On the 5th of December catholic priest Professor Paweł Bortkiewicz delivered a talk at the Economic University of Poznań entitled “Does gender devastate life and family?” (after an immense pressure from academic community changed from the initial affirmative “Gender – devastation of life and family”). The lecture, blaming gender (it’s never clear what exactly is blamed, but most certainly – gender studies at Polish universities, gender equality as a one of educational principles at schools, feminist and lgbtq movements, etc.) for destroying the identity of the family, for abortion, employment of women (!) and detaining children in nurseries (!), is part of the growing campaign by the Polish catholic church against feminist and lgbtq movements. Because the university authorities sustained their decision to welcome the lecture at the university, despite a petition against the lecture signed by Polish scholars and over 600 other people, a group of students and activists decided to organize a happening during the event. One of the activists, wearing golden dress, long-hair wig and make-up, danced his way among the audience to the lecturer priest, whereupon he danced on the table next to him shouting “I invite you to the devastation of the family” while the rest of activists ridiculed the priest and the speaker of the organizers who began to introduce the topic of the lecture (the event was organized by male-only student association Lechia Corporation). Only a few minutes into the happening several people from the audience began breaking it down, hunting down the activists and brutally pulling them out of the room (the people turned out to be undercover police forces). The organizers decided to move the lecture to another room and asked the audience to leave the room. While people were leaving the undercover police continued to use violence against the protesters – they pulled, beat them and used electroshock weapons (“paralysers”) against them. Soon riot police invaded the university room with batons, helmets and shields. Police again used electroshock weapons and batons. Those still remaining in the room were brutally pushed out of the room so to prevent witnesses of the police intervention. It turned out that some days before the lecture the rector of the Economic University had asked the police to help secure the event and later agreed to the intervention upon the request from the police. All that despite the autonomy of the university territory. Medical forensic examination of the protesters revealed numerous bruises from batons and paralyzers. One person had his arm broken. Three people were detained without sufficient explanation. Other activists gathered in front of the police quarter to show solidarity. All three protesters are charged with assaulting police officers and with trespassing on university territory. *We ask you to protest the police intervention on academic territory and the decision to let the police in. Please send the Rector of the Economic University a letter condemning his behavior.* His e-mail address: rektor@ue.poznan.pl Short films of the police intervention can be watched here and here. Source
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