After the Civic Forum victory
THE NEWLY ELECTED Czechoslovak government, dominated by the Civic
CZECHOSLOVAKIA of the Vietnamese and others
DEBATE has
A going on been inside the govern-
Forum/Public Against Violence (OF/VPN)
for ment some months, between the Finance movement, Is pledged to an extensive
Minister Vaclav Klaus, who, programme of privatization, deregulation and the so at least the press accounts economic reintegration of the country into the assert, wants to introduce the world market. At the same time the OF/VPN is the economic changes as quickly as possible, and Valtr Komapolitical expression of the mass democratic rek who has been arguing for movement that rose up to challenge the caution - probably with the support of Vaclav Havel.
neo-Stalinist system. At some point, perhaps
Furthermore, a mass indequite soon, the economic plans of the pendent trade union movegovernment will conflict with its democratic exists, tied ment closely politically to the OF/VPN, that will certainly respond to the concrete effects of market reforms on workers. At the same time there is a left wing in
OF/VPN, around the groups such as Left Alternative and Obroda, who may be able to propose a political response to the loss of popular control implied by selling the country on the free market. In particular the introduction of legislation to regulate strikes, threats to social rights, especially affecting women, and the wider debate on a new Constitution will provide the occasion for putting forward some elements of a non-capitalist road away from Stalinism.
An interesting straw in the wind comes in an opinion poll summarized in the independent Czechoslovak daily Lidové noviny on June 18, which found that, while 67% of respondents were firmly in favour of privatization in general, only
18% supported the sale of big enterprises to foreign firms.
One way in which the tensions in OF/
VPN may express themselves is around the issue of the internal democracy of the movement. Local Civic Forums exist throughout the country, with very diverse political characteristics, sometimes dominated by cliques from the old regime. It credentials.
### COLIN MEADE p.5) shows how explosive the information in the police files can be — and how it can be used for electoral advantage if leaked at the right time! Bartoncik was from the People's Party, an old "satellite" party of the Communist Party. Another member of the same party, interior minister Richard Sacher has been widely criticized for his lack of openness in tackling the question of the future of the secret police and the information they hold.
Racist attacks by skinheads have been on the increase in recent months, particularly aimed at the country's large Romany minority and the 40,000 Vietnamese "guestworkers". On May 12 the minister responsible for policing in the Czech Lands was fired for failing to take these attacks seriously — an example of a vigorous response that could well be studied by some of the governments in the imperialist countries that are now lavishing advice about democracy on Eastern Europe.
There will be pressure for the expulsion from the country, and, hopefully, a counter-campaign for the rights of immigrants and refugees in Czechoslovakia.
Although the
Christian
Democrats did not do as well as expected in the election, they remain a major force especially in Slovakia. The
OF/VPN leadership is keen to make an alliance with them, and this may raise the question of restrictions on abortion
There have already rights.
been exchanges on this question in the press, although there is as yet no sign of an independent womens' movement in Czechoslovakia. The defence of a woman's right to choose will test the democratic credentials of all political currents.
and
The rise of Slovak nationalism all the Slovak parties, including the Public
Against Violence, struck the pro-Slovak note in their electoral propaganda — will certainly persist and deepen, especially if the Czech parties maintain their traditional condescension towards Slovak national aspirations.
At the same time the strong support by
Slovakia's Hungarian population for a party of the minorities, claiming to represent the interests of Czechoslovakia's
Hungarians, Gypsies and Germans, shows the kind of regional complications that traditionally right-wing and clerical Slovak nationalism may create.
The next few years in Czechoslovakia will be rich in surprises as the real contradictions and limits of November's "gentle revolution" become apparent. The Czechoslovak situation will intertwine with events in Germany, given the impact of that country's economic might on a newly purchasable Czechoslovakia. *
IT'S OVER!
was these local leaderships who drew up the OF/VPN lists for the elections. In some cases there have been several Civic
Forums representing the same town or enterprise, while in Bro factions in the
CZECHS ARE city's OF came to blows. Central control, including final ratification of electoral lists, rests in the hands of the Coordinating Committee in Prague, an unelected
FREE!
body of some 30 persons.
The economy is not the only issue on which the new government will face controversy. Another will be that of the files of the secret police and the response of the ministry of the interior to the task of
6 dismantling the secret police apparatus.
The Bartoncik affair (see the Article on
International Viewpoint #188 • July 2, 1990