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Czech Republic Outlaws Advocacy of Socialism
On October 12, 2006, the Home Office of the Czech Republic decided to dissolve a Czech communist youth organisation called the 'KSM'. And what crime had it committed? Its statutes are in favour of "collective ownership of the means of production".
Czech Republic Outlaws Advocacy of Socialism
Liberation News strongly condemns the outlawing of the advocacy of socialism in the Czech Republic. From the outlawing of abortion in Poland to the genocide that was carried out in Croatia under the newly resurrected flag of Nazi occupation, to a dramatic drop in the life expectancy in the former Soviet Union, the lie of democracy and a better life under capitalism is being exposed. While Eastern Europe’s bureaucratic command socialism had many flaws, capitalism is much worse. The struggle today is to learn from the mistakes of the past and struggle forward for a democratic socialism to end the dictatorial power of the wealthy, for a redistribution of the wealth, and for a planned economy run to meet human needs, end wars for vulgar profit, and save the planet from looming environmental catastrophe. The fact that saying such things in the “democratic” Czech republic is now illegal flows from the fact that capitalism has always been the dictatorship of the extremely wealthy and the big imperial powers. Forward to democracy and socialism!
Steven Argue for Liberation News
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/liberation_news
International Appeal
(Please fill out endorsement coupon below, and please help us circulate this appeal widely)
Against the Banning of the 'KSM' Youth Organisation (Czech Republic)
On October 12, 2006, the Home Office of the Czech Republic decided to dissolve a Czech communist youth organisation called the 'KSM'.
And what crime had it committed? Its statutes are in favour of "collective ownership of the means of production". In the text announcing and explaining this decision, the Home Office declares:
"Paragraph 2 of the KSM's program declares: "The KSM declares it is in favour of going beyond capitalism in a revolutionary way and replacing it by collective ownership and social conditions that could bring about social democracy" ...
"The above statements found in the KSM's program involve the KSM in activities that are not compatible with the protection of every individual, which can be read in article 11, § 1 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Liberties. To attempt to deny the right to private ownership of the means of production is incompatible with elementary democratic principles. It ensues from paragraph 2 of article 9 of the Czech Republic's Constitution that it is unacceptable to change the democratic foundations of the legal democratic state. It is thus necessary to reject any attempt that could bring about the violation of the Constitutional decisions recalled above and which ensue from principles also asserted in the European Convention for the protection of human rights and
fundamental liberties."
The Home Office has rejected the KSM's argument that it does not intend to achieve its aim by any means that are undemocratic or illegal. The Home Office goes on to state:
"The KSM answers that it is only aiming at the ownership of means of production and not at ownership in general. Š That argument cannot be taken into account, because the law, as it is expressed in article 11, § 1 of the Charter, concerns all types of ownership, without distinction, whether such private property be intended for production or not. There can thus be no question of accepting 'the abolition of private ownership of the means of production and replacing it by collective ownership'."
So it is that the Home Office of the Czech Republic, a member country of the European Union, reinforced by a European Convention, purely and simply outlaws all idea of collective property of the means of production. And it puts forward this European Convention to justify its decision to ban an organisation that has not been found guilty of any action whatsoever, but simply advocates in its program the future perspective of collective ownership of the means of production.
There is no mention of any political activity the KSM might be engaged in that could provide the grounds for justifying the Home Office's decision. The outlawing of the KSM flouts even the most elementary democratic rights; such a decision would simply cross out more 150 years of the history of the labour movement.
This decision is an attack on democracy by forbidding an organisation, whatever that organisation may be, from putting forward a political program and attempting to win over a majority of the population to its goal of collective ownership of the means of production.
This decision, with the simple stroke of a pen, would seek to deny 150 years of the history of the labour movement, and even of democracy itself -- because ever since 1848, the labour movement and the various supporters of socialism have made obtaining collective ownership of the means of production an essential part of their analyses and program.
Following this decision, the Home Secretary of the Czech Republic is thus forbidding, in the name of the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Liberties, any organisation whatsoever from having the right to adhere to Marx and Engel's Communist Party Manifesto, which asserts: "communists can summarize their theory in one single formula: abolition of private property; the property that exploits working for a salary".
The Home Secretary is thus forbidding any organisation whatsoever to claim to have its roots in the Socialist Encyclopaedia written before the First World War by socialists such as Compère-Morel, Bracke, Pierre Brizon, Hubert-Rouher, Jean Longuet, Paul Louis, Charles Rappoport, Sixte-Quenin, Jean-Baptiste Séverac, the future deputy general secretary of the French Socialist Party, the SFIO, that, summarizing half a century of socialist ideas and action in various
countries throughout the world, declared the "necessity for collective ownership", explaining that: "Individual ownership was defendable when the instrument of labour was personal, it must become collective when production also becomes collective. It is only in its collective form that ownership can become something that is universal and become for each individual not a theoretic right, but something certain, a reality."
The Home Secretary is thus forbidding any organisation whatsoever to claim to have its roots in the literature of Jules Guesde, Jean Jaurès, Rosa Luxemburg, Léon Blum, the founders of Czech Social-Democracy, members up to 1918 of the Austro-Hungarian Social-Democratic Party, who declared the necessity for collective ownership.
The French Workers' Party founded by Jules Guesde asserted right away in its founding congress in October 1879: "The Congress declares that all possible means must continue to be used, so as to obtain collective ownership of all labour instruments and all the production workforce. It insists on the necessity for the proletariat to form its own class political party and to break away completely from the bourgeoisie." (Paul Louis, Le Parti socialiste en France, Encyclopédie socialiste, pp 11-12 (The Socialist Party in France,
Socialist Encyclopaedia).
Jean Jaurès demanded "the coming of a new order in which ownership, ceasing to be individual and private, will become social" (26th November 1900). As for Léon Blum, he declared: "Socialism is a movement of ideas and action that leads to a complete transformation of the regime of ownership, the transformation of an economic regime founded on private ownership into a regime founded on collective or common ownership" (27th December 1920). On September 1st 1946, he still asserted: "We are the Socialist Party and our aim is to achieve revolutionary transformation of the social structure, i.e. of the production and ownership regime."
Otto Bauer, one of the founders of the Austro-Hungarian Social-Democratic Party, of which the Czech Social-Democracy was also a part until 1918, declared in a text about "the slow revolution": "Collectivisation of the State economy starts with large industries collectivisation starts with expropriation: the State brings in a law by which it declares that the current owners of large industries are no longer the owners. Collectivisation has a dual aim: on the one hand, improvement of the situation of the blue-collar and white-collar workers in the collectivised branch of industry and on the other hand, making available for the community the revenues that until then had been going to the capitalists" (1919).
The Home Secretary is forbidding any organisation whatsoever to even make reference to nationalisation decrees voted, for example, just after the Second World War by the British Labour Party government, by various coalition governments such as the French government, in which there was even a Christian-Democratic Party (the MRP), or by various Social-Democratic or Labour governments.
The collective form of ownership has indeed appeared, from time to time throughout history, as being a necessity, and not only within the trend of socialist ideas. So it was that in 1894, the writer Leo Tolstoy in his "Advice to those receiving orders" proposed to bring up in Russia "the question of expropriation of land, with or without compensation, so as to nationalise the land thereafter". Would the Czech Home Secretary ban the distribution of such works in the name of the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Liberties?
The Czech Home Secretary has made this decision at the same time as directors of large companies are massively cutting back on jobs throughout the world, thereby threatening the very lives of the laid-off workers, with scorn for the interest of society in general, simply in the name of the private financial interests of the owners and of the dividends for the large shareholders.
The Czech Home Secretary has made this decision at the same time as a policy of privatisation and dismantling of State services and of nationalised companies is being implemented, resulting in the suppression of tens of thousands of jobs in all countries that are members of the European Union, in the name of "free and un-tampered competition", as demanded in the Maastricht Treaty.
- We, the undersigned, remark that this banning is a first application, detrimental to fundamental liberties, of the Council of Europe's resolution 1481 condemning "communism".
- We, the undersigned, denounce the ban against including the call for collective ownership of means of production in the program of a political organisation, in the name of a Convention supposedly defending human rights and fundamental liberties, and we denounce the dissolution of the KSM which the Czech Home Secretary has deduced is thus necessary.
- We, the undersigned, denounce this measure, which is in response only to the demands of those who own capital, but is hypocritically masked as being in defence of individual liberties -- for it is an intolerable attack on political democracy, on freedom of opinion, of thought, of expression and of organisation, and we demand that it this ban be annulled.
First Endorsers
ALLAIN Auguste (France); ANTONINI Daniel, international secretary of the 'Pole of Communist Renaissance in France' (France); AUDEJAN Noëlle, author (France); BARDIN Georges, internationalist militant, former French Resistance fighter (France); BARROIS Jean-Pierre, Senior lecturer at Paris-XII University, anti-war activist (France); BEDÖ János (Hungary); BELISSA Marc, University Lecturer (France); BLANCHARD Daniel, former member of 'Socialism or Barbarity' (France); BLANCHARD Arnold, former member of 'Socialism or Barbarity' (France); BLANCHARD Helen, former member of 'Socialism or Barbarity' (France); BODIN Martine teacher-trade-unionist (France); BOMBARDIERI Bernadette, 'Free-Thinker' (France); BORISOV Todor, president of the Bulgarian Workers' and Peasants' Party (Bulgaria); BOURHIS Gilles, CNRS-trade-unionist (T.N.: Scientific research) (France); BREITBACH Ulrich, member of the Union of German writers and of the Union of German journalists, Ver.di Trade Union (Germany); BREMOND Hansi, 'Free-Thinker' and political militant (France); BRICMONT Jean, University Lecturer (Belgium); CANALI José, working-class militant, communist, trade-unionist (France); CAUMIERES Philippe, teacher qualified in philosophy (France); CHABERT Raymond, pensioner (France); CHALLIER Alain, sculptor (France); CHENET Jacques, 'Free-Thinker' (France); CHUBERRE Hervé (France); CLESSE Pascal, 'Free-Thinker' (France); CUENCA Jean (France); DE MONTLIBERT Jean, emeritus professor of sociology (France); DERUETTE Serge, Lecturer in political science at Mons University (UMH), (Belgium); DOUJON Jean-Pierre, University Lecturer (France); DOUPSIS Georges, 'Free-Thinker'; DUBOIS Françoise, retired teacher; DUBOIS Pierre, visual artist (France); ELIARD Michel, Sociologist, University Lecturer (France); EXCOFFON Sylvain, University Lecturer in history (France); FABRE Marguerite, working-class militant, 'Free-Thinker' (France); FABROL Emile, 'Prométhée', communist site, militant in Vitry (France); FAYET Jean-François, PhD (France); FERNANDES Grégory, student in Lyon, RYA militant (France); FERRAT Jacques, teacher (France); FLAMMANT Thierry , history teacher (France); FOGLER Tibor (Hungary); FRATANOLO Janos, president of the Hungarian Workers' Party 2006 (Hungary); GAVOIS Marc-Olivier, history and geography teacher (France); GIRAUDON Liliane, author (France); GLEIZAL Jean-Jacques, University Lecturer in Grenoble (France); GÔME Gérard, trade-unionist (France); GOTLIB Igor, regional coordinator of Alternatives - St-Petersburg (Russia); GROS Dominique, retired law teacher (France); GUERRIEN Bernard, Lecturer in economy at Paris-I University (France); GUITTON Michel, 'Free-Thinker' (France); HEBERT Alexandre, anarchist-trade-unionist (France) ; IMSIROVIC Pavlusko, militant of the Labour Political Alliance, former political prisoner, condemned in the "Trial of six people" (ex-Yugoslavia); JAKOCS Dániel (Hungary); JEKOV Todor, president of the Labour-Peasant Party (Bulgaria); JOBIC Christian (France); JOHNSTONE Diana, journalist, author (USA); JONY Iván (Hungary); JULIEN Stéphane trade-unionist (France); KASTLER Claude, emeritus professor of Stendhal University in Grenoble (France); KOSTIOUK Rouslan, doctor of history, Saint-Petersburg (Russia); LABRASCA Frank, University Lecturer, trade-unionist (France); LACROIX-RIZ Annie, historian (France); LARUE LANGLOIS François, author (France); LAVALLEE Ivan, State Doctorate in Science (France); LEFEBVRE Michel, trade-unionist SNES (France); LEMASLE Arnaud (France); Françoise LONDON-DAIX (France); LOSURDO Domenico, Lecturer in History and Philosophy at the University of Urbino (Italy); MAITTE Hervé, CGT trade-unionist (France); MARCELE Philippe (France); MARIE Jean-Jacques, historian, responsible from 1976 to 1980 for the French edition of 'Listy', the newspaper of the Czech Socialist Opposition, founded by Jiri Pelikan (France); MARTIN Roger, author, French Communist Party militant (France); MATHIEU Olivier, teacher and trade-unionist (France); MOLENAT Jean-Pierre emeritus director of research at the CNRS (France); MOQUETTE Yvan, trade-unionist (France); MORELLI Anne, university lecturer (Belgium); NOEL Bernard, author (France); O'CONNOR Emmet, (Ireland); PAPP Julien, historian (France); PATRIZIO Marie-Ange, psychologist (France); PAUWELS Dirk, ergonomist, manual therapist, physiotherapist (Belgium); PESTIEAU Jean, Lecturer at the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium); PLANTIVEAU Gérard, trade-unionist (France); POINTCHEVAL Jacques, 'Free-Thinker' (France); POULAIN Philippe, visual artist (France); PASLAR Vitaly, member of the Komsomol (Moldavian Republic); POLIANSKI Mikhail, member of the Komsomol (Moldavian Republic); POULAIN Philippe, visual artist (France); POUPKINE Vassia, (Russia); PRAT Didier, author, compositor, musician (France); PRENEAU François, trade-unionist (France); PROST Laurent (France); QUENTIN Bernadette, employee of PTT-FT (France); REMBOTTE Gilles, trade-union militant (France); REZNIK Aleksandr, of the "Student Solidarity" Union, State University of Perm (Russia); RIVAL Michel, retired primary school teacher, French Communist Party militant (France); ROBINET Marie-Line, DDA Val de Marne (France); ROCHEFORT Jacques, assistant (France); ROQUES Monique, teacher (France); ROUET Jean-Jacques, municipal councillor in Fondettes (37) (France); ROY Pierre, historian, 'Free-Thinker' (France); RYJKINE Mikhaïl Ivanovitch, assistant of the Elected Member of the Douma of the Russian Federation of Kibirev (Russia); SANTOLINI Arnaud, teacher, researcher, trade-unionist (France); SEPPECHER Pascal, teacher, (France); SEREZAT André, (France); SERGERE Julien, education assistant (France); SERNICLAY Clément, French Assistant in Zurich (Switzerland); SAVASTIN Liudmyla member of the Komsomol (Moldavian Republic); SERGERE Julien, education assistant (France); SYBELIN Yannick, hospital trade-unionist (France); VERCRUYSSE Pierre, CGT trade-unionist (France); VAN CAMPEN Marc, early-retired steel worker, Charleroi (Belgium); VIARD Jean, retired CGT trade-unionist (France); WEBER Michel, Doctor in Philosophy (Belgium); WEINSTEIN Max, pensioner, former French Resistance fighter (France); WHITEHEAD Fred, historian and 'Free-Thinker', Kansas (USA); ARGUE, Steven, Liberation News.
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Liberation News strongly condemns the outlawing of the advocacy of socialism in the Czech Republic. From the outlawing of abortion in Poland to the genocide that was carried out in Croatia under the newly resurrected flag of Nazi occupation, to a dramatic drop in the life expectancy in the former Soviet Union, the lie of democracy and a better life under capitalism is being exposed. While Eastern Europe’s bureaucratic command socialism had many flaws, capitalism is much worse. The struggle today is to learn from the mistakes of the past and struggle forward for a democratic socialism to end the dictatorial power of the wealthy, for a redistribution of the wealth, and for a planned economy run to meet human needs, end wars for vulgar profit, and save the planet from looming environmental catastrophe. The fact that saying such things in the “democratic” Czech republic is now illegal flows from the fact that capitalism has always been the dictatorship of the extremely wealthy and the big imperial powers. Forward to democracy and socialism!
Steven Argue for Liberation News
http://lists.riseup.net/www/info/liberation_news
International Appeal
(Please fill out endorsement coupon below, and please help us circulate this appeal widely)
Against the Banning of the 'KSM' Youth Organisation (Czech Republic)
On October 12, 2006, the Home Office of the Czech Republic decided to dissolve a Czech communist youth organisation called the 'KSM'.
And what crime had it committed? Its statutes are in favour of "collective ownership of the means of production". In the text announcing and explaining this decision, the Home Office declares:
"Paragraph 2 of the KSM's program declares: "The KSM declares it is in favour of going beyond capitalism in a revolutionary way and replacing it by collective ownership and social conditions that could bring about social democracy" ...
"The above statements found in the KSM's program involve the KSM in activities that are not compatible with the protection of every individual, which can be read in article 11, § 1 of the Charter of Fundamental Rights and Liberties. To attempt to deny the right to private ownership of the means of production is incompatible with elementary democratic principles. It ensues from paragraph 2 of article 9 of the Czech Republic's Constitution that it is unacceptable to change the democratic foundations of the legal democratic state. It is thus necessary to reject any attempt that could bring about the violation of the Constitutional decisions recalled above and which ensue from principles also asserted in the European Convention for the protection of human rights and
fundamental liberties."
The Home Office has rejected the KSM's argument that it does not intend to achieve its aim by any means that are undemocratic or illegal. The Home Office goes on to state:
"The KSM answers that it is only aiming at the ownership of means of production and not at ownership in general. Š That argument cannot be taken into account, because the law, as it is expressed in article 11, § 1 of the Charter, concerns all types of ownership, without distinction, whether such private property be intended for production or not. There can thus be no question of accepting 'the abolition of private ownership of the means of production and replacing it by collective ownership'."
So it is that the Home Office of the Czech Republic, a member country of the European Union, reinforced by a European Convention, purely and simply outlaws all idea of collective property of the means of production. And it puts forward this European Convention to justify its decision to ban an organisation that has not been found guilty of any action whatsoever, but simply advocates in its program the future perspective of collective ownership of the means of production.
There is no mention of any political activity the KSM might be engaged in that could provide the grounds for justifying the Home Office's decision. The outlawing of the KSM flouts even the most elementary democratic rights; such a decision would simply cross out more 150 years of the history of the labour movement.
This decision is an attack on democracy by forbidding an organisation, whatever that organisation may be, from putting forward a political program and attempting to win over a majority of the population to its goal of collective ownership of the means of production.
This decision, with the simple stroke of a pen, would seek to deny 150 years of the history of the labour movement, and even of democracy itself -- because ever since 1848, the labour movement and the various supporters of socialism have made obtaining collective ownership of the means of production an essential part of their analyses and program.
Following this decision, the Home Secretary of the Czech Republic is thus forbidding, in the name of the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Liberties, any organisation whatsoever from having the right to adhere to Marx and Engel's Communist Party Manifesto, which asserts: "communists can summarize their theory in one single formula: abolition of private property; the property that exploits working for a salary".
The Home Secretary is thus forbidding any organisation whatsoever to claim to have its roots in the Socialist Encyclopaedia written before the First World War by socialists such as Compère-Morel, Bracke, Pierre Brizon, Hubert-Rouher, Jean Longuet, Paul Louis, Charles Rappoport, Sixte-Quenin, Jean-Baptiste Séverac, the future deputy general secretary of the French Socialist Party, the SFIO, that, summarizing half a century of socialist ideas and action in various
countries throughout the world, declared the "necessity for collective ownership", explaining that: "Individual ownership was defendable when the instrument of labour was personal, it must become collective when production also becomes collective. It is only in its collective form that ownership can become something that is universal and become for each individual not a theoretic right, but something certain, a reality."
The Home Secretary is thus forbidding any organisation whatsoever to claim to have its roots in the literature of Jules Guesde, Jean Jaurès, Rosa Luxemburg, Léon Blum, the founders of Czech Social-Democracy, members up to 1918 of the Austro-Hungarian Social-Democratic Party, who declared the necessity for collective ownership.
The French Workers' Party founded by Jules Guesde asserted right away in its founding congress in October 1879: "The Congress declares that all possible means must continue to be used, so as to obtain collective ownership of all labour instruments and all the production workforce. It insists on the necessity for the proletariat to form its own class political party and to break away completely from the bourgeoisie." (Paul Louis, Le Parti socialiste en France, Encyclopédie socialiste, pp 11-12 (The Socialist Party in France,
Socialist Encyclopaedia).
Jean Jaurès demanded "the coming of a new order in which ownership, ceasing to be individual and private, will become social" (26th November 1900). As for Léon Blum, he declared: "Socialism is a movement of ideas and action that leads to a complete transformation of the regime of ownership, the transformation of an economic regime founded on private ownership into a regime founded on collective or common ownership" (27th December 1920). On September 1st 1946, he still asserted: "We are the Socialist Party and our aim is to achieve revolutionary transformation of the social structure, i.e. of the production and ownership regime."
Otto Bauer, one of the founders of the Austro-Hungarian Social-Democratic Party, of which the Czech Social-Democracy was also a part until 1918, declared in a text about "the slow revolution": "Collectivisation of the State economy starts with large industries collectivisation starts with expropriation: the State brings in a law by which it declares that the current owners of large industries are no longer the owners. Collectivisation has a dual aim: on the one hand, improvement of the situation of the blue-collar and white-collar workers in the collectivised branch of industry and on the other hand, making available for the community the revenues that until then had been going to the capitalists" (1919).
The Home Secretary is forbidding any organisation whatsoever to even make reference to nationalisation decrees voted, for example, just after the Second World War by the British Labour Party government, by various coalition governments such as the French government, in which there was even a Christian-Democratic Party (the MRP), or by various Social-Democratic or Labour governments.
The collective form of ownership has indeed appeared, from time to time throughout history, as being a necessity, and not only within the trend of socialist ideas. So it was that in 1894, the writer Leo Tolstoy in his "Advice to those receiving orders" proposed to bring up in Russia "the question of expropriation of land, with or without compensation, so as to nationalise the land thereafter". Would the Czech Home Secretary ban the distribution of such works in the name of the European Convention of Human Rights and Fundamental Liberties?
The Czech Home Secretary has made this decision at the same time as directors of large companies are massively cutting back on jobs throughout the world, thereby threatening the very lives of the laid-off workers, with scorn for the interest of society in general, simply in the name of the private financial interests of the owners and of the dividends for the large shareholders.
The Czech Home Secretary has made this decision at the same time as a policy of privatisation and dismantling of State services and of nationalised companies is being implemented, resulting in the suppression of tens of thousands of jobs in all countries that are members of the European Union, in the name of "free and un-tampered competition", as demanded in the Maastricht Treaty.
- We, the undersigned, remark that this banning is a first application, detrimental to fundamental liberties, of the Council of Europe's resolution 1481 condemning "communism".
- We, the undersigned, denounce the ban against including the call for collective ownership of means of production in the program of a political organisation, in the name of a Convention supposedly defending human rights and fundamental liberties, and we denounce the dissolution of the KSM which the Czech Home Secretary has deduced is thus necessary.
- We, the undersigned, denounce this measure, which is in response only to the demands of those who own capital, but is hypocritically masked as being in defence of individual liberties -- for it is an intolerable attack on political democracy, on freedom of opinion, of thought, of expression and of organisation, and we demand that it this ban be annulled.
First Endorsers
ALLAIN Auguste (France); ANTONINI Daniel, international secretary of the 'Pole of Communist Renaissance in France' (France); AUDEJAN Noëlle, author (France); BARDIN Georges, internationalist militant, former French Resistance fighter (France); BARROIS Jean-Pierre, Senior lecturer at Paris-XII University, anti-war activist (France); BEDÖ János (Hungary); BELISSA Marc, University Lecturer (France); BLANCHARD Daniel, former member of 'Socialism or Barbarity' (France); BLANCHARD Arnold, former member of 'Socialism or Barbarity' (France); BLANCHARD Helen, former member of 'Socialism or Barbarity' (France); BODIN Martine teacher-trade-unionist (France); BOMBARDIERI Bernadette, 'Free-Thinker' (France); BORISOV Todor, president of the Bulgarian Workers' and Peasants' Party (Bulgaria); BOURHIS Gilles, CNRS-trade-unionist (T.N.: Scientific research) (France); BREITBACH Ulrich, member of the Union of German writers and of the Union of German journalists, Ver.di Trade Union (Germany); BREMOND Hansi, 'Free-Thinker' and political militant (France); BRICMONT Jean, University Lecturer (Belgium); CANALI José, working-class militant, communist, trade-unionist (France); CAUMIERES Philippe, teacher qualified in philosophy (France); CHABERT Raymond, pensioner (France); CHALLIER Alain, sculptor (France); CHENET Jacques, 'Free-Thinker' (France); CHUBERRE Hervé (France); CLESSE Pascal, 'Free-Thinker' (France); CUENCA Jean (France); DE MONTLIBERT Jean, emeritus professor of sociology (France); DERUETTE Serge, Lecturer in political science at Mons University (UMH), (Belgium); DOUJON Jean-Pierre, University Lecturer (France); DOUPSIS Georges, 'Free-Thinker'; DUBOIS Françoise, retired teacher; DUBOIS Pierre, visual artist (France); ELIARD Michel, Sociologist, University Lecturer (France); EXCOFFON Sylvain, University Lecturer in history (France); FABRE Marguerite, working-class militant, 'Free-Thinker' (France); FABROL Emile, 'Prométhée', communist site, militant in Vitry (France); FAYET Jean-François, PhD (France); FERNANDES Grégory, student in Lyon, RYA militant (France); FERRAT Jacques, teacher (France); FLAMMANT Thierry , history teacher (France); FOGLER Tibor (Hungary); FRATANOLO Janos, president of the Hungarian Workers' Party 2006 (Hungary); GAVOIS Marc-Olivier, history and geography teacher (France); GIRAUDON Liliane, author (France); GLEIZAL Jean-Jacques, University Lecturer in Grenoble (France); GÔME Gérard, trade-unionist (France); GOTLIB Igor, regional coordinator of Alternatives - St-Petersburg (Russia); GROS Dominique, retired law teacher (France); GUERRIEN Bernard, Lecturer in economy at Paris-I University (France); GUITTON Michel, 'Free-Thinker' (France); HEBERT Alexandre, anarchist-trade-unionist (France) ; IMSIROVIC Pavlusko, militant of the Labour Political Alliance, former political prisoner, condemned in the "Trial of six people" (ex-Yugoslavia); JAKOCS Dániel (Hungary); JEKOV Todor, president of the Labour-Peasant Party (Bulgaria); JOBIC Christian (France); JOHNSTONE Diana, journalist, author (USA); JONY Iván (Hungary); JULIEN Stéphane trade-unionist (France); KASTLER Claude, emeritus professor of Stendhal University in Grenoble (France); KOSTIOUK Rouslan, doctor of history, Saint-Petersburg (Russia); LABRASCA Frank, University Lecturer, trade-unionist (France); LACROIX-RIZ Annie, historian (France); LARUE LANGLOIS François, author (France); LAVALLEE Ivan, State Doctorate in Science (France); LEFEBVRE Michel, trade-unionist SNES (France); LEMASLE Arnaud (France); Françoise LONDON-DAIX (France); LOSURDO Domenico, Lecturer in History and Philosophy at the University of Urbino (Italy); MAITTE Hervé, CGT trade-unionist (France); MARCELE Philippe (France); MARIE Jean-Jacques, historian, responsible from 1976 to 1980 for the French edition of 'Listy', the newspaper of the Czech Socialist Opposition, founded by Jiri Pelikan (France); MARTIN Roger, author, French Communist Party militant (France); MATHIEU Olivier, teacher and trade-unionist (France); MOLENAT Jean-Pierre emeritus director of research at the CNRS (France); MOQUETTE Yvan, trade-unionist (France); MORELLI Anne, university lecturer (Belgium); NOEL Bernard, author (France); O'CONNOR Emmet, (Ireland); PAPP Julien, historian (France); PATRIZIO Marie-Ange, psychologist (France); PAUWELS Dirk, ergonomist, manual therapist, physiotherapist (Belgium); PESTIEAU Jean, Lecturer at the Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium); PLANTIVEAU Gérard, trade-unionist (France); POINTCHEVAL Jacques, 'Free-Thinker' (France); POULAIN Philippe, visual artist (France); PASLAR Vitaly, member of the Komsomol (Moldavian Republic); POLIANSKI Mikhail, member of the Komsomol (Moldavian Republic); POULAIN Philippe, visual artist (France); POUPKINE Vassia, (Russia); PRAT Didier, author, compositor, musician (France); PRENEAU François, trade-unionist (France); PROST Laurent (France); QUENTIN Bernadette, employee of PTT-FT (France); REMBOTTE Gilles, trade-union militant (France); REZNIK Aleksandr, of the "Student Solidarity" Union, State University of Perm (Russia); RIVAL Michel, retired primary school teacher, French Communist Party militant (France); ROBINET Marie-Line, DDA Val de Marne (France); ROCHEFORT Jacques, assistant (France); ROQUES Monique, teacher (France); ROUET Jean-Jacques, municipal councillor in Fondettes (37) (France); ROY Pierre, historian, 'Free-Thinker' (France); RYJKINE Mikhaïl Ivanovitch, assistant of the Elected Member of the Douma of the Russian Federation of Kibirev (Russia); SANTOLINI Arnaud, teacher, researcher, trade-unionist (France); SEPPECHER Pascal, teacher, (France); SEREZAT André, (France); SERGERE Julien, education assistant (France); SERNICLAY Clément, French Assistant in Zurich (Switzerland); SAVASTIN Liudmyla member of the Komsomol (Moldavian Republic); SERGERE Julien, education assistant (France); SYBELIN Yannick, hospital trade-unionist (France); VERCRUYSSE Pierre, CGT trade-unionist (France); VAN CAMPEN Marc, early-retired steel worker, Charleroi (Belgium); VIARD Jean, retired CGT trade-unionist (France); WEBER Michel, Doctor in Philosophy (Belgium); WEINSTEIN Max, pensioner, former French Resistance fighter (France); WHITEHEAD Fred, historian and 'Free-Thinker', Kansas (USA); ARGUE, Steven, Liberation News.
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"On October 12, 2006, the Home Office of the Czech Republic decided to dissolve a Czech communist youth organisation called the 'KSM'. And what crime had it committed? Its statutes are in favour of "collective ownership of the means of production". "
UH --- is THAT, in fact WHY this particulat organization was banned?
Are OTHER Czeck Republic organizations that advocate socialism banned?
Does the above named organization in fact advocate "socialism"?
That last question is NOT an idle one (I am old enough to remember political parties that even had "socialist" in their names that were anything but).
PLEASE UNDERSTAND --- I am NOT saying that your conclusion is wrong. Just that as a "news" story you haven't presented enough of the story to justify your headline. Based on the "event" you reported (the banning of the KSM) I do NOT know enough to conclude that the Czecks are banning advocacy of socialism.
NOW --- if the reason you said what you did was that in your eyes these folks are the only true socialists and all other groups (supposedly) advocating socialism are actually counter-revolutionary reactionaries you need to remember one thing. Ferw if any of your readers would be starting from that basis of "fact". You would need to SAY that as part of your story.
UH --- is THAT, in fact WHY this particulat organization was banned?
Are OTHER Czeck Republic organizations that advocate socialism banned?
Does the above named organization in fact advocate "socialism"?
That last question is NOT an idle one (I am old enough to remember political parties that even had "socialist" in their names that were anything but).
PLEASE UNDERSTAND --- I am NOT saying that your conclusion is wrong. Just that as a "news" story you haven't presented enough of the story to justify your headline. Based on the "event" you reported (the banning of the KSM) I do NOT know enough to conclude that the Czecks are banning advocacy of socialism.
NOW --- if the reason you said what you did was that in your eyes these folks are the only true socialists and all other groups (supposedly) advocating socialism are actually counter-revolutionary reactionaries you need to remember one thing. Ferw if any of your readers would be starting from that basis of "fact". You would need to SAY that as part of your story.
Yep. Why not add to that some instruction about the clear destructive history of colonialism or imperialism (one country going into another nation to direct their economy). How many millions of people were killed from economic collapse and imperial wars in Africa, India, SE Asia, the caribbean when France, England, Portugal etc., or more recently, oil companies and the IMF/World Bank, have gone in to disrupt the local way of life and force peasants to produce cash crops, or get out of the way of mining.
The way it's taught in schools, you'd think that the Philippines is so poor and needs to send its workers overseas as nurses and maids to mail back paychecks because the country just has a history of being disorganized, or not very smart about learning lucrative skills. You never hear about the decades of forced occupation by Spain, or the takeover by the United States which subdued the Philippines in 1899 as they fought for independence and killed a couple hundred thousand people. Colonialism =bad.
http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/gift.html
The way it's taught in schools, you'd think that the Philippines is so poor and needs to send its workers overseas as nurses and maids to mail back paychecks because the country just has a history of being disorganized, or not very smart about learning lucrative skills. You never hear about the decades of forced occupation by Spain, or the takeover by the United States which subdued the Philippines in 1899 as they fought for independence and killed a couple hundred thousand people. Colonialism =bad.
http://www.smplanet.com/imperialism/gift.html
Mike Novack asks, "UH --- is THAT [advocacy of socialism], in fact WHY this particulat organization was banned?"
Steven Argue: Yes, as was stated in the original statement, the Czech Home Office in banning the organization used the following quote from the KSM’s program as the reason, "The KSM declares it is in favour of going beyond capitalism in a revolutionary way and replacing it by collective ownership and social conditions that could bring about social democracy"
Mike Novack asks, "Are OTHER Czech Republic organizations that advocate socialism banned?"
Steven Argue: Any and all socialist organizations could be banned under this precedent.
Mike Novack asks, "Does the above named organization in fact advocate "socialism"?"
Steven Argue: According to themselves, and according to the government that has banned them, they do advocate socialism and oppose capitalism. I support their democratic right to advocate those views, without any need to analyze their entire program for such a purpose.
Mike Novack asks, "I am NOT saying that your conclusion is wrong. Just that as a "news" story you haven't presented enough of the story to justify your headline. Based on the "event" you reported (the banning of the KSM) I do NOT know enough to conclude that the Czecks are banning advocacy of socialism."
Steven Argue: I could respect this statement more if your very first question didn't show that you really didn't pay attention to all of the information presented. The quote from the Czech Home Office directly states that the KSM is being banned because the KSM’s program states, "the KSM declares it is in favour of going beyond capitalism in a revolutionary way and replacing it by collective ownership and social conditions that could bring about social democracy". In addition the Home Office has rejected the KSM's argument that it does not intend to achieve its aim by any means that are undemocratic or illegal, although the KSM itself now being illegal will undoubtedly cause them to revise part of this position.
Mike Novack asks, "NOW --- if the reason you said what you did was that in your eyes these folks are the only true socialists and all other groups (supposedly) advocating socialism are actually counter-revolutionary reactionaries you need to remember one thing. Few if any of your readers would be starting from that basis of "fact". You would need to SAY that as part of your story."
Steven Argue: I support the rights of all anti-capitalist and anti-chauvinist socialists to advocate collective ownership of the means of production. I have not put the KSM through any purity test; instead this international campaign is supporting the democratic right of all to advocate socialism.
Steven Argue: Yes, as was stated in the original statement, the Czech Home Office in banning the organization used the following quote from the KSM’s program as the reason, "The KSM declares it is in favour of going beyond capitalism in a revolutionary way and replacing it by collective ownership and social conditions that could bring about social democracy"
Mike Novack asks, "Are OTHER Czech Republic organizations that advocate socialism banned?"
Steven Argue: Any and all socialist organizations could be banned under this precedent.
Mike Novack asks, "Does the above named organization in fact advocate "socialism"?"
Steven Argue: According to themselves, and according to the government that has banned them, they do advocate socialism and oppose capitalism. I support their democratic right to advocate those views, without any need to analyze their entire program for such a purpose.
Mike Novack asks, "I am NOT saying that your conclusion is wrong. Just that as a "news" story you haven't presented enough of the story to justify your headline. Based on the "event" you reported (the banning of the KSM) I do NOT know enough to conclude that the Czecks are banning advocacy of socialism."
Steven Argue: I could respect this statement more if your very first question didn't show that you really didn't pay attention to all of the information presented. The quote from the Czech Home Office directly states that the KSM is being banned because the KSM’s program states, "the KSM declares it is in favour of going beyond capitalism in a revolutionary way and replacing it by collective ownership and social conditions that could bring about social democracy". In addition the Home Office has rejected the KSM's argument that it does not intend to achieve its aim by any means that are undemocratic or illegal, although the KSM itself now being illegal will undoubtedly cause them to revise part of this position.
Mike Novack asks, "NOW --- if the reason you said what you did was that in your eyes these folks are the only true socialists and all other groups (supposedly) advocating socialism are actually counter-revolutionary reactionaries you need to remember one thing. Few if any of your readers would be starting from that basis of "fact". You would need to SAY that as part of your story."
Steven Argue: I support the rights of all anti-capitalist and anti-chauvinist socialists to advocate collective ownership of the means of production. I have not put the KSM through any purity test; instead this international campaign is supporting the democratic right of all to advocate socialism.
The Czech Republic is banning any organization that calls for
socialization - all in the name of defending democracy and in the name
of some bogus provision in the European Union Charter .....
socialization - all in the name of defending democracy and in the name
of some bogus provision in the European Union Charter .....
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