Polish women protest against a legislative proposal for a total ban on abortion in Poland. PAimages/Geert Vanden Wijngaert. All rights reserved.It was Czarny Poniedziałek - Black Monday. On Monday 3 October Poland saw a nationwide 'women's strike'. Inspired by an Icelandic protest action from back in 1975, tens of thousands of Polish women heeded a call to strike and protest against the proposal of a new abortion law supported by the current PiS (Prawo i Sprawiedliwość - Law and Justice) government.
The strike is so far the culmination of a recent resistance campaign coined 'Czarny Protest (Black Protest)' against a law which would draconically restrict Poland's already restrictive abortion legislation and factually amount to a total ban.
Coverage of 'Black Monday' captured headlines around the globe and images of the more than 20,000 protesters holding umbrellas in the pouring rain on Warsaw's central Castle Square have gone viral on social media. Yet, this was by far not the largest anti-government protest since PiS took power.
