Summer 1981 Hunger Demonstrations in Poland - First Demonstrations

First Demonstrations

First recorded hunger demonstration took place on July 25, 1981 in the central town and a crucial railroad junction of Kutno. Some 2000 people participated in it, and it was the first street protest in Poland since August 1980, as Solidarity had previously been trying to limit its actions to factories. The demonstration in Kutno was organized by the local Solidarity office, Interfactory Founding Committee (Miedzyzakladowy Komitet Zalozycielski). The demonstrators in Kutno carried banners proclaiming: We are tired of being hungry, We are tired of queueing and We demand life on the level of a civilised country, carrying empty pots and pans.

In the following days, demonstrations were organized in numerous cities across whole country, such as Częstochowa, Białystok, Tarnów, Tomaszów Mazowiecki, Olsztyn, Tarnowskie Góry, Konin, Kraków, Piotrków Trybunalski, Bełchatów (July 30, 3,000 participants), Pabianice, Szczecin (July 31, 5,000 participants), Kalisz and a series of protests in Łódź, where the first demonstration took place on Monday, July 27, at 3 p.m. Banners, held by the residents of Łódź, stated among others: "Our children are hungry", "We stand in lines 24 hours a day", "We want to divide bread, not Poland", "The hungry of all countries - unite!", "We are not going to work hungry". In the following days, further demonstrations took place in Łódź - on July 29, and on July 30, when some 100,000 people protested, blessed on the way by the Bishop of Łódź, Jozef Rozwadowski. Most of participants were women and their children, with men walking on the sides and trying to protect the demonstrators. As Jacek Kuroń later said: “Those crowds wielding banners broke the principle of not leaving factories to take to the streets. They created an atmosphere of such tension that the government probably panicked”.