Czech Communist Youth Union outlawed: article + petition
 

Czech gov’t bans youth group, torpedoes democracy

The Czech Republic has become a testing ground for imperialist forces in Europe who seek to outlaw communist activity in the formerly socialist, now European Union-member states.

A case in point is the Czech government’s banning of the Communist Youth Union (KSM) on Oct. 12. Observers say the move sets a dangerous precedent for the rest of Europe and the world.

The government justified its decision by arguing “the KSM program states the necessity to replace private ownership of the means of production with public ownership.” According to government spokeswoman Majka Marsrikova, “This is against the constitution and is incompatible with fundamental democratic principles.”

In response, the youth group’s representatives categorically rejected the charge that their program is against the law and issued a statement exposing the political reasons behind the ministry’s decision. A legal defence campaign has started up both within the Czech Republic and internationally.

The KSM also vowed to continue its struggle to defend the rights of youth and students, young workers and unemployed and to struggle for socialism, regardless of the government’s ruling.

The ban is the result of a longstanding campaign on the part of the government to suppress the communist youth group’s activity, especially in light of its highly successful campaign against the building of U.S. military bases on Czech soil.

To date, local branches of the KSM have gathered over 50,000 signatures against the bases and are demanding that a public referendum on the issue be held. Communist Party deputies in Parliament are pushing for an extraordinary session to consider such a referendum.

Fears about possible U.S. military bases have mounted amid reports that the Pentagon is scheming to avoid public scrutiny by claiming that it only wants to build a radar station. However, given that a recent Gallop poll shows 51 percent of the population finds the proposed military bases “unacceptable” and 61 percent thinks the issue should be put to a referendum, the group’s petition drive has obviously touched a raw nerve.

Looking at the broader picture, anticommunist forces in the Czech Republic targeted the communist movement following the overthrow of socialism in that country, equating Communism with Nazism and penalizing communist activity and ideology.

For example, during last June’s general elections, Girzy Dolis, the Communist Party’s vice-president and a Parliament member, was viciously beaten. Election ballots cast by communist voters were stolen, and people who turned in such ballots to the authorities were rewarded.

Around the same time, government-sponsored T-shirts with the slogan “Fight for peace, kill a Communist” were widely circulated, even being sold in Czech embassies around the world.

The campaign against the KSM has been brewing for a long time. In November 2005, the Czech government demanded that the group change its program and constitution because it “projects the idea of class struggle, and is based on the theories of Marx, Engels and Lenin who call for the violent overthrow of society.”

The authorities gave the KSM a Dec. 31, 2005, deadline to renounce its communist identity. It refused to do so. Due to the massive mobilization of forces both inside and outside of the country, the ministry was forced to extend the deadline to March 4, 2006.

Tens of thousands of signatures against the proposed ban were collected worldwide via the Internet, including from the Nobel Prize-winning playwright Dario Fo, U2 singer Bono and Subcomandante Marcos of the Zapatistas.

But the government refused to relent, and the anti-democratic, anticommunist ban has now been imposed. Progressive forces both in the Czech Republic and beyond it have denounced the move as a blow to democratic rights everywhere.

Laura Petricola ([email protected]) writes from Athens, Greece.

TAKE ACTION

Protest ban on Czech youth group

Send a solidarity e-mail to the Communist Youth Union: [email protected]
Sign the international petition protesting the ban: http://4ksm.kke.gr/

Ask your union, student body, or organization to send a message to the Czech Ministry of the Interior, protesting the ban and demanding that it be immediately lifted: [email protected]

http://www.pww.org/article/articleview/10062/1/345

belachelijk om dat te verbieden.

Maar analoog moeten ze ook stoppen met het overroepen "extreemrechts" te willen verbieden tot de laatste letter. Verbieden = militarisme aanwakkeren van de leden.
Het verbieden van al wat staats- en establishmentgevaarlijk kan zijn is zelf ondemocratisch en dictatoriaal. Misschien voelen die overheden zich gesteund door het anti-"staatsgevaarlijke" discour van mijnheer Bush:roll:

Ik vond vooral de reden zeer angstwekkend, dat was wel even slikken.
The government justified its decision by arguing “the KSM program states the necessity to replace private ownership of the means of production with public ownership.” According to government spokeswoman Majka Marsrikova, “This is against the constitution and is incompatible with fundamental democratic principles.”

Op welke manier?


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red_Brigades
Zolang het maar niet zo iets als dit is

Help, en dat is het 'vrije' europa? - socialistische ideeën op zich zijn dus ongrondwettelijk! Ik dacht dat "grondwetten de spelregels moeten vastleggen en niet het spel", zoals dikwijls wordt gesteld.

Hier moeten ze dat niet proberen; ofwel moet men zelfs het ABVV verbieden:

En de zweedse sosialistische partij heeft nog steeds het onder arbijders controle zetten van de productie midelen in haar beginselverklaringen staan.

Zoiets is ongehoord.

De EU grondwet had 'vrije mededinging' zelfs als primaire 'waarde' ingeschreven staan. Dit in aanmerking nemende is het dus een goede zaak dat die EU grondwet er niet komt.

In de grondwet van Portugal staat zelfs dat het parlement de taak heeft de weg te openen voor een socialistische maatschappij.

Zucht

Van af welk moment is het socialisme zo soft gegaan.:-(

Vanaf het moment dat de door hun hand geleverde massagraven opdoken?

Had ik ergens moeten zien aankomen.;-)

Dus het kapitalisme slaagt er beter in hun massagraven te verstoppen? *schrijft de tip op*

bwa, zo goed slagen ze daar nu ook weer niet in, ze verpakken het alleen anders ;)

Ja echt eh. Goed zoeken, Prae, goed zoeken.

KSM is illegalized! Anticommunist decision of Czech government.
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October 16, 2006

Dear Comrades,

The Communist Youth Union (KSM) in the Czech Republic has been officially dissolved by the state power on October 12, 2006.

On October 16, 2006 the KSM has received a letter from the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic that announces that the Ministry of Interior finally dissolved the KSM. It happened in spite of a large campaign against the danger of illegalization of the organization of young communists in the Czech Republic.

Thousands of citizens of the Czech Republic signed a petition against the endeavour of the Ministry of Interior to make the KSM illegal. The protest against the illegalization of the KSM was in the Czech Republic expressed for example by organization of former antifascist fighters, student organizations, political parties and civic associations. A great resistance was provoked by the endeavour of the Ministry of Interior to make the KSM illegal abroad. Hundreds of significant youth and student organizations, trade unions and political parties together with thousands of people protested at the Ministry of Interior and embassies of the Czech Republic in their countries. The solidarity with the KSM was expressed by a large number of members of parliaments, famous intellectuals and personalities like Nobel Prize winner Dario Fo, leader of zapatistas Marcos or singer Bono Vox from U2. Demonstrations in support of the KSM were organized in front of embassies of the Czech Republic in many countries of the world. World Federation of Democratic Youth initiated an International day of solidarity with the KSM on February 27, 2006.

The Ministry of Interior originally impugned the status of the KSM as a civic association under pretext that the goals of KSM´s activity interfered with an area restricted to activities of political parties. The Ministry of Interior further stated that behaviour of the KSM was illegal because it was based on theoretical basis in Marx, Engels and Lenin and on proclaimed necessity of socialist revolution.

Nevertheless, the Ministry of Interior did not use any of those arguments for the dissolution of the KSM. The only reason that has led officially to the dissolution of the KSM is that the KSM reflects in its Program necessity of replacing of the private ownership of means of production with collective ownership of means of production.

The KSM in spite of its official dissolution by the state power is going to carry on the struggle for the rights of majority of young people - students, young workers and unemployed – and for socialism! The KSM is going to challenge the decision of the Ministry of Interior in court.

The illegalization of the KSM was committed in the atmosphere of militant anticommunist witch-hunt, various anticommunist campaigns and attacks and new calls for the criminalization of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM). The decision of the Ministry of Interior was realized only one week before local and Senate elections in which the KSCM participates.


Dear comrades and friends,

It is necessary to stand up internationally against this illegalization and criminalization of the communist movement in the Czech Republic. We ask you therefore to express your solidarity with the KSM and to protest against this unprecedented move of the Ministry of Interior of the Czech Republic at the embassies of the Czech Republic in your countries. Their addresses are on the following internet page:
http://www.mzv.cz/wwwo/mzv/default.a...l=False&pocc1=

I second that.

En ik geef zelfs Ambiorix gelijk in deze. De Tsjechische overheid volgt uiteindelijk gewoon dezelfde logica als onze eigen overheid in haar strijd tegen extreem-rechts.

"Verdraagzaamheid is een fundamentele waarde en daarover kan geen discussie zijn dus verbieden we partijen die dit in vraag stellen". Vervang "verdraagzaamheid" door "democratie", "privaat bezit", en je hebt de perfecte vrijgeleide voor eender welke overheid om eender welke tegenstand de kop in te drukken.