Marcin Łysko
Cracow Studies of Constitutional and Legal History, Volume 13, Issue 1, Volume 13 (2020), pp. 61 - 81
https://doi.org/10.4467/20844131KS.20.005.11771In March 1968, in the streets of Warsaw, Polish students protested against the communist authorities’ restriction of freedom of cultural and artistic activity. Demonstrations taking place during the so-called March events were brutally pacified by the militia, and participants in the events were charged with breach of the peace. When considering cases of their offenses, the penal-administrative colleges imposed severe basic arrest penalties and high fines, which were usually immediately convertible into alternative arrest. The penalties isolating the offender from society were imposed in an accelerated procedure without any guarantee of defence of the rights of the accused. This practice of the colleges’ severe punishment of participants in social protests, which was initiated during the March events of 1968, would be repeated during successive political crises of the 1970s and 1980s.