A brief inventory of
CZECHOSLOVAKIA What is Left Alternative?
THE article printed alongside Is from Polarita, the journal of the Czechoslovak Left Alternative-Movement for Democratic and Self-managing Socialism. This group held its constituent congress on March 17, 1990
SOME 23 parties and movements are running candidates in the Czechoslovak elections in early June. Given this fragmentation, the question of possible alliances looms large in everybody's political calculations. The following article was first published in the May 1990 issue of Polarita, the paper of the Czechoslovak Left Alternative. The demand that the
Communist Party return its property to the state, which is referred to in the text, was the occasion for a widely observed ten-minute work stoppage and a (relatively small)
demonstration on April 11.
DOCUMENT
F WE survey our political spectrum, which is taking stable on a more form with the pre-election campaign, we have to say that the overwhelming majority of the new and so-called renewed parties and movements are, from a programmatic point of view, on the right or centre-right. There is, furthermore, not much difference between their programmes. All of them espouse the conservative/liberal principles of a free market economy with a dominant private sector and the "return to Europe", understood as a totally uncritical endorsement of the traditional values of so-called Western
Christian civilization.
Worthy of more serious consideration are those parties and movements which in one way or another consider themselves to be of the left, or which could at least serve as some sort of counterweight to the right.
No guarantee of good faith of
CP
Let us begin with the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSC) which, at least according to its highest representatives, wants to change into a "modern left party". Leaving aside the disservice that this claim does to the real left, we have not the slightest guarantee of its good faith. This has been shown by the remarks of the
KSC's chairperson M. Machalík, the attitude of leaders of the party to the question of the party's property and so on. Such things show that this party is not ready to honestly repent all its mistakes and crimes and is therefore also not presently capable of democratic renewal.
Everything suggests that the party's functionaries have yet to awaken from their dreams about a return to the old order — a dream which is at once reactionary and counter-revolutionary. There is nothing surprising in this if we remember that the KSC had already degenerated a long time ago from a workers' party into a party with a hardened bureaucracy, defending its total control over the whole of society, including the rank-and-file Communists. With the collapse of the Stalinist regime, the KSC has lost its raison d'etre. Whether or not it continues to exist as a retrograde structure that significantly hinders the democratic changes, and at the same time discredits the real left, depends on the success of the latter in winning over the uncompromised rank-and-file Communists and isolating them from the "healthy core" of Stalinist functionaries.
A sign of the breakup of the KSC is the emergence of splinter groups such as the Czechoslovak Democratic Forum and the Independent Left. For the time being their programmes are very unclear and it will take some time before they are able to develop a definite political profile.
Socialist Party breaks with progressive traditions
I an not sure whether or not to include here the party of the "balcony revolution", the Czech Socialist Party (CSS). After its last congress this party has nothing leftist about it apart from its name. This latter "oversight" was dictated above all by the technical aspects of the election campaign, and it seems that the name will be "adjusted" soon after the elections.
The CSS' election programme does not mention the word "socialism" once and amounts to a break with its best traditions, especially with the very progres-
According to the report on the congress in Polarita no.1, April
1990, some 80 members and sympathizers are involved, from a variety of political tendencies, including anarchists and independent Marxists. Among Its members is Petr Uhl, a noted human rights activist and revolutionary Marxist, now head of the Czechoslovak press agency
CT. Membership is open to people interested in searching for, and implementing, different forms of self-management and direct democracy" (see the prog rammatic statement in (v 175).
The group is Interested in reaching workers as well as intellectu-
Pals, LA considers itself an integral part of the Civic Forum
On April 21, LA held a further conference which included a contribution from Hubert Krivine representing the United Secretarlat of the Fourth International.
In his speech Krivine gave an analysis of the likely perspectives of the East European counfries as they move into closer association with really-existing capitalism. He also explained the history, nature and current role of the Fl and offered practical and political collaboration between the USFl and Left Alternative.* sive programme of 1918.
As against the CSS, the Czechoslovak Social Democracy (CSSD) carries a banner untainted [by collaboration with the ancien régime]. It is however torn by internal strife resulting from the personal ambitions of its prominent representatives. It is attempting to add lustre to its vague programme by noisy appeals to all the glorious traditions of the workers' movement. At the same time, however, and shamefully, it defines itself as a party only of the centre left. The break with its left-wing identity has become very apparent over the party's confusion about the use of traditional left-wing symbolism. It is certainly not without interest that a Offices in Prague's Wenceslas Square from which A reference to the balcony of the Socialist Party's speakers addressed the crowds during the November 1989 events. June 4, 1990 • #186 International Viewpoint
----- pull-quotes on this page -----
the left
----- photo credits and running heads -----
9
The fate of the
Czechoslovak Communist Party
After the gentle revolution" of November 17-27, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSC) moved quickly to get rid of the group of leaders, including party secretary Milos Jakes and President Gustav
Husak, most directly responsible for the neo-Stalinist regime after
1969. They are also widely suspected of direct collaboration with the
Soviet intervention of August 1968. The speed of the changeover suggests that preparations had been made well in advance of the November upsurge.
The party congress on December 20, 1989, elected Vasil Mohorita, formerly leader of the party's youth organization, to the post of First
CZECHOSLOVAKIA / USSR
Secretary and Ladislav Adamec as chairperson. The new leaders have pledged to turn the KSC into a "modern left party."
The party's election programme pledges support for the full range of democratic freedoms, along with a market economy with a strong state sector, In terms of internal organization, moves have been taken to strengthen the role of the central committee, which now directly elects the party chairperson, the party apparatus is to be cut by 77% and 8,000 functionaries are to be dismissed - causing the party significant financial problems, since they are obliged under Czechoslovak law to pay the wages of dismissed employees for six months.
A separate party organization for the Czech Lands now exists, a move
Intended to enhance equality between the Slovak and Czech sections of the party. At the same time, after a dispute about its right to organize as a faction, Rudolf Prenosil, a leader of the party's Democratic Forum claimed that his group had not been allowed to participate in the dis-
The party's paper membership has dropped by about a third from its pre-November figure of 1.4 million while two factions have broken away
(see article). The party will consider that it has done well if it gets more than 15% of the vote in the June elections. At the same time, its newspaper Rude Pravo is still the country's leading daily and the party retains strong positions throughout society, the economy and the repressive forces as well as in the trade unions and also in the countryside, where it hopes to make an alliance with the Agrarian Party after the elections. * whole series of older, honest Social
Democrats have not liked this.
The Green party is in a similar position, for its rather moderate programme
(including for example, a readiness to compromise on the question of the nuclear power stations) has met with sharp criticism from the Western ecological parties which in many cases incline towards the radical left.
The only consistent and authentic left forces today in Czechoslovakia are the left-wing political movements that arose as independent structures before November 17, 1989.
Defending the left's traditional values
This means the Left Alternative, the
Czechoslovak Anarchist Association and
Obroda-Club for Democratic Socialism.
(Even in this latter case there are definite tendencies towards following behind the social democracy). In this situation it is very difficult to defend the left's traditional values — social justice, solidarity and
10 the real equality of all people - without
International Viewpoint #186 • June 4, 1990 which a free and dignified life is unthinkable in modern society.
Together with other social movements, (such as the Transnational Radical Party, independent peace and ecological initiatives, alternative cultural activities and so on), this new left must be the continuation of the best traditions of Charter 77 and the other independent structures, in an uncompromising struggle for human rights, including social rights, and in the struggle for tolerance, democratic dialogue, the free search for the truth and a truthful life.