(Editorial note: the following MANIFESTO OF THE CZECHOSLOVAK REVOLUTIONARY YOUTH MOVEMENT was published in a recent issue of LA GAUCHE, the Belgian revolutionary socialist weekly, edited by Ernest Mandel. According to the editors of LA GAUCHE, the REVOLUTIONARY YOUTH MOVEMENT developed out of the November student strike in Prague.)
Living in a social system where the capitalist mode of production and capitalist productive relationships have been abolished but where a democratic, socialist society has not yet begun to be built; and desiring to resist the abuse of communist ideals as well as to uphold the principle that it is our right and duty to struggle actively against all who have dishonoured and abused the ideals of communism, we proclaim the formation of the Revolutionary Youth Movement.
We are convinced that for the Czechoslovak people as well as for the people of the USSR and the so-called people's democracies, socialism cannot be achieved without destroying the bureaucratic machine as a social stratum and establishing a system of self-management. Self-management must be introduced in all areas of social life. At the point of production, self-management must take the form of workers councils exercising political and economic power. This self-management system will enable every worker to display his energy and creative initiative, it will create the essential pre-conditions for the scientific and technological revolution which will eliminate under-consumption and the social inequalities that flow from it. Self-management and its social consequences on an international scale will lead to the abolition of the state and the institutions connected with it.
The road our country travelled after January created the preconditions for such a revolutionary course. This development was interrupted by the armies of the five Warsaw Pact countries. In light of the experience we have acquired in the course of the battles waged this year for socialist democracy, and especially our experience from August to November (editorial note: the period between the invasion and the big student strike), we are convinced that the working class will play the decisive role in this struggle. Students and youth, however, will have an important part to play. We view this revolutionary road as a permanent revolutionary process capable of influencing the course of the world revolution.
We are also convinced that: (1) To wait excessively for a "process of renewal" in the Soviet Union would be in direct contradiction to the duty of man, whose social mission, according to Marx, is to change and transform the surrounding reality. (2) To restrict socialist activity solely to putting pressure on the party and state leadership would be politically shortsighted. Since August 26, when our party and state leadership took the path of complete capitulation to the Soviet leadership, we have seen [illegible] evidence every day confirming the correctness of our stand.
In the November struggles, a unity was achieved between the students and the workers that still remains firm. All our work will be directed toward consolidating this unity through mutual discussion on the problems of democracy. In this way, we will strive to broaden and deepen the revolutionary consciousness of the youth, the students, and the workers to maintain their unity in ideology and action, and to prepare ourselves for the confrontation with the reactionary forces. Our experience in the glorious days of August and in the great battles of November will assist us in this task.
We realise that it will be difficult - although not impossible - to wage armed resistance against the enormous military potential of the occupying powers. Equipped with forms of struggle based on passive resistance, we are convinced that the struggle of the Czechoslovak people will not only not be defeated but will also deal hard blows to the bureaucratic regimes in Poland, Hungary, the German Democratic Republic and the USSR itself. This struggle can lead to political revolution throughout all the countries of the socialist bloc encompassing 300,000,000 people, liberate entire peoples, and thus inaugurate a new epoch of socialist construction. This process in the socialist bloc will also be accompanied by anti-imperialist revolutionary struggles in the Western countries. This dual process in the East and in the West, together with the revolutionary movement in the Third World, will lead us to the world revolution.
We have weighed the risks involved in the course on which we are engaging. We have, however, no other choice. The alternative offered to us by the pre-August leaders, who remain at the head of the party and the state and who still maintain their previous posture at least partially, leads nowhere. Their blind policy, bordering on adventurism, is of a kind to plunge our country into an ever deepening political, economic, and moral [illegible].
The struggle for the interests of the Czechoslovak people and working class, the struggle against all anti-socialist forces (the Soviet Army, the ever more influential capitulationist wing of our leadership, the right-wing faction of the Czechoslovak Communist Party with its fascist-like tendencies) unites us. And in this struggle we start from the consideration that the power and activity of these forces is illegal from every point of view, both morally and juridically.
The essential lines of our activities are as follows:
(1) Creation of an organisational structure capable of serving as the basis for unity in action of students and young blue and white collar workers and for bringing their different points of view into confrontation.
(2) Action, insofar as feasible, by other youth organisations of all types in the political, social, professional, and other fields.
(3) Development of unity, without rigid organisational forms, with other youth through concrete political action.
(4) Organisation of political discussions aimed at a broad public.
(5) Dissemination and promulgation of political opinions and all political information by every means possible.
(6) Study of the forms of anti-imperialist struggle in the countries of the Third World and the West, and of the activities of the "extreme left" with a view toward establishing contacts with all those who support these struggles.
(7) Study, in the same way, of the activities of potentially revolutionary forces in the USSR and in the so-called people's democracies.
(8) To accord factional rights, within the framework of the movement, to all tendencies that may develop, including the right to ally themselves with other factions in the movement as they choose.
The Revolutionary Youth Movement is open to all young people regardless of their political affiliation who agree with the principles set forth in this manifesto. No bans or proscriptions!