Western CPs Condemn Invasion, Hail Prague Spring

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BOX-FOLDER-REPORT: 22-4-11
TITLE:             Western CPs Condemn Invasion, Hail Prague Spring
BY:                Kevin Devlin
DATE:              1978-8-22
COUNTRY:           Czechoslovakia
ORIGINAL SUBJECT:  RAD Background Report/183

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RFERL

RADIO FREE EUROPE Research

RAD Background Report/183
(World Communist Movement)
22 August 1978

WESTERN CPs CONDEMN INVASION, HAIL PRAGUE SPRING
By Kevin Devlin

Summary: The Major West European communist parties have
marked the 10th anniversary of the invasion of 
Czechoslovakia by reaffirming their original condemnation of the
military intervention, by deploring the repressive 
"normalization" which followed, and by proclaiming their support
for the ideals of the Prague Spring. Statements by
British, French, Italian, and Spanish CP spokesmen 
repeatedly use one eloquent metaphor: Czechoslovakia is
still an "open wound" in the international communist
body. Meanwhile, the Italian CP daily reports that five
exiled protagonists of the Dubcek regime's "new course"
have sent an anniversary appeal to the Belgian, Dutch,
French, Greek (Interior), Italian, Spanish, and Swedish
communist parties, as well as to "numerous" West European
socialist parties.

X X X

This material was prepared for the use of the editors and policy staff of Radio Free Europe.

[page 2]

Eurocommunist parties have marked the tenth anniversary of the
invasion of Czechoslovakia by the armed forces of the Soviet Union
and four other Warsaw Pact states with statements and articles
reiterating their condemnation of the intervention, refuting the
arguments advanced to justify it, and proclaiming their support for
the Prague Spring and its ideals of "socialist democratization."
These anniversary statements also call for the withdrawal of foreign
troops from Czechoslovakia and the restoration of full state
sovereignty and party autonomy.

The Italian Communist Party has publicized an appeal, also
calling for withdrawal of Soviet troops and an end to repression of
dissent in Czechoslovakia, which leading protagonists of the Prague
Spring, now in exile, have sent to the Italian, French, Spanish,
Dutch, Belgian, Swedish, and Greek (Interior) communist parties, as
well as to "numerous" West European socialist parties.

The Italian CP had heralded its renewed condemnation of the
invasion with a three-day Gramsci Institute seminar on the heritage
of the Prague Spring. This included, as l'Unita (10 July 1978) put
it, "an equally firm condemnation, without appeal, of the repression
and the aberrant practices to which the restoration [sic.] has led."
As the anniversary approached, Gian Carlo Pajetta of the party
Directorate discussed it in a television interview reported in
l'Unita of August 18. He described the armed intervention as "a
wound which has not healed, which is still open ... because the
rift between Communists is profound.... It is not only a question
of polemics and residual bitterness, but also of administrative
measures, which means that the Czechoslovak situation does not 
correspond, at least in our opinion, to what the situation of a
socialist country should be." This, he added, explained the PCI's
"largely negative" judgment of developments in Czechoslovakia and
other countries and also "our cold and even polemical relations with
the Czechoslovak CP."

The same issue of l'Unita carried two other articles dealing
with Czechoslovakia: one, a report on articles critical of Western
communist comment on Czechoslovakia by CPCS CC Secretary Jan Fojtik
in Pravda and by Soviet commentator I. Medvedev in the Novosti service;
and the other, the above-mentioned report on the appeal which 
Czechoslovak exile leaders sent to West European Communist and Socialist
parties. There was also an editorial commentary on all three items.
Rejecting the attempts of Fojtik and Medvedev to justify the military
intervention, the editorial said:

We further think that it is neither possible nor acceptable
to present as "normal" the situation in Czechoslovakia
today -- one which conflicts with our idea of 'normality' in the 
relations between states and in the situation of a country.

The appeal to the Italian, French, Spanish, Dutch, Belgian,
British, Swedish, and Greek (Interior) CPs as well as to "numerous"

[page 3]

West European socialist parties was signed, l'Unita reported, by
Eduard Goldstuecker, Zdenek Hajzlar, Zdenek Milynar, Jiri Pelikan,
and Ota Sik. After protesting against the repressive aspects of a
"normalization" which "has not solved any of the country's problems,"
the appeal said that the withdrawal of Soviet troops from the CSSR

would be in conformity with the conclusions of the Helsinki
conference on European co-operation, which exclude the use of
force and other means of pressure against any European state,
whatever pretext may be advanced to justify such intervention.
This would furthermore contribute to improving the political
atmosphere in Czechoslovakia and within the international
workers' movement.

The "open wound" metaphor used both by Pajetta and by the exiled
signatories of this appeal was used again by the PCI's leading
journalist Giuseppe Boffa in an anniversary commentary, [1] in which
he declared that during the past decade his party's condemnation of
the intervention and of the repressive normalization which followed
had remained unchanged. The "convergence of judgments" among West
European CPs in their reaction to the invasion, he said, had been
a very important element in the development of what are now called
Eurocommunist ideas. Italian Communists and others have been led
to stress that the link between socialism and democracy is not merely
indispensable for their own countries but also has "a universal and
permanent value."

Repression Denounced

One of the strongest anniversary statements came from the
British CP. Its Political Committee rejected the argument that the
intervention was necessary to suppress counterrevolution: the fact
was that "this attempt by the Czechoslovak working people to rid their
socialist society of its deformations was halted by the military
intervention and by the political repression that followed in its wake."
The statement denounced in particular the persecution of signatories of
Charter 77 and other dissidents:

Restrictions on democratic activity and expression in 
Czechoslovakia should cease, and there should be an end to the
persecution of those who take a different view to that of
the Czechoslovak authorities on how democracy and socialism
should be developed.

In the interests of socialism in Czechoslovakia it is
essential that these antidemocratic practices be ended, and
that, in conditions of full independence and sovereignty,
the Czechoslovak people are once again able to pursue their
own policy for expanding socialist democracy, and so give a
new and powerful impetus to socialist construction.

------------------------------

(1) G. Boffa, "Cecoslovacchia: il Peso di Questi Dieci Anni,"
l'Unita, 20 August 1978.

[page 4]

The French CP marked the anniversary with an article [2] in
which Raymond Guyot, a member of the Politburo at the time of the
invasion, declared:

Ten years have passed, and the open wound in the side of the
Soviet Union and the four other socialist countries, as in
the heart of the Czechoslovak people -- this open wound in
the international communist and workers' movement is still
gaping. Until now, nothing has been done to heal it. And
yet, for the sake of our ideal and for the Soviet Union itself,
this must be done.

What should be done today after ten years? Proclaim an
amnesty for all Czechoslovak citizens who are victims of
these tragic events, and restore to them their rights, so that
they may take their full part in the building of that socialist
Czechoslovakia to which they proclaim their attachment.

The Spanish CP has marked the anniversary with a full-page 
commentary in the current issue of Mundo Obrero by Federico Melchor of
the Executive Committee. He, too, used the inevitable metaphor. By
invading Czechoslovakia the Soviets had opened wounds in the 
international communist movement which have grown deeper over the last 10
years. "The cause of socialism and its image, the practice of 
international solidarity, or relations between socialist countries and
communist parties, received a serious blow with dramatic far-reaching
consequences," Melchor said. [3]

A contrast to these anniversary comments was provided by the
Austrian CP daily Volksstimme, with an article [4] justifying the
invasion as necessary to avert a counterrevolution led by
"right-opportunist forces" within the party who had gained ascendancy and
were leading a "revisionist front." The article failed to mention
that in August 1968 the Austrian CP had strongly condemned the Warsaw
Pact intervention -- and that, after 10 years, it is the only West
European communist party to have reversed its judgment on the invasion
An ignoble distinction, one might think.

- end -

-----------------------------------------------

(2) R. Guyot, "Il y a Dix Ann�es...," l'Humanit�, 18 August
1978.

(3) UPI dispatch from Madrid, 18 August 1978.

(4) Milan Matous, "CSSR '68," Volksstimme, 18 August 1978.
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