Was it a strike? Notes on Polish Women on Strike and Strike of Parent’s of Persons with Disabilities

Two significant social protests that took place in Poland in recent years – a massive mobilisation of women against a ban on abortion and an occupation of the Sejm building by carers of persons with disabilities – were called strikes. In this article, we analyse the Polish Women's Strike events of 2016, 2017 and 2018 and the strike of parents of persons with disabilities of 2018 from the perspective of a strike as a form of protest. What does it mean that both protests have been called strikes and what are the implications of incorporating the terminology of labour disputes by both protests? Strikes in Poland are a form of collective, institutionalized industrial action of workers in wage employment, organized only by a trade union registered in a certain workplace and its subject can be exclusively of workplace matters and not on matters that are political and beyond an employer’s influence. The Polish Women's Strike and the protest of parents of persons with disabilities were not strikes de iure, however they rejected division between production (wage labour) and reproduction (non-wage labour), which gave a deeper meaning to the “refusal of work”. The empowerment of this event was derived from taking over the concept of the strike and providing an inclusive space to connect different actions related to struggles for reproductive rights. We interpret this as a strategy of cooptation and occupation of typical protest actions reserved for wage labour.