Joe McDonnell (hunger striker) jurisdiction of the court. McDonnell agreed with the goals of the Irish hunger strike, namely: the right not to wear a prison uniform; the right not to do prison work; the right of free association with other prisoners; the right to organise their own educational and recreational facilities and the right to one visit, one letter and one parcel per week. Although McDonnell was not involved in the first (1980) hunger strike, he joined Bobby Sands and the others in the second (1981) hunger strike. During the strike he fought the general election in the Republic of Ireland, and only
Summer 1981 hunger demonstrations in Poland Summer 1981 hunger demonstrations in Poland In mid-1981, amid widespread economic crisis and food shortages, thousands of Poles, mainly women and their children, took part in several hunger demonstrations, organized in cities and towns across the country. The protests were peaceful, without rioting, and the biggest one took place on July 30, 1981 in Łódź. The situation in Poland was serious enough that it prompted Adam Michnik to write, "Poland faces hunger uprisings'". The summer of 1981 was a very turbulent time in Communist Poland. The creation of Solidarity, the first independent mass political movement in the Eastern Bloc, raised