Marcelina Monika Zawisza (born 3 May 1989 in Katowice,

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populou ...

) is a Polish social activist and

left-wing Left-wing politics describes the range of political ideologies that support and seek to achieve social equality and egalitarianism, often in opposition to social hierarchy. Left-wing politics typically involve a concern for those in soci ...

politician. She is a member of the National Board of the

Razem Left Together () is a left-wing political party in Poland. It was formed in 2015 as "Together", and it was one of the eight nationwide committees standing in the 2015 parliamentary election. It was a member of the Progressive International, a ...

(''Together'') party.

Biography

Early life and education

She was born in Katowice to a

unionized A trade union (labor union in American English), often simply referred to as a union, is an organization of workers intent on "maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment", ch. I such as attaining better wages and benefits ( ...

Silesian miner family. She studied at the Institute of Social Policy of the

Warsaw University The University of Warsaw ( pl, Uniwersytet Warszawski, la, Universitas Varsoviensis) is a public university in Warsaw, Poland. Established in 1816, it is the largest institution of higher learning in the country offering 37 different fields of ...

where she completed a bachelor's degree (''licencjat'').

Politics

She was a member of

The Greens The Greens or Greens may refer to: Current political parties *Australian Greens, also known as ''The Greens'' *Greens of Andorra * Greens of Bosnia and Herzegovina *Greens of Burkina * Greens (Greece) * Greens of Montenegro *Greens of Serbia *Gree ...

and of Young Socialists. She ran in the

2014 European Parliament election The 2014 European Parliament election was held in the European Union, from 22 to 25 May 2014. It was the 8th parliamentary election since the first direct elections in 1979, and the first in which the European political parties fielded candid ...

on the Greens' list and was the chief of staff of Joanna Erbel, the Green candidate for mayor of Warsaw in the local government election. In 2015 she left the Greens and became one of the founding members of the new

(''Together'') party. Since the party's foundation in May 2015 she has been a member of the National Board of Razem. In the 2015 parliamentary election, she ran as the first candidate on Razem's list in the Katowice electoral district. She received 8316 votes, but her party won only 3.62 percent of votes, so did not gain any seats in the

Sejm The Sejm (English: , Polish: ), officially known as the Sejm of the Republic of Poland ( Polish: ''Sejm Rzeczypospolitej Polskiej''), is the lower house of the bicameral parliament of Poland. The Sejm has been the highest governing body of ...

. In January 2018,

Forbes ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine owned by Integrated Whale Media Investments and the Forbes family. Published eight times a year, it features articles on finance, industry, investing, and marketing topics. ''Forbes'' also r ...

magazine included Zawisza on its annual

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

Forbes 30 Under 30 ''Forbes'' 30 Under 30 is a set of lists of people under 30 years old issued annually by ''Forbes'' magazine and some of its regional editions. The American lists recognize 600 business and industry figures, with 30 selected in twenty industries ...

list in the "Law & Policy" category for her role as a co-founder of Razem, which organized the "black protest" against a total ban on

abortion in Poland Abortion in Poland is legal only in cases when the pregnancy is a result of a criminal act or when the Maternal health, woman's life or health is in danger. The last change in the Act on Pregnancy Planning of the Republic of Poland took place on ...

. Zawisza was elected to the

on 13 October 2019, receiving 19,206 votes in the Opole district, campaigning from The Left list.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Zawisza, Marcelina 1989 births Living people Left Together politicians Polish feminists People from Katowice The Greens (Poland) politicians University of Warsaw alumni Members of the Polish Sejm 2019–2023 Socialist feminists Women members of the Sejm of the Republic of Poland 21st-century Polish women politicians Polish abortion-rights activists