In mid-1981, amid a 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 30 July 1981 in Łódź. The situation in Poland was serious enough that it prompted Adam Michnik to write, "Poland faces hunger uprisings'".