight and leading to a law the next year that guaranteed equal rights for men and women.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
Who’s mammy and daddy left who the most. Let the battles begin!
@Dan The Man: Yeah,keep telling yourself that.typical Irish attitude towards success and hard work.We must be the worst begrudging nation on earth.
@Dan The Man: Just because you didn’t make it very far in life, doesn’t mean others can’t either. You just assume that anyone with something decent was just given to them. Is that your coping mechanism because you can’t admit there is people who work harder than you and make better decisions?
@John Paul: well that’s one way to look at it, but you can see how such shows might really grate on those that haven’t been able to afford a house. I am in fact lucky enough to have purchased a house I can afford but I do wonder when we might see a tent or a temporary type of house on the show. Doesn’t fit the narrative though.
This is tat, pure and simple, but it’s par for the course with RTE!
This abomination along with the other shitshow cheap Irish homes have to be the worst ever attempt by RTE at entertainment.
@Sea Spirit: Why don’t they give updates or tell you what home the people featured, make a bid on. What’s the point of it all!
@Sea Spirit: A stop Dathai should be on this show aswell for god sake he’s brilliant oh Frank
Hugh Wallace makes me nauseas ‘Hooooooome of the year’… while the majority of us hard working people can’t even afford the circular red pillow to put in our ‘favourite place’. Yup rub it in please Man just a little bit more.
@J B: No fair enough JB and thank you for that x You must be so proud of your children that’s amazing x You’re right in fairness, I need to get over my resentments it’s just hard because genuinely worked so hard and lost everything. There I go again with the self pity!! Sorry JB and thanks again for your reply x
@Donna Fallon: As all the evidence shows, Irish people have never been better off financially. Look at car sales, holidays etc. There are always people who get left behind or endure bad circumstances etc but they are definitely not the majority
@Brian M: Yup there certainly are people who get left behind I agree but our obsession with property porn in this Country is quite unsettling. I personally find it distasteful. Just an opinion.
Love the show and the judges. It is amazing what people can do on very little as in the converted shop in Tipperary. Gorgeous home full of personality.
@Suzanne Phelan: I prefer those to the ones that obviously just had more money than taste thrown into them, everything to the max size, but minimal and sterile at the same time.
Home of the year …
I blame Duncan Stewart and his show “our house” with rté which started in the mid 90s for the start of the property boom. Just looat the graph 1996 / 2008 \ 2014 / 2025
@P. V. Aglue: Ah Drunken Duncan. There’s a name I haven’t seen in a while
have your say