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Jan Józef Lipski - Price rises lead to protests (125/215)

123 views · Published 23 October 2017 · 2:03 · Indexed 22 September 2026

Channel: Web of Stories - Life Stories of Remarkable People · 2017 · News & Politics

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To listen to more of Jan Józef Lipski’s stories, go to the playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLVV0r6CmEsFzWe1vPVkCbxv3jbj8zoDjS

Jan Józef Lipski (1926-1991) was a writer, literary critic, and one of Poland's best known political activists. He fought in the Warsaw Uprising, co-founded the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR), and, from 1987, re-established and led the Polish Socialist Party. [Listener: Jacek Petrycki, Marcel Łoziński; date recorded: 1989]

TRANSCRIPT: At the end of June in ‘76, everyone was taken by surprise – the authorities and most of the population – by the fact that after the price rises had been announced, even though they weren't as drastic as they had sometimes been, in Radom and in Ursus as well as in some other places which were less publicised because the repressions weren't as brutal, riots broke out, people began rioting because they had the feeling that they wouldn't be able to support their families or themselves. The riots were suppressed with enormous brutality, and people continued to be dismissed from their places of employment on a massive scale, thousands of people ended up being arrested, some of whom were later put on trial, and a new situation arose which upset the whole of society. The government responded to this by organising official rallies which they forced people to attend, mainly officials, because they were slightly afraid of forcing the workers to attend protests against the ‘extreme behaviour of the hooligans’ in Ursus and in Radom. The response on our part, on the part of the intelligentsia who, as I mentioned earlier, was psychologically prepared for the day when we would have to express our support for the workers, was to organise a whole series of protests, of steps aimed at helping those who were repressed, and after a few months, this led to the setting up of KOR – the Workers' Defence Committee.

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