From our own experience we know what their "consolidation" and "normalization" amounts to. At best, it means stagnation, but more often decline and ruin.
A truly positive and hopeful development of a society such as ours can only be inaugurated and consolidated by relaxing the bureaucratic obstacles and rigid relationships. And this has to go hand in hand with strong activity and commitment by all honest and creative citizens.
Such a development began to take form in Czechoslovakia in 1968 through a movement for reform. In the case of your movement for a self-managed society, it has assumed completely unprecedented proportions.
Dear friends, let us join our efforts for a free and independent Poland and Czechoslovakia! All freedom-loving Poles, only by their words but above all by their deeds, by persistent social and cultural work, to bring closer the day of the rebirth!
To your day of strikes and your protest demonstration against the delegalization of Solidarnosc, we add our own action, which corresponds to the limited possibilities in our situation. We are with you!
he he not and toe here advocate material incentives
Czechs, and Slovaks must seek, not zens tried to organize active resistance to the "normalization" policy.
But by the mid-1970s, it was clear that the constant repression was having an effect. It was only after the signing of the Helsinki treaty in 1975 that new openings appeared. The importance of this agreement was that it gave the opposition the opportunity to make legal demands for freedom of information, the press, and assembly, which have explosively revolutionary implications in the conditions of bureaucratic dictatorship.
With the founding of Charter 77, the opposition made an attempt to break out of the ghetto existence to which it had been confined. In the East European states, the winning of human rights is one of the preconditions for major social changes, such demands have central importance.
In a short time, Charter 77, which concentrated on protesting violations of human and civil rights, managed to collect thousands of signatures and begin to penetrate into wider and wider strata of the population.
So, it is no wonder that the authorities stepped up every sort of repression and harassment of the dissidents. After the
What "normalization" means Marie ANDERS "The price hikes have heightened the social contradictions, " it was noted in a February 1982 Charter 77 document on the economic crisis in Czechoslovakia. The drastic increases in January for meat, fish, rice, tobacco products, and other vital consumer goods were deeply felt.
But the decisive role is being played by creeping price rises called "innovations" That is, old products are offered in somewhat new packaging at much higher prices, if they are available at all.
For example, in the case of the increase in the price of meat produets, the poorer grades became relatively much less expensive. They disappeared totally from the shops (and turned up again in factory canteens and in the military bases).
For two years, all energy used by schools, factories, and offices has been rationed. Anyone who exceeds the quota (and it is very hard not to) is fined.
A liter of gas costs the equivalent of 36 schillings (more than 2 US dollars), translated into Austrian terms. Textiles are three to four times more expensive than in Austria. The same goes for shoes, 16 and household appliances such as washing machines and TV sets.
Although the cost of living is steadily rising in Czechoslovakia, there was no increase in wages this year. The average wage is 2,700 crowns a month. The basic vacation is two weeks. (Only after 15 years in a job do you get the right to four weeks of vacation).
So far the price increases have not produced anything like the sort of reaction that we saw in 1980 in Poland. The effects of the 1968 capitulation are still evident. The majority of the Czechoslovak population continues to be marked by confusion, demoralization, and a feeling of powerlessness.
So, it is not surprising that a lot of people are turning to "personal solutions." The minds of most are turned toward weekend places in the country, cars, and quiet murmuring against the party bosses. People live by their wits are often personal advantages, which are often simply the necessities of life.
A lot of the economic planners must also be living by their wits. For example, twice the amount of concrete needed was provided for in the plan for the Jaslovske Bohunice atomic reactor. It is well known show trial in October 1979 against six members of the Committee to Defend the Unjustly Persecuted, activists were continually arrested, forced to go into exile, and "involved" in accidents, blackmailed, and threatened. For example recently Alena Lisova, wife of Charter spokesman Lis was warned that her children would be kidnapped. Such cases are innumerable. Lis mentioned only a few in his letter to Charter 77:
+ An assault on Charter 77 spokesperson Zdena Tominova in front of her house, resulting in a brain concussion.
+ A mugging of Zina Freundova, a member of the committee of those assigned to speak for Charter 77, in her home, resulting in serious contusions and shock.
+ An attempt to throw Charter 77 spokesperson Anna Marvanova onto the
+ Several night time attacks on Charter 77 signer Stanislav Adamek. He was dragged off into the woods, beaten, and warned that he would be run over and thrown into the Macocha gorge.
†Theft of the car of Charter 77 spokesperson Rudolf Battek.
+ The burning of the car of the son of Charter 77 spokesperson Maria Hromadkova.
+ The illegal arrest of the minor son of Jiri Dienstbier.
From Die Linke, magazine of the Aus trian section of the Fourth International.