June 1976 protests

June 1976 is the name of a series of protests and demonstrations in People's Republic of Poland. The protests took place after Prime Minister Piotr Jaroszewicz revealed the plan for a sudden increase in the price of many basic commodities, particularly foodstuffs (butter by 33%, meat by 70%, and sugar by 100%). Prices in Poland were at that time fixed, and controlled by the government, which was falling into increasing debt.

The protests started on 24 June and lasted until 30 June, the largest violent demonstrations and looting taking place in Płock, the Warsaw suburb of Ursus, and particularly Radom. The protests were brutally quelled by the government, but the plan for the price increase was shelved; Polish leader Edward Gierek backed down and dismissed Prime Minister Jaroszewicz. This left the government looking both economically foolish and politically weak, a very dangerous combination. The 1976 disturbances and the subsequent arrests and dismissals of militant workers brought the workers and the intellectual opposition to the regime back into contact. In the aftermath, a group of intellectuals founded the opposition organization Workers' Defence Committee (Komitet Obrony Robotników, KOR), whose aim was to fight official repression of the protesting workers.

During the VII meeting of the Polish United Workers' Party (PZPR), in December 1975, secretary general Edward Gierek, recognizing the poor condition of the Polish economy, stated that “…the problems of structure of prices of basic food products needs further analysis”. This utterance was an informal announcement of planned increase of food prices, which had artificially been kept at levels set in 1971, and whose increase was necessary for economic reasons However, the Communist government of Poland wanted to prepare the citizens for the changes, therefore a massive propaganda campaign was started in the mass-media. It is claimed that the government of the Soviet Union opposed the plans.

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