2000 Words Belonging to Workers, Farmers, Officials, Scientists, Artists and Everybody

Initially our lives were under threat by the war. Following that came other challenging periods and events that put at risk the spirit of the nation and its essential character. Most of the nation embraced the socialist program with optimism. It, however, fell into the hands of the wrong people. The issue was not so much that they had inadequate experience in statecraft, actual knowledge, or philosophical perspective. Had they had enough common sense and decency to listen to the opinion of others and if agreed to be gradually replaced by more capable people it would not have mattered a great deal.

The Communist Party enjoyed huge popular support immediately in the post war period. Later on it gradually exchanged this support for official posts until it was all that was left. We feel obliged to state this although it is familiar to those Communists amongst us who are as saddened as the rest of us at the way things turned out. The incorrect policies of our leadership disfigured a political party and an ideological alliance into an organism for exerting power. Such a party appealed to the power-hungry egoists, cold hearted cowards and to people without conscience. Their uptake altered the behavioural characteristics of the Party. Internal mechanisms of the Communist Party have made it impossible for honest members to extend any influence that could adapt it to modern conditions. Many Communists challenged this decline but were unable to stop what happened.

Conditions within the Communist Party acted both as a blueprint for and also a cause of the identical situation in the state. The party’s relationship with the state deprived it of the advantages of separation from executive power. None criticized the actions of the state or of its economic organs. Proper debate in Parliament is forgotten, proper governance has become obsolete, and managers have ceased to manage properly. Elections are meaningless; the law is empty and hollow. Even if we could trust our representatives on committees they have been emasculated and made powerless to act on our requests. To make matters worse we are unable to even trust each other. Personal and collective honour is dying. Honesty has become a redundant virtue; assessment by merit is now history. Most people are understandably disaffected with public affairs. Their concerns are only onto themselves and financial advantage. Even the value of money is no longer to be relied upon, this is another nail in the coffin of our state. Personal relations have been cut to the bone; there is no more satisfaction in work. The nation has entered a period that imperils its very spiritual well being and its essential character.

The responsibility for the present state of affairs weighs on all our shoulders but those among us, who are Communists, carry that weight more than others. Those, who participate as tools of this unbridled power, bear the greatest responsibility of all. The power they wield is that of an autonomous cabal spreading throughout the party structure infesting into every area and every community. It was this group that ordain what can and can not be done. They govern the cooperative farms for the cooperative farmers, the factories for the workers, and the National Committees for the public. No organizations, not even Communist ones, have really been controlled by their own members. These rulers have palmed off their own dictates as the “will of the workers” which is their greatest and most deceitful sin. To take on board this deceit we would be pointing at the workers of today and be accusing them of the decline in our economy, of the crimes incurred against the innocent and the introduction of censorship to stop anyone writing about these issues. The workers would be culpable for ill-advised investments, for losses incurred in foreign trade, and for the housing shortfall. Obviously no intelligent person can hold the working class accountable for such things. We all know to well, and every worker knows to well, that they have no voice in deciding these matters. Working-class delegates have their voting options imposed upon them by somebody else. Whilst many workers deluded themselves that they were the rulers, it is in fact a specifically trained layer of party and state officials who truly rule, yet they use their name. What has happened is that these usurpers of the deposed ruling class have themselves come to constitute the new dictatorship. In fairness, some of them have long since realized the evil twist that history had played. We can spot such individuals by the way they are redressing past mistakes, rectifying wrongs, devolving decision-making to rank-and-file party members and to members of the public, they are re-establishing limits on the authority and scale of bureaucracy. They share our opposition to the restrictive perspective held by some party members. However, sizable sectors of officials are antagonistic to change and are still the driving force. They still employ their power, particularly at district and community levels where they can employ them covertly and without any concern of prosecution.

As of the beginning of this year we have been seeing a revival in democracy. We must admit that it has come from within the Communist Party itself. Even those Communists amongst us who had given up hope that any good could develop from that quarter are aware of this. It must also be added that the process could not have started anywhere else. For twenty years the Communists have been the only ones able to initiate any kind of political strategy. It is only the opposition within the Communist Party that possess the privilege to voice alternative viewpoints. These efforts now being enacted by democratic Communists are only a partial repayment of the debt owed by the entire party to the non-communists who have been suppressed in an unequal status. What should be the Communist Party granted is that it is trying to make an honest attempt at this eleventh hour to regain its honour and that of the nations. This revivalism has introduced nothing new. It revives ideas and issues, many of which precede the errors of socialism, others that have emerged from the underbelly of official history, should long before have been realized but which were instead repressed. We shouldn’t fool ourselves that it is the power of truth which now makes such ideas victorious. Their victory is due to the weakness of the old leaders, evidently already debilitated by twenty years of unchallenged rule. All the defects hidden in the fundamental ideology of the system have clearly reached their peak. We shouldn’t overestimate the effects of the criticisms made by writers and students. The source of social change is in the economy. A true word hits its mark only when it is spoken under circumstances that nourish it. Current conditions in our context sadly have meant the impoverishment of our whole society and the utter collapse of the old system of government which had empowered certain types of politicians to get rich, calmly and quietly, at our expense. We can’t say that the truth has won; the truth is merely what remains when everything else has been squandered away. There is no cause for national jubilation, but there is room for fresh hope.

In this time of hope, although it is hope still under threat, we appeal to you. It took many months before some of us believed it was safe to speak up; many of us still do not consider it is safe. But speak out we did and in doing so are exposing ourselves to the extent that we have no choice now but to complete our aim to humanize this regime. If we do not, the old forces will punish us severely. We appeal most of all to those who have been so far holding back. The time that is fast approaching will decide the shape of years to come.

The summer holidays are almost on us. This is a time when we tend to forget all problems of everyday life. However, we can be totally certain that our dear opponents will not give themselves a moment of rest; they will conscript everyone who is under any obligation to them and are taking steps this very minute to ensure themselves a quiet Christmas! We should observe attentively how things shape up, try to anticipate them and have our answers ready. We should forget the impossibility that someone from above should always hand us down a single explanation, a single, simple moral edict. Everyone must draw their own conclusions. Commonly agreed conclusions can only be arrived at through discussion and that requires freedom of speech, the only democratic accomplishment of this year.

In the days to come we have to show our own resolve and make our own decisions.

For starters, we will stand against the sometimes voiced view that a democratic revival can be made without the Communists, or even in opposition to them. This would be an unsound and foolish thing to do. The Communists have already their infrastructure in place and in each of these we must support the progressive wing. They have their experienced officials and they still have in their hands, the major instruments of power. Nonetheless, they have presented an Action Program to the public. This program will start to even out the most disturbing inequalities, there is no one else who has a program in such specific detail. We must challenge them to produce a local Action Programs in public in every district and community. In this way the issue will suddenly centre on very ordinary and long awaited acts of justice. The Czechoslovak Communist Party is undergoing preparations for its congress where it will elect its new Central Committee. We should demand that it be a better committee than the current one. The Communist Party says it is to rest its right leadership on the confidence of the public and not on force. We believe them, but only as long as we can have confidence in the people they are now proposing as delegates to the party’s district and regional conferences.

People have recently been worried that democratization has stalled. This feeling is in part a sign of exhaustion after the flurry of events, it does, however, partly reflect the truth. The times of astounding revelations, of the sacking of officials from high office, and of heady speeches leaden with language of newly acquired daring, all this is over. Now the battle between the opposing forces is more hidden, the conflict continues over the content and creation of laws and the scope of practical measures. Also, we must allow the new people time to take effect: the new ministers, prosecutors, chairmen and secretaries. They are entitled to time in which to prove themselves fit or unfit. This is all that can be expected at the moment of the central political departments, it must be said they have involuntarily showed a remarkably good virtues so far.

The day to day quality of our future democracy hangs so much on what happens in the factories and on what happens to the factories. Whatever we discuss, it is the economic managers who have our fate in their hands. Good managers must be found and promoted. True, we are all badly paid in comparison with those in developed countries, some more so than others. We can all demand more money and more money can no doubt be printed, but only if it is devalued in the process. Instead let’s ask the directors and the chairmen to tell us what they want to produce, at what cost, of the customers they want to sell it to and at what price, tell us what profit is to be made, of how much will be reinvested in modernizing production and how much will be left over for distribution. Seemingly boring headlines in the press reflect a tough battle for democracy and jockeying for positions. The workers, as entrepreneurs, can partake in this battle by electing the right people to management and workers’ councils. As employees they can assist themselves better if they elect as their trade union representatives those who are natural leaders, competent and honourable with no regard to their party affiliation.

At present, no more can be expected of the central political bodies. Therefore it is essential to gain more at district and community levels. We must demand the resignation of people who abused their power, who have damaged public property and acted dishonourably or brutally. We have to find ways to force them to resign. To mention a few: public criticism, resolutions, demonstrations, demonstrative work brigades, collections to buy presents for them on their retirement, strikes and boycotts. But we should avoid any illegal, indecent, or underhand means, which they would then exploit to persuade Alexander Dubček. Our distaste of writing rude letters must be expressed so completely that the only explanation for any such letter received would be that their recipients had ordered it written themselves. Let’s us bring back the activity of the National Front. We demand public sessions of the National Committees. For areas that no one else will delve into, we should set up our own civic committees and commissions. There is nothing difficult about it; a few people gather together, elect a chairman, keep proper records, publish their findings, demand solutions, and refuse to be silent. We should convert the district and local newspapers which have largely sunk to the level of official mouthpieces, transform them into a platform for all the progressive aspects in politics. Let’s insist on editorial boards to be formed of National Front representatives, or else let’s us start new papers. Let’s form committees for the defence of free speech. At our meetings, let’s have our own staff for ensuring order. If we hear strange reports, we should seek confirmation, send delegations to the proper authorities and publicize their answers, perhaps putting them up on front gates. We should give due support to the police when they are apprehending genuine criminals, it is not our intent to create anarchy or a state of general instability. Let’s avoid quarrels between neighbours and let’s not get drunk on political occasions. Let’s expose informers.

The increased summer activity throughout the republic will encourage interest in the resolution of the constitutional relationship between Czechs and Slovaks. We consider federalization as a method of solving the issues surrounding the nationalities, but it is only one of many significant measures designed to democratize the system. On its own, this measure will not necessarily even give the Slovaks a better life. Just by having separate governments in Bohemia and in Slovakia does not solve the problem of government. The state and party bureaucracy can keep control even afterwards. In Slovakia it might even be given greater credence by the claim that it had “won more freedom”.

The possibility of foreign forces intervening in our development has recently alarmed the nation. Whatever superior forces may face us, all we can do is to stick to our positions, behave properly and not initiate that happening ourselves. We can show our government that we will stand by them, with weapons if need be, if they do what we give them a mandate to do, we can reassure our allies that we will support our treaties of alliance, friendship, and trade. Bickering reproaches and badly thought out suspicions can only make things worse for our government and be no benefit to us. As it stands, the only way we can achieve equal relationships is to improve our domestic circumstances and ensure that the process of renewal goes far enough so that we can some day elect statesman with sufficient courage, honour, and political astuteness to create such and maintain equal relationships. This is a problem that faces all governments of all small countries everywhere!

A great opportunity, much the same as we had after the end of the war, has been given to us this spring. Once again we have the chance to take into our own hands our shared fate, which in this situation we call socialism, to give it a substance more appropriate to our once-good reputation and to the good opinion we used to have of ourselves. The spring is over and will never come back. In winter we will find out about the result. So ends our statement addressed to workers, farmers, officials, artists, scholars, scientists, technicians, and everybody. This was written at the instance of scholars and scientists.

author: Ludvík Vaculík, journalist

List of signatories published in Literární listy on 27. 6. 1968: (Literární listy, n. 18/68, 27. 6. 1968, page. 3)

  • Beno Blachut, member of the National Theatre Opera Prague
  • MUDr. Jan Brod, DrSc., Head of Institute for Cardiovascular Research, Prague
  • Marie Buzková, pig keeper Chotěbuz
  • Bohumil Bydžovský, academic, matematician
  • Dr. Jiří Cvekl, philosopher
  • Věra Čáslavská, Olympic winner
  • Zdeněk Čechrák, worker ČKD
  • Zdeněk Fiala, technician ČKD
  • Milan Hanuš, worker ČKD
  • Ing. Jiří Hanzelka, writer
  • MUDr. Miroslav Holub, research worker of CSAS Institute of Microbiology
  • Zdeněk Holec, worker ČKD
  • Rudolf Hrušínský, actor and director
  • Dušan Hrůza, worker ČKD
  • Jan Chocena, private farmer, Chotěbuz
  • Jaromil Jireš, film director
  • MUDr. Vilo Jurkovič, DrSc., head physician of II. Clinic of Internal Medicine of Medical Faculty KU Hradec Králové
  • MUDr. Věra Kadlecová, head physician of Eye Clinic of Faculty Hospital KU in Prague
  • Dr. A. Knop, training college in Ostrava
  • Karel Kosík, philosopher
  • Jaromír Koutek, academic and geologist
  • Otomar Krejča, director
  • MUDr. Jiří Král, DrSc., head physician of Institute of Sports Medicine in Prague
  • Ing. Miroslav Král, CSc., University of Political Sciences ÚV KSČ
  • Karel Krautgartner, conductor of Dance Orchestra of Czechoslovakian Radio
  • MUDr. Vladislav Kruta, DrSc., head physician of Institute of Physiology of J. E. Purkyně University,Brno
  • Vilém Laufberger, head physician of Laboratory of Graphical Methods of Examination in Prague
  • MUDr. Pavel Lukl, head physician of Clinic of Internal Medicine of Palackého University in Olomouc
  • JUDr. Božena Pátková, lawyer, Prague
  • Ing. Emil Petýrek, director of CSAS Mining Research Institute
  • Zuzana Marysová, State farm Chotěbuz
  • Jiří Menzel, director
  • Vladimír Mostecký, technician ČKD
  • Josef Neveršil, worker ČKD
  • Jaroslav Nemec, worker ČKD
  • Yvonne Přenosilová, singer
  • MUDr. Otakar Poupa, DrSc., head of 3rd dep. of CSAS Institute of Physiology in Prague
  • MUDr. Jaroslav Procházka, DrSc., head physician of Clinic of Surgery of Faculty Hospital, Hradec Králové
  • Alfréd Radok, director
  • Emil Radok, film director
  • Jiří Raška, Olympic winner
  • Jaroslav Seifert, poet
  • MUDr. V. Sekla, DrSc., head physician of Institute of Biology in Prague
  • Zdeněk Servít, DrSc., Director of CSAS Institute of in Prague
  • Ing. Jiří Sláma, CSc., Research Institute of Industry and Building Economy in Prague
  • MUDr. Oldřich Starý, DrSc., Chancellor of Charles University in Prague
  • Jiří Snížek, technician ČKD
  • Jiří Suchý, actor
  • MUDr. Mojmír Ševčík, regional traumatologist of North Moravian district, Ostrava
  • Jiří Šlitr, composer
  • Karel Šilha, worker ČKD
  • Václav Šroub, worker ČKD
  • Jan Švankmajer, film director
  • PhDr. Ladislav Tondl, DrSc., Cabinet of theory and methodology of Science ČSAV v Praze
  • Jiří Trnka, director and artist
  • Marie Tomášová, actress
  • Josef Topol, writer
  • Jan Tříska, actor
  • Ludvík Vaculík, journalist and writer
  • Karel Vojíř, worker ČKD
  • MUDr. Jan Vanýsek, DrSc., Vice Chancellor of Purkyně University in Brno
  • MUDr. V. Vejdovský, DrSc., head physician of Eye Clinic of Palacký University in Olomouc
  • MUDr. Jiří Velemínský, regional internist of North Moravian district , Ostrava
  • Viktor Vörös, worker ČKD
  • Jan Werich, national artist
  • Otto Wichterle, Director of CSAS Institute of Macromolecular Chemistry in Prague
  • Jaroslav Vojta, member of National Theatre’s theatre company
  • Emil Zátopek, Olympic winner
  • Dana Zátopová, Olympic winner
  • Ing. Jindřich Zogata, agronomist, Karviná

List of signatories published in Literární listy 19. 7. 1968: (Literární listy, special issue, 19. 7. 1968, page 1)

  • Fedor Cádra
  • Lumír Čivrný
  • Miloš Fiala
  • Hermína Franková
  • Jiří Gočár
  • Karel Gott
  • MUDr. Arnošt Gutmann
  • Miroslav Liďák (Haďák)
  • Josef Hiršal
  • Zdeněk Chotěnovský
  • Dr. O. Janota
  • Iva Janžurová
  • Jiřina Jirásková
  • Milan Jungmann
  • Jan Kačer
  • Karel Kachyňa
  • Vlado Kašpar, Chairman of ÚV ČSN
  • Pavel Kohout
  • Tomáš Kosta
  • Ivan Klíma
  • Jan Kotík
  • Ivan Kříž
  • Milan Kundera
  • J. S. Kupka
  • A. J. Liehm
  • Sergej Machonin
  • Václav Mareš
  • Jiří Moravec, architect
  • Drahomíra Novotná
  • Jiří Novotný, architect
  • Pavel Nauman
  • Ludvík Pacovský, Secretary FITES
  • František Pavlíček
  • MUDr. Boh. Peleška
  • Dušan Pokorný
  • Jan Procházka
  • Jaroslav Putík
  • Dr. Dušan Ruppeldt
  • Jiří Schmidt
  • Jindřiška Smetanová
  • Karel Šiktanc
  • Josef Škvorecký
  • Prof. O. Šmahel
  • Jiří Štaidl
  • Martin Vaculík
  • Dr. Zdeněk Váhala
  • Ludvík Veselý
  • Felix Vodička
  • Hela Volanská
  • František Vrba

ČKD employees Prague:

  • Antonín Brožek, horizontal operator
  • Jaroslava Doubravová, crane operator
  • Stanislav Havelka, carousel operator
  • Václav Jakubů, controller
  • Lubor Karban, metal turner
  • Julius Kužel, former
  • Irena Mošovská, crane operator
  • Marie Novotná, crane operator
  • Josef Slaninka, miller
  • František Soukup, metal turner
  • Jaroslav Stádník, metal turner
  • Miroslav Zelinka, horizontal operator