The party that arose to create a rationally governed society is engendering irrationality and chaos. It proclaims itself a scientific government and at the same time chains down science. It proclaims itself the most just order and at the same time sentences thousands, tens of thousands (in some countries, millions) of people who doubt the justice of this order. It proclaims the equality of the people and at the same time creates a myth of a chosen class; it proclaims a higher form of democracy and at the same time disposes of even imperfect guarantees and institutions of the previous system. It proclaims the greatest freedom and at the same time limits the most fundamental freedoms. . It proclaims class consciousness as the primary motivation for work and at the same time builds masses of forced-labor camps. It proclaims itself the embodiment of progress and at the same time quickly turns into an odd community, where side by side stand the remains of the elite, careerists, even sordid hoodlums. It proclaims itself the party of the working class and at the same time deprives workers of rights for which they have fought persistently for hundreds of years. . For this party there are only two choices: look truth in the face, no matter how shocking it may be, or continue down a path that cannot lead anywhere but to national catastrophe.
I then admitted that several positive changes had occurred over the past few years.
One thing, however, has not changed: the theory of the necessity of a single, optimal, societal design and a single avant-garde political organization that will consistently and without fail discover the truth. After every change, no matter how absurd, the investigators have stood side by side with their rehabilitated victims. After years, the most obvious thing has not taken place: Those whose politics were errant or monstrous have not abandoned power.
*
At the request of several of our foremost scholars, Ludvík Vaculík composed and published “Two Thousand Words” at the end of June. In what he considered a sort of democratic manifesto, he attempted to characterize the corruption of Communist power and provide some guidelines concerning the means of rectifying the situation. His enumeration of the attributes of Communist power was overwhelming. The Communist Party transformed a political party and an alliance based on ideas into an organization for exerting power, one that proved highly attractive to power-hungry individuals eager to wield authority, to cowards who took the safe and easy route, and to people with a bad conscience. Because the party was connected with the state and everything that happened in the country, there was no one to criticize it. Parliament forgot how to hold proper debates, the government forgot how to govern properly, and managers forgot how to manage properly. . Personal and collective honor decayed. An uncontrollable apparatus ruled the country. It claimed that the working class was in charge, whereas in reality the apparatus itself had become the new suzerain. The manifesto warned people not to be satisfied with what they had gained so far. He recommended that citizens call for the resignation of those who until only recently ruled incompetently, those who abused their power, damaged public property, and acted dishonorably or brutally. Ways must be found to compel them to resign. To mention a few methods: public criticism, resolutions, demonstrations, demonstrative work brigades, collections to buy presents for them upon their retirement, strikes, and picketing at their front doors. . For questions that no one else will look into, let us set up our own civic committees and commissions. There is nothing difficult about this; a few people gather together, elect a chairman, keep proper records, publish their findings, demand solutions, and refuse to be shouted down.
On the day the manifesto was published, Ludvík and I were at a meeting somewhere in Vysočina — I no longer remember the name of the town — and because the discussion, as often happened during that time, went on well into the evening, we spent the night in a small hotel. The manifesto did indeed elicit disapproval, even among Dubček’s leadership. Vaculík was hunted everywhere, but the manifesto had already seen the light of day. Tens of thousands of Czechoslovak citizens had signed it, and for all the opponents of change both here and in the Soviet Union, it became one of the pretexts for the accusation that counterrevolutionaries were making their way to power.
If Vaculík had published the text merely as his own personal opinion, rather than as a manifesto, it probably wouldn’t have been greeted with such enthusiasm. In the same issue he wrote an article called “The Process of Renewal in Semily,” in which he quoted a statement by one of the discussants: It is necessary to consider the Communist Party as a criminal organization. . and exclude it from public activity no matter how pleasant its current members make themselves out to be. This was perhaps the most critical political formulation that appeared in the press at that time, yet I do not recall that it aroused any reaction.
*
Editorial Board of
Literární Listy:
I align myself with the great number of those who express complete agreement with the article “Two Thousand Words.” I cannot refuse to join you despite the fact that I cannot operate within the framework of any organization. . I enclose two pamphlets (with the same text) of the fifty or perhaps more I found today (6 July 68) around 5 a.m. on the way from Vysočany to Ohrada. These pamphlets lay scattered along the right side of the road near the sidewalk in the grass:
COMRADES!
OUR SOCIALIST HOMELAND IS UNDER SERIOUS THREAT.
Enemy forces are going on the offensive. . They have taken over the press, radio, and television. With their irresponsible speeches they are disorienting the public and inhibiting its activity. They are maligning everything we have achieved over the past twenty years and attempting to dismantle the social amenities of workers and farmers. . The proclamation “Two Thousand Words” is an open call to counterrevolution. . The rabble of traitors and murderers from the K231 Club are preparing a reactionary takeover and preparing to massacre honorable Communists and patriots. Minister of the Interior Pavel is systematically providing Mr. Brodský a list of names and addresses of members of the state security forces in order to institute mass terror. . Close ranks and prepare for battle against the enemies of socialism! People, be vigilant! Be prepared to defend socialism, weapon in hand. Organize demonstrations with armed units of the people’s militia.
From a letter to
Literární listy
*
At the editorial offices we started to realize the danger threatening from within the disunited but still ruling party, as well as from the Soviet Union and other Stalinist countries of the Warsaw Pact. We tried to formulate things more cautiously, and we naively assumed that someone would take note of our more moderate tone. It soon turned out, however, that everything had already been decided.
Never before or since have I lived with such haste or intensity.
Even though we wrote about the necessity of an opposition party, these were merely theoretical considerations. An opposition party never arose, and if we had been even a little honest with ourselves, we might have suspected that the ruling party would never have allowed it. Certainly most of our readers suspected as much. Some even started to consider our paper as such an opposition party, or at least the voice of one.
Readers came to our offices offering advice on what to write about or to tell us their stories. But we had only sixteen pages, two of which were devoted to advertisements and cultural events. The critical and foreign sections demanded at least half the remaining space.