[The following Manifesto of the Czechoslovak Revolutionary Youth Movement was published in the February 1 issue of the Belgian revolutionary-socialist week- 1y wa Gauche. According to the editors of La Gauche, the RYM developed out of the November student strike in Prague. The translation from French is by Intercontinental Press.]
Living in a social system where the capitalist mode of production and capitalist productive relationships have been abolished but where a denocratic, socialist society has not begun to be built; and desiring to resist the abuse of Communist ideals as well as to uphold the principle that it is our right and duty to struggle actively against all who have dishonored and abused the ideals of Communism, we proclaim the formation of the Revolutionary Youth Movement.
We are convinced that for the Czechoslovak people, as well as for the eople oi the UsoR and the so-called peoole's democracies, socialism cannot b achieved without destroying the bureaucratic machine as a social stratum and establishing a system of self-management. Self-management must be introduced in all areas of social life. At the point of production, self-management must take the form of workers councils exercising political and economic power. This self-management system will enable every worker to display his energy and creative initiaive, it will create the essential preconditions for the scientific and technological revolution which will eliminate underconsumption and the social inequalities that flow from it. Self-management and its social consequences on an international scale will lead to the abolition of the state and the institutions connected with it.
The road our country traveled after January created the preconditions for such a revolutionary course. Ihis development was interrupted by the armies of the five Warsaw Pact countries.
In light of the experience we have acquired in the course of the battles waged this year for socialist democracy, and especially our experience from August to November, we are convinced that the working class will play the decisive role in this struggle. The students and the youth, however, will have an importo play. We view this revolutant part tionary road as a permanent revolutionary process capable of influencing the course of the world revolution. We are also convinced that:
(1) Io wait passively for a "process of renewal" in the Soviet Union would be in direct contradiction to the duty of man, whose social mission, according to Marx, is to change and transform the surrounding reality.
(2) To restrict socialist activity olely to putting pressure on the part, nd state leadership would be politicall, shortsighted. Since August 26, when our party and state leadership took the path of complete capitulation to the soviet leadership, we have seen fresh evidence every day confirming the correctness of our stand.
In the November struggles, a unity was achieved between the students and the workers that still remains firn. All our work will be directed toward consolidating this unity through mutual discussion on the problems of democracy. In this way, we will strive to broaden and deepen revolutionary consciousness of the youth, the students, and the workers, to maintain their unity in ideology and action, and to prepare ourselves for the confrontation with the reactionary forces. Our experience in the glorious days of August and in the great battles of November will assist us in this task. We realize that it will be difficult -- although not impossible - to wage armed resistance against the enormous military potential of the occupying powers. Equipped with forms of struggle based on passive resistance, we are convinced that the struggle of the Czechoslovak people will not only not be defeated but will also deal hard blows to the bureaucratic regimes in Poland, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic and the USSR itself. This struggle can lead to political revolution throughout all the countries of the socialist bloc encompassing 300,000,000. people, liberate entire peoples,.
and thus inaugurate a new epoch of socialist construction. Ihis process in the socialist bloc will also be accompanied by antiimperialist revolutionary struggles in the Western countries. Ihis dual process in the East and in the West, together with the revolutionary movement in the Third World, will lead us to the world revolution.
We have weighed the risks involved in the course on which we are engaging. We have, however, no other choice. The alternative offered to us by the pre- August leaders, who remain at the head of the party and the state and who still maintain their previous posture at least partially, leads nowhere. Their blind policy, bordering on adventurism, is of a kind to plunge our country into an ever deepening political, economic, and moral morass.
The struggle for the interests of the Czechoslovak people and working uass, the struggle against all antisocialist forces (the soviet army, the ever more influential capitulationist wing of our leadership, the right-wing faction of the Czechoslovak Communist party with its fascist-like tendencies) unites us. And in this struggle we start from the consideration that the power and activity of these lorces is illegal from every point •i view, both morally and juridically.
The essential lines of our activities are as follows:
(1) Creation of an organizational structure capable of serving as the basis for unity in action of the students and young blue- and white-collar workers and for bringing their different points of view into confrontation.
(2) Action, insofar as feasible, by other youth organizations of all types in the political, social, professional, and other fields.
(3) Development of unity, without rigid organizational forms, with other youth through concrete political action.
[The Graphic Arts Monthly; a printing-trades journal published in Chicago, features a "World News" column that carries items from similar publications in other countries. Under the title "An Ideal Situation?" the February issue included the following report from The Print Buyer, a British journal.]
You have a weekly newspaper with a run of around 20,000. You also have money in your hand and first-class financial references. You are willing to give the printer guarantees against libel or similar legal action.
An ideal situation? Printers should be knocking at your door with production schedules and quotations clasped in each hand. But they don't, in fact they not only show little or no interest, they actually turn the job down.
Sounds a bit like a fairy story, doesn't it? But it actually happened to Clive Goodwin, publisher of the Black Dwarf, a radical left wing newspaper which believes in publishing four-letter words -- if they would be used in a simi-
(4) Organization of political discussions aimed at a broad public.
(5) Dissemination and promulgation of political opinions and all political information by every means possible.
(6) Study of the forms of antiimperialist struggle in the countries of the Third World and the West, and of the activities of the "extreme left" with a view toward establishing contacts with all those who support these struggles.
(7) Study, in the same way, of the activities of potentially revolutionary forces in the USSR and in the socalled people's democracies.
(8) Io accord factional rights, within the framework of the movement, to all tendencies that may develop, including the right to ally themselves with other factions in the movement as they choose.
The Revolutionary Youth Movement is open to all young people regardless of their political affiliation who agree with the principles set forth in this manifesto.
lar situation in everyday language.
It happened not once, with just one printer, but almost 60 printers refused the fairly lucrative contract. The reasons given for this refusal obviously varied, but in the main most printers felt that by printing the Black Dwarf they could offend other customers and jeopardize existing contracts. Fair enough, in business one has a perfect right to refuse any job. But we wonder if 60 different printers really felt this way.
Printing a controversial newspaper does lay one open to legal proceedings, but as the publishers were willing to indemnify the printers against such actions, this factor is not as important as it first looks. We feel that the vast majority of those 60 printers just didn't want the work.
The Black Dwarf story raises two points. The first -- the moral one raised by the quantity of refusals -- depends upon your own politics on how you look at it. However, the second -- the number of printers which refuse work because they are not interested -- is a subject worth investigating.
FREEDOM OF THE PRESS —- FOR "THE BLACK DWARF"? FREEDOM OF THE PRESS —- FOR "THE BLACK DWARF"?