ROPCiO 1977 — the Movement for the Defence of Human and Civic Rights

After Radom and Ursus

After the workers' protests in Radom and Ursus in June 1976, the Workers' Defence Committee (KOR) began its work with an appeal of 23 September 1976¹. Bogumił Studziński, by then a legal adviser, gave legal aid from June 1976 to workers persecuted in Radom and Ursus, and from the autumn worked with the Intervention Bureau of Zofia and Zbigniew Romaszewski^2,3.

The appeal of 25 March 1977

On 25 March 1977 the Movement for the Defence of Human and Civic Rights (ROPCiO) was launched with an "Appeal to Polish Society" signed by 18 people. Studziński was one of the signatories — together with Piotr Typiak he represented the movement's peasant current³.

The movement's lawyer

• From May 1978 he sat on the Advisory Council of „Opinia”, ROPCiO's main periodical, in which he published under his own name^2,3,4.
• From the autumn of 1978 he headed ROPCiO's Social Assistance Bureau and held office hours at its Consultation and Information Point on Czerniakowska Street in Warsaw^2,3.
• He advised the farmers' self-defence committees of the Lublin, Grójec and Rzeszów regions^2,3.
• In 1978–1980 he lectured at the Free Discussion Clubs; on 2 June 1979 he co-founded the Centre for Peasant Thought^2,3.
• He appeared in the masthead of the monthly „Gospodarz” (1977–1981) together with Piotr Typiak³; the paper was in fact published by Stanisław Michalkiewicz and Tadeusz Szozda⁴.
• He wrote the study „Wieś polska w latach 1944–1978” (The Polish countryside 1944–1978), published by ROPCiO in 1979 and reissued underground and, in 1981, in London⁵.

Zalesie Górne, 10 June 1978

The third nationwide meeting of ROPCiO was held at Studziński's house in Zalesie Górne^2,3,4. From December 1978 he belonged to the Council of Signatories, which gathered the supporters of Andrzej Czuma^2,3.

Under surveillance

The communist Security Service (SB) had been watching him since 1974, initially because of his activity in the Catholic Intelligentsia Club³. He was detained many times, his house was searched, and his typewriters were confiscated on several occasions^3,2. According to the IPN historian Cecylia Kuta, the security service "never broke him"³.

After August 1980

In July and August 1980 he co-signed statements of the ROPCiO Council of Signatories on the economic situation and the strikes⁶. In the autumn of 1980 he joined the Intervention and Rule of Law Commission of the Solidarity trade union in the Mazowsze region^2,3. On 13 December 1981 he was interned⁷.

25 March 2027 marks the 50th anniversary of ROPCiO — see anniversaries and events.