KOR Committee for Social Self-Defense

The Committee for Social Self-Defense 'KOR' (with only fourteen members upon its formation in 1978) grew rapidly into an important 'political pressure group' shaping the doctrines of the emerging opposition movement of the 1970s in communist Poland.

The KOR members insisted on operating openly in public – wrote Jeremy Brecher – and for that, they were blacklisted by the authorities, beaten by the MO, and often imprisoned.

They nonetheless persisted,[2] opposing the communist regime in Poland, and triggering the process of social change which culminated in the collapse of communism two decades later.

[3] The creation of KSS KOR was preceded by the massive increases in food prices in 1976, which led to countrywide June 1976 protests in Radom, Ursus, Plock, Gdańsk, Szczecin, Elblag, and in Łódź, with 80,000 strikers.

The KSS-KOR was formed specifically to help them survive the ordeal,[3] they collected donations for legal defense, held public lectures, cultural events, and provided aid to families of the victims.