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On June 20, we participated in a radical Equality Parade in Warsaw. It was organized as an alternative to the mainstream “Equality (Pride) Parade”. The following text attempts to explain why we hope the radical parade will be a continuing tradition, separate from the mainstream party parade.

We Want Real Equality: a Perspective on Warsaw's “Equality Parade”

It was 25 years ago when the first “Equality Parade” marched in Warsaw. The Equality Parade is the local name of what is essential called Pride elsewhere. Some of our members took part in this first and subsequent parades. At the beginning it was a couple of hundred people, constantly attacked by fascists and homophobes. At some point some of us formed a militant block to fend off the fascists.

A lot has changed since then. The event is much bigger – and also sponsored by some objectionable corporations and politicians. The organizers of this event, a closed and hierarchical group, are convinced that this mainstreaming is what it takes to achieve “equality” (at least for their narrow interests). For years we either stayed away, participated as a critical block or did something else. In 2023, we were a critical block with sex workers and anarchists. In 2024, we co-organized an independent parade in the Praga neighborhood of Warsaw. In 2025, others were not up for organizing independently and we went as a critical block. During the parade, people from various groups stopped the Maersk truck from going in the parade, splashing it with “blood” and blocking it to protest its business in Israel. This year, more radical leaning people again decided to organize a separate parade, which we endorse.

We Want Real Equality

For years we have used the slogan “There is no Equality in Capitalism” to point out the fact that, although we fight against descrimination of LGBTQiA+ people, capitalism is the major creator of inequality across the globe.

As an anarcho-syndicalist organization, our goal is not just fighting against exploitation in the workplace; it is to aim to create a society of equals, non-hierarchical in nature. And it is not only capitalism that maintains inequality; it is the statist system which affords people power over others.

Discrimination and hatred is not only a problem of mentality; it is a problem of the state usurping powers for itself to decide issues of one's private life. Look at the struggle for same-sex marriage. For us, it is intolerable to have legal discrimination, which of course we need to abolish, but we ask why anybody should need to legalize their consensual relations with each other? The state gives itself the right to say what is “legal” and what cannot be “legal” - impinging on our personal freedom to choose to live as we like, with whom we like. What we want is free unions – with anybody or any persons (because why do we only justify monogamy). But in the meanwhile, when the current reality may necessitate pieces of paper from the state (for reasons ranging from receiving benefits to getting residence or citizenship), we support all demands that the government stop their homophobic and transphobic insistence on discriminating against non-heterosexual couples.

We can also refer to transphobic politics, especially as they are spreading in some parts of the world like a disease. We see no reason to keep the outdated notion of two genders or to use gender for identification purposes – unless the individual for some reason wants their gender recognized. Again, the state serves as a barrier for transgender people and we would like to eliminate all these barriers.

We appreciated the fact that amongst the postulates of the demonstration where calls to abolish the state's notions of family and the use of gender as a form of identification and control.

Our Enemy the State

The State is our enemy, not only because it imposes all these discriminatory measures. It takes our power away from us and often ignores what the majority of people are saying. The majority of people in Poland support gay marriage, but the government will not allow it because they are too busy catering to the far right and the church. By upholding the institution of the State, we cannot develop the free direct democracy that we favor.

We Need a Revolutionary Consciousness

To move forward, we need to build a radical revolutionary consciousness, the main goals of which must be the creation of a truly equal society by fighting all the things which keep us unequal.

We need to spread the ideas behind this goal as widely as possible but to do this, we need to get away from all the distractors. Those who try to divide us with issues such as race, ethnicity or sexual orientation. Those who are convinced they should concentrate on gaining political power and only wind up negotiating away all their positions in the end. And those whose hatreds and phobias mean that they refuse to consider these issues as ones that need to be addressed by various social movements. (Here we can refer to some pseudo-progressive organizations which are loaded with TERFs, which participated in pogroms a few years back against LGBTQiA + people or which sigmatize and prejudicially condemn sex workers – even while trying to be organizations of “workers”.)

Solidarity with Trans and Non-Binary People, Solidarity with Sex Workers

There have been notorious problems in Warsaw, particularly the December 5, 2021 pogrom at the Syrena social center, carried out by “activists” belonging to a few organizations and a neighboring social center. This was a transphobic attack and an attack on the sex workers who used the space to organize, as well as a simple attempt to take over the space. If anything, this showed us that there are people out there pretending to be some sort of “radicals” who are just as prejudiced as anybody who is indoctrinated by the far-right or the church.

Due to the persistent issues with certain “activists”, we have to clearly state where our solidarity lies.

As a workers' organization, we feel that anybody who is trying to stigmitize a certain category of workers should stop pretending they are an organization for the working class.

It is Important to Combine Struggles

We are aware that many “workers' organizations” try to avoid issues that have to do with real liberation. This is because they believe that working class people cannot handle the idea and they cater to the far-right, which also constitute members of their organizations, even when they pretend to be on the left, even when they grotesquely insist on using red and black flags – a symbol not only of the workers' struggle, but the struggle for human liberation, for freedom against the state.

ZSP will not do this. We say what we need to say. This is why we were the only union that came – although other organizations, collectives and individuals also referred to the class struggle.

Although we normally are not fond of quoting bearded guys from the 19th century, Bakunin's quote seems appropriate here: “We are convinced that liberty without socialism is privilege, injustice; and that socialism without liberty is slavery and brutality.” We reject the logic of single-issue movements that strive for some liberty of lifestyle but ignore the reality of the various forms of oppression we face. Likewise, we see those vanguards who talk of socialism but ignore the realities of people facing oppression of various kinds as part of the problem.

The struggle for liberation is not only against capital, but against the state and against everything that divides us as humans into people of different value, that put us into categories and passes judgement as to our human worth. We want to be free from the oppressive prejudices and judgements of bigots and free from the exploitation of capital and the state.