Despite the repression, the regime has not managed to silence the opposition. The Charter is going into the ninth year of its existence. In its ranks are supporters of various philosophical and political currents. Ladislaw Hejdanek pins his hopes primarily on the positive effects on some reform course in Moscow on the situation in Czechoslovakia. (c.f., the accompanying interview.) The revolutionary Marxist Petr Uhl, on the other hand, Interview with Lad former spokespers of Charter 77
Question. The economic situation in Czechoslovakia does not seem to be so bad.
Answer. It seems so on the surface. The economists, however, say that the reality is far worse. A lot of data are just dreamed up. Even the government has no clear view of the whole thing. Seven different kinds of crowns [the national currency] are used as a means of accounting, which makes the situation totally unintelligible.
Q. Politically, it's the ice age.
A. After the big shock of 1968, there is a general lack of perspectives. Most people concentrate on purely personal questions. In this situation, the Charter has begun to show that it is possible to express a protest.
In comparison to the Polish Solidarnosc, our activity may seem rather "dry." But given the fact that there is no strong pressure from below, it looks to "the fall of the bureaucracy"
as a result of mass resistance.
"The central thing is the struggle here and the international synchronization of the independent movements in Eastern Europe. That is creating the preconditions for an explosive situation."
On the upswing is a Catholic movement critical of the regime. After the great festival in honor of St. Methodius in Velehrad in July, a good 30,000 pilgrims flooded into the west Slovak religious site of Sastin, most of them young people. The most popular chant was "We want the Pope."
The regime holds the power, but no place in the affections of the people. An economic reform is overdue. But there is no threat of an economic collapse as in Poland at the end of the 1960s. There is an opposition, but it is far from endangering the bureaucracy. Great hopes continue to be expressed in very subdued ways. Another slogan on the Lennon Wall was "Dreams are our only freedom." =
The principal character of the Czeck novelist Hasko. novel The Good Soldier Svejk' by It describes an the attitude of de facto passive noncooperation by Czechs to the Austro-Hungarian rulers based on avoiding confrontation by pretending to be a well-intentioned fool. islav Hejdanek, ion borders on a miracle that there is still any activity at all.
Q. Is there only latent discontent?
A. In certain situations, criticism comes into the open. This happens above all when a lot of people come together, as in a train or bus. Then remarks are made whose meaning is quite clear.
Q. There is the classic Suejk, Brecht's Suejk in the Second World War. How does today's Suejk operate?
A. For example, the measures dictated from above are so undermined, that after two or three weeks, it seems as if the orders had never been given. In a factory a hundred people regularly come late, but some fellow workers punch in for them. The management finds out about it, and sets up a special check at the workplace door. For maybe two weeks, the slackness is over. Sudden-
19
International Viewpoint 27 January 1986
ly, somewhere else in the factory "difficulties" turn up. The checkers are ordered there, and the old cycle starts again.
Q. The Charter has just published a document on the cultural situation in Czechoslovakia.
A. Without exaggeration, the cultural situation is a catastrophe. Even in the natural sciences, we are years behind. In the humanities and social sciences, things are particularly bad. Almost all the work in these areas is in the hands of opportunists who do not even believe in what they churn out. Unless there are changes soon, it will be difficult, even in two generations, to clear away the damage.
Q. The Charter has also spoken out on questions of environmental defense.
A. Not directly. We help those who are interested in ecological questions. The same goes for the peace movement. Anyone who takes a critical stand on environmental questions can be treated here simply as a psychiatric case. The authorities look into their personal situations, make trouble for them at their jobs -in a word, they try to break them.
Q. What are the reasons for the growing Catholic resistance?
A. In order to be brief, I will just talk about Bohemia. After the
First World War, more than a few
Catholics turned against the republic and consequently even flirted with Hitler's Munich treaty.
After the Second World War, incredible pressure was put on the
Catholics. They got the worst treatment of any group. The events in
Poland gave them self-confidence.
The state's organization for priests, Pacem in Terris, is taken seriously by no one. It exists only on paper.
Q. Is the term "unurground
Church" appropriate?
A. I think that this term is not appropriate. The Church is unregulated and unregulatable. But it has no programmatic perspectives. Today it is concerned mainly by survival. In the future, something bigger could come out of that.
Q. Is the regime firmly in the saddle?
A. There can be no question of that. Without the support of the Soviet authorities, it wouldn't last more than a few weeks. The situation in our country is as artificial as it could be anywhere. The rulers can't accept any public opinion. They have censored even Gorbachov's attacks on corruption. A reform line in the Kremlin could become a danger to 20
CANADA p ctndard.
the regime here. Our hope is that it will be sunk by an imitation of such a reform course.
Q. How long can • the present freezing of social contradictions last?