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Twenty-five years after the Hungarian October, there are cows in the country, and if you try to think in categories of good or bad investment climate, that is a good thing: Hungary is a reliable economic partner to the West, pays its debts punctually and the Hungarian working people do not dare to strike.
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The Hungarian revolution was not unexpected: the alienation of the working class from the new regime was, above all, the result of economic policy, which consisted of ex-tremely rapid industrialization. The pressure on the peasants and the workforce in-creased in the 50s, their resistance was broken with repression. "The number of arrest-ed is greater than before. But the most alarming fact is that most of the arrestees were recruited from the workers, the industrial workers," Imre Nagy said in his will in 1954, written in political exile. Between 1949 and 1952, the standard of living fell by 20 percent, and in 1956 there was no doubt about the masses' opposition to the regime. In countering the invasion forces, workers-youth made up the main contingent. The first samizdat publication in Hungarian history, the Hungaricus pamphlet on the course of Hungarian October, writes: "According to the hospitals, 80 to 90 percent of the wounded were young work-ers and three to four percent students." And most of the combatants had hardly ever heard anything about the intellectual Petofi's circle, and nothing at all about Gomułka; and when asked why they then took part in the fighting they replied: "Is it worth living for 600 Forints a month?"
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Report on a Solidarność photo exhibition organized by the "Socialist Committee for Eastern Europe" and presented on various locations in Austria PLUS: conversation with Zbigniew Kowalewski about his work in and for Solidarność
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This brief outline of the history of the liquidation of workers' councils in Poland after 1956 was drafted in the autumn of 1981 on behalf of the Regional Administration of Lodz of Solidarność. Here are the most important aspects of the discussion at that time summarized, whose im-portance for Solidarność were very large: the questions of a 2nd Chamber to the Sejm were treated in 1956 already.
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There are always misunderstandings between Eastern dissidence and the Western Left: the language and symbolism of the oppositionists are too different there and here. In the first part of his essay, Suk analyzes the conditions under which a radical leftist emerged in Czechoslovakia.
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Miklós Haraszti is different than one would imagine one of the most famous Hungarian opposi-tionists: quiet, silent to taciturn, if it is not “down to business”, but succinct in his formulations. He stands for a new tendency within the Hungarian opposition, which is less interested in theoretical questions than in practice-oriented work for a Hungarian democracy, which "now through the nationalization of the means of production already will necessarily be a socialist. "Haraszti regards himself as a pessimist in every respect, which, however, does not prevent him from taking important, new steps towards organizing the Hungar-ian intellectual opposition. »gegenstimmen« had the opportunity to speak with Miklós Haraszti in mid-March.
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There are always misunderstandings between Eastern dissidence and the Western Left: the language and symbolism of the oppositionists are too different there and here. In the first part of his essay, Suk analyzes the conditions under which a radical leftist emerged in Czechoslovakia
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The following text has been published in Bulletin No. 32 of the Paris group of Solidarność. It was originally published in the weekly Mazowsze No. 23. It is another contribution to the discussion on the next steps, initiated by Jacek Kuroń through his Theses on a Way Out of a Deadlock. - See also »gegenstimmen« No. 8. The epilogue to the person of the author also comes from the underground publication "Mazowsze".
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For over nine months, all unions in Poland have been suspended. In the workers- and peasants' state, almost daily activists are sentenced to high prison terms for "union ac-tivity." The military regime knows that, as long as the trade union question has not been solved accordingly, it will not open the way to a "normalization" of any provenance. Therefore, a debate is staged that works well as long as society is atomized: but for Po-land, the recipes of the day before yesterday are no longer useful. Zbigniew Jankowski analyzed the ideas of the military regime on the trade union question and the reactions of the underground for the journal "Kontakt" edited by Mirosław Chojecki in Paris.
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The fact that the "liberal" Romania in its own country applies the harshest repression against any non-conformist activity is a widely known fact. However, open political convictions are a rather rare affair: the Romanian authorities are more likely to use the methods of compulsory treatment in psychiatric hospitals and imprisonment on the pretext of parasitic conduct. Another type of repression - more and more often lately - is the disappearance of unwelcome people.
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The shock of 13 December 1981 (martial law in Poland) also left deep marks in the Hungarian opposition. The newly created situation for Eastern European dissenters and the dissident movements was analyzed by János Kis in an article for the third issue of the magazine »Beszélő«
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»Yuri Andropov and the Hungarian Revolution« (by: Bill Lomax) AND »This is how everything is turning in Circle« (a short text by Piotr Eguidèsv from Russkaja Mysl, Paris November 18, 1982)) AND »Orient and Occident cannot be separated any longer« (A coversation with Lev Kopelev)
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» MATT ODER PATT ? / CHECKMATED OR REMIS ? « The defeat on 10 November, the release of Lech Walesa, the negotiations Glemp - Jaruzelski and the opening of the suspension of martial law later this year have created confusion. Is Solidarność finally beaten? (by Mihály Töröcsik) » WARUM ICH NACH POLEN ZURÜCKKEHRE / WHY I’M RETURNING TO POLAND « Jan Jozef Lipski, linguist and literary critic, is one of the founders of KOR. He was arrested on 13 December 1981, along with many other leading Solidarność and KOR leaders. He is one of the main defendants in the trial of the strike leaders of the Ursus Works. Due to his poor health, the lawsuit against him was interrupted: Lipski has to be taken to a London hospital. In September 1982, Lipski returned to Poland, where he is arrested one day after his arrival. In the London-based magazine Tygodnik Polski, Lipski declares his decision to return to Poland.
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» FREIWILLIG ZURÜCKGEKEHRT / VOLUNTARILY RETURNED « In the first days of February, Mieczysław Tarnowski, the highest elected official of the Solidamość delegation to the West after the military coup of 13 December, returned to Poland. In Austria, he is no stranger: On January 29, 1982, he spoke at the Solidarity Concert of the Socialist East European Committee in the Vienna Konzerthaus for the persecuted independent trade union, visited previously Austrian trade unionists and works councils and met Chancellor Dr. Kreisky for an exchange of views. In the following Tarnowski justified his return. » NORMALISIERUNG DURCH REPRESSION / NORMALIZATION BY REPRESSION « A wave of political trials against Solidarność executives and advisers has begun with a different background than similar cases in Hungary after 1956 or in Czechoslovakia after 1968.
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The appointment of Yuri Andropov triggered violent activity in the Czechoslovak Communist Party leadership.
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While the "economic miracle" began in West-Germany, fat, meat and sugar were still rationed in the German Democratic Republic; Reconstruction of the destroyed basic industry swallowed most of the resources, and for the consumer goods sector no ressources remained. The displeasure in the population became ever stronger, from the late autumn of 1952, the workers showed more and more openly their dissatisfaction. On June 17, 1953, it finally came to a revolt. "To vote against" spoke about it with Heinz Brandt, who at that time as a district secretary of the Berlin SED solidarized with the striking workers.
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