The official slogans today are "openness" and "democracy," "the perestroika nomic administration (50 per cent of this Ecology demo in Hungary apparatus is to disappear).
We are being told that Gorbachev has just gained a stable majority. That supposes that at the beginning of the meeting he did not have one. How, then, was he able to impose on this unfavorable majority decisions that could not have been to its liking? And, what is more, get unanimous agreement? There is not quite enough "openness" for us to understand all this.
The coming months are going to be marked by the elections. The reform's unpopular measures - price changes — will be applied, if they are applied (the example of Poland inspires caution at the top) after the elections. National questions coming to the fore
Right now, national questions are coming to the fore. Perestroika has found unhopedfor support in the Baltic republics, where the mass of the population has taken literally the talk encouraging initiative and autonomy. Rather than leave the field open to separatist national currents, the local parties - and it seems, Gorbachev - have clearly chosen to accept, if not support, the creation of "People's Fronts," whose logic is to demand autonomy for the republics
Given impetus by the main intellectuals in the republics, the fronts have opened the way for expression on a massive scale of long suppressed national aspirations. The taboo has been lifted from such questions as demands for cultural rights, for openness on the history of these republic's attachment to the USSR, putting forward the local languages and national symbols, the demand for control over the use of resources — and the terrible environmental harm caused by policies planned at the "center" — and, finally, "accounting autonomy" for
It is on such issues that the first very popular pro-Gorbachev demonstrations (although involving many party members) have taken place. It is easier for the Soviet leader to support the Baltic demands than to grant the reunion of Nagorno-Karabakh with Armenia in the face of Muslim
However, more autonomy for the republics would also mean less redistributing powers for the central plan. A Yugoslav logic might then be set in motion (the rich republics against the poor ones). If the winners are only the richer areas, with higher levels of skill, then a dynamic of colossal tensions will loom. Conservatism is all the more suicidal because of that. "Realism" 8 tion by the Soviet peoples of the bases on and efficiency are on the side of a redefini-
EVERAL THOUSAND people participated in a demonstratio called by the Democratic Forum and the Danube Circle against building of a hydroelectric plant at Nagymaros on the Danube near the environmentalists, including two Green deputies, also took part in this action.
Nagymaros is only a complementary part of a much more ambitious project. A second dam and power plant are to be built at Babcikovo in Czechoslovakia. combination of these two dams will have the effect of diverting the Danube over 180 kilometers and destroying the environmental balance of the ground water tables that supply the entire region, and notably Budapest, with drinking water.
The Gabcikovo-Nagymaros project is a joint Czech-Hungarian project that has been under study since the 1950s and officially in the works since 1977. The total cost of this project is estimated at about $3.5 billion, more more than triple the Hungarian annual budget deficit. Austrian bank credits will finance nearly 28 per cent of this amount. This is in fact an advance payment on the electricity that Austria will get from Nagymaros up until
In 1985, massive mobilization by Austrian environmentalists managed to stop a similar dam and hydroelectric power station scheme in Hainsburg. So, for the Austrian government and the Donaukraftwerk company, which has the contract for the project, this was a golden opportunity to accomplish in Hungary what was no longer possible in Austria and to secure electricity supply at a lower cost.
The Austrian Greens have denounced this "purely imperialist" attitude of their government, and have undertaken court actions (without success) in Austria to get the contracts signed with the Hungari? government annulled.
Moreover, besides its high costs - che threats it poses to the environment, the Nagymaros project is not very profitable either. Once the 12,000 megawatts are drained off for Austria, the complex will produce only enough electricity to cover 2 per cent of Hungary's needs.
In 1985, the samizdat journal Beszelol 12, published the minutes of a secret meeting held in 1953, in which the Hungarian leaders of the time participated, including Erno Gerö and Imre Nagy. Most of the arguments used today against the project were raised in this meeting, but kept quiet
In 1984, a group of Hungarian environmentalists formed the Danube Circle. Its main objective was to combat the Gabcikovo-Nagymaros scheme. In January 1988, a petition was launched that listed 26 reasons to stop the project. It gathered 10,000 signatures, and the support of 191 emigré organizations.
### Links with other environmentalists
In May, Reso Nyers, a member of the Political Bureau of the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party [the Communist Party], met with a delegation from the Danube Circle to discuss the Nagymaros scheme. On June 16, the petition's 26 points were published in the government's official journal, Magyar Hirlap, with an answer from the
Danube Circle figures wanted also to run in the first multi-candidate elections in Hungary, in eight Budapest districts. But they were blocked by the local party leaders, who packed the pre-election meetings with their own supporters.
The Danube Circle, moreover, established close ties with German and Austrian environmentalists. The Democratic Form likewise associated itself with the campaign against the Nagymaros scheme.
In Czechoslovakia, a certain opposition to the project has emerged. In 1986 and 1987, at the time of the discussions organized by the Union of Young Socialists, the Socialist Academy and the Czech Scientific and Technical Association, with the participation of engineers, environmental specialists and government representadisagreements over the project
On September 10, the Democratic Forum organized a meeting in Esztergom, near the Nagymaros site. It brought together more than 600 persons. Representatives of a Czech independent group, Democratic Initiatives, took the floor to announce that a Czech environmentalist committee against the dam project would soon be
The Hungarian government ordered the Academy of Science to draw up a report on the economic, financial and environmental ramifications of the Nagymaros scheme. The Hungarian head of government, Karoly Grosz, however, opposed the idea of a referendum on continuation of the work. In the meantime, a member of the Danube Circle has lost his job, and several of them have had their passports
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revolution," "all power to the soviets." They are nonetheless subversive ones if the people below take them at their word. *