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Polish MPs pay tribute to 1976 workers’ protest

15.07.2024 10:00
Polish lawmakers have paid tribute to workers who more than 48 years ago staged a series of protests against the country's communist regime at the time.
Officials have paid tribute to workers who staged a series of protests against Polands communist regime in June 1976.
Officials have paid tribute to workers who staged a series of protests against Poland’s communist regime in June 1976.PAP/CAF/Reprodukcja

The lower house of Poland's parliament at the end of last week voted unanimously to commemorate the 48th anniversary of workers' protests in Radom, south of Warsaw, in the Warsaw district of Ursus and in Płock, north-west of the capital.

"In June 1976, Poles openly opposed the communist regime, and a wave of demonstrations and strikes swept across the country," the Polish lower-house, the Sejm, said in a resolution.

"The Sejm pays tribute to the demonstrators and victims of repression," the resolution said.

It noted that around 80,000 people took to the streets in Poland at the time in protest against drastic food price increases announced by the communist authorities.

The protests were brutally dispersed by riot police.

A total 434 MPs on July 12 voted in favour of adopting the resolution, none opposed and none abstained, state news agency PAP reported.

The state-run Institute of National Remembrance (IPN) said last month that a total of 97 manufacturing plants went on strike in June 1976 and hundreds of protesters were beaten, detained and convicted.

Many of the demonstrators lost their jobs and suffered repression at the hands of the communist authorities.

Nevertheless, the protests paved the way to the birth of the Solidarity pro-democracy movement several years later, officials said.

(gs)

Source: PAP