Czech Republic - Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia /
Komunistická strana Cech a Moravy (KSCM)
The current Communist party is a typical opportunist party; it has nothing in common with the revolutionary program. The voter base is mainly older people who have found it hard to adapt to the new conditions; the party also enjoys support in industrial areas with high unemployment. The party has a large base of grass roots members, far outnumbering the other main political parties. They use or misuse the sentiments and nostalgia of the older generations. It seems only a matter of time before the Communist party was treated like all other political parties in the Czech Republic - mistrusted and disdained. And that could be the toughest test the Communists have faced since 1989.
The KSCM is one of the few largely unreconstructed Communist parties on the political scene in the post-communist countries of Central and Eastern Europe. In other countries the word "communist" has usually been replaced by terms such as "democratic left", but the KSCM continues to take pride in its Communist history. The party in its current form was not founded until March 1990, but it is effectively the heir to the KSC (Communist Party of Czechoslovakia), in power from 1948-1989. Several groups splintered from the party in the early 1990s and founded their own parties - such as Left Block and later the Party of Czechoslovak Communists, but while they have faded into obscurity the KSCM has sustained its firm position in parliament consistently winning over ten percent of the vote.
The KSCM is a socialist party, believing in strong state control of the economy. The party's political program calls for "an appropriate degree of state ownership in key sectors of the economy (banking, transport, telecommunications, energy, the extractive industries etc.)". The party is strongly opposed to Czech NATO membership and describes the NATO action against Yugoslavia in 1999 as "aggression". Some leading party members have expressed support for European Union membership, but the party remains divided on the issue. Most mainstream trade union leaders distance themselves from the party. All the other parties represented in parliament had ruled out any kind of coalition deal with the KSCM, unless the party undergoes major reforms.
Founded in 1921, the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (Komunisticka strana Ceskoslovenska--KSC) was one of some twenty political parties that competed within the democratic framework of the Czechoslovak Republic (also known as the First Republic), but it never gained sufficient strength to be included in that government. During World War II many KSC leaders sought refuge in the Soviet Union, where they made preparations to increase the party's power base once the war ended. In the early postwar period the Soviet-supported Czechoslovak communists launched a sustained drive that culminated in their seizure of power in 1948. Once in control, the KSC developed an organizational structure and mode of rule patterned closely after those of the CPSU. Power was formally held by the National Front of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, a coalition in which the KSC held two-thirds of the seats while the remaining one-third were shared among five other political parties. But in fact the KSC held an absolute monopoly on political power, and the other parties within the National Front were little more than auxiliaries. Even the governmental structure of Czechoslovakia existed primarily to implement policy decisions made within the KSC. To ensure its monopoly on power, the KSC placed its members in all policy-making positions within the government.
Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM) was officially registered by Czech Republic's Ministry of Interior in November 28, 1990. The first regular Congress of the KSCM was held in October 13 and 14, 1990, in Olomouc. The Congress passed first independent programme of the party. Comrade Jirí Svoboda was elected the Chairman. The second Congress of the KSCM was held in December 12 and 13, 1992, in Kladno. A KSCM Programme was passed there, unlike the one from Olomouc trying to express decidedly Party's Communist orientation in new conditions.
The III Congress was convened into Prostejov, to be held in June 26, 1993, to deal with contradictions beginning to emerge inside of the party. The Congress took a decision to preserve the name of the party, advocating the Programme from Kladno. Doc. PhDr. Miroslav Grebenícek vas elected a new Chairman. Some smaller groups separated gradually from the KSCM, being not satisfied by the Congress result, to create their own parties. Just so were created the Party of Democratic Left (SDL), the Left Bloc (LB), and later also the Party of Czechoslovak Communists (SCK). After founding of the LB, which overtook the name of the origin election coalition of the KSCM and the DL, the work of the coalition was stopped, and the KSCM had to establish its own parliamentary group in the national parliament. Both the stabilization of the party and the membership's agreement with both the strategy and the programme directipn to be driven by the KSCM after its III. Congress, were confirmed also in the IV. Congress of the KSCM held in Liberec, December 2, 1995.
V. Congress took place between December 4 and 5, 1999, at Ždár nad Sázavou, under higher media attention than ever before. It had been clear even before the event it would be unacceptable to change the name of the party under current situation. A variety of programmable documents was passed there. Great emphasis was also put on to intensify KSCM's work with young people. The party intended primarily to pay its attention towards socially weak strata.
While there are no shortage of public and private efforts to vilify the KSCM -- including frequent attempts to outlaw the party and a very visible line of T-shirts and neckties that use a common English vulgarity to express the wearer's feeling about the KSCM -- there are numerous examples to the contrary. All Czech media outlets include leaders of the Communist party in talks shows and newscasts. As the third largest party in Parliament, KSCM members were included in all official delegations and hold leadership positions. And, when necessary, they have been courted by mainstream parties -- most famously, during the confidential parliamentary voting to select a president in 2003, KSCM was widely believed to have provided the numbers necessary to elect ODS founder Klaus in the third round of voting. The KSCM, or Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, hasn't undergone the type of reforms that most of its Eastern European counterparts did in the post Soviet era. There are still, for example, many elements in the party that show no regrets about the past. The long-time Chairman of the party, Miroslav Grebenicek, stepped down in September 2005 and was replaced October 1 by his deputy, Vojtech Filip, who was also one of five vice-chairs of parliament's lower house. Many saw the Grebenicek resignation, after more than 12 years at the party's helm, as one element in the party's efforts at gradual legitimization. This process included the more open cooperation seen by 2005 at the national level, and the possibility of some informal role in the government.
The KSCM had approximately 94,000 members in 2005, compared to 1.4 million party members in 1989. The average age of party members is 68 and a decline in numbers is inevitable as the old guard dies out; some think it will level off at about 50,000. But this decline should be seen in context: the Social Democrats had only 16,000 formal members and ODS 24,000. Much of the Czech political mainstream hoped that the KSCM would disappear if the party was isolated during the 1990s. From CSSD's perspective, their attempt at isolation was defined in the so-called "Bohumin Resolution," approved at a CSSD party congress in the town of Bohumin in 1995; that resolution actually confirmed a resolution passed at a CSSD congress in 1993 in the town of Hradec Kralove. The 1993 resolution stated "CSSD rejects extremist parties on both the left and the right. Our experience with 40 years of communist rule leads us to the decision not to cooperate with KSCM and not to form any coalition with that party...We will actively ward off any attempts to restore a totalitarian communist regime in this country, therefore, any type of cooperation with KSCM is out of consideration." This has kept the Communists out of cabinet positions.
Some leading politicians and analysts, including several former dissidents, argue that the world has changed significantly since 1989 and that the Czech Communist Party (KSCM), even if it has not changed significantly, now represents little or no threat to democracy. By 2005, the increasing official tolerance of the Communist Party, and the openness with which parliamentary cooperation is acknowledged by the governing coalition's senior partner, the Social Democrats (CSSD), was changing the dynamics of national politics, resulting in a diminished role for the current opposition, and more, though still limited, space for the Prime Minister and his party.
Prime Minister Jiri Paroubek (CSSD) signed a petition drive to ban the Communists in the early 1990s. He now calls it "the stupidest thing I ever did," arguing that the effect was counter-productive and led to renewed unity within KSCM. Paroubek repeatedly makes the point that KSCM has 20% of the seats in parliament and that it is destabilizing to keep those votes outside the system. He argues that it would be better for the country to give those parliamentarians a chance to participate in normal political life.
In a speech 17 November 2005, commemorating the 16th anniversary of the start of the Velvet Revolution, Paroubek dismissed concerns about a communist comeback, saying, "There is no USSR. There is no red Army. There is no Comintern. KSCM is no threat to democracy." Paroubek had relied on the Communists for support on several pieces of legislation affecting labor unions, student employees, and church-run charities. Statistics showed the Communists supported the Social Democrats on 14 of 16 bills in 2005. The Prime Minsster's coalition partners, the Christian Democrats, unsuccessfully tried to oppose him on some of these measures. It was not clear whether Paroubek felt sufficiently emboldened by this successful cooperation with the Communists, or perhaps instead felt an obligation to do something in exchange, but in late November 2005, Paroubek floated a trial balloon, announcing that if he were a parliamentarian, he would support the cancellation of the lustration law that prevents former top officials and secret police agents from the Communist era from holding high office. The move provoked such a strong reaction that Paroubek backed down two days later, saying he was putting aside his personal views for the moment, in order to not destabilize the ruling coalition. While some observers believe that Paroubek may have finally found a limit to how far he can go in working with KSCM; others interpret this as more of a tactical retreat.
Paroubek was not alone in arguing that it was time to bring the Communist Party and its supporters out of the political wilderness. A number of important and influential political figures no longer supported the ostracizing of the Communist Party. Former President Vaclav Havel was blamed by some for not banning the Communists when he was president in the early 1990's. Havel argued in November 2005 that there was little call for such a move in the early 1990's. Havel instead felt that the opportunists within the old communist structures left the party in the early 1990's, got fabulously wealthy, and are today exerting a far more dangerous and corrosive influence on Czech democracy than the ideological diehards who stayed behind. Havel said it was the malfeasance of other parties, a shot at President Klaus's Civic Democrats (ODS), that made it possible for the KSCM to stay alive.
Senate President Petr Pithart (KDU-CSL, Christian Democrats), who is the son of a Communist-era Ambassador to France and former Communist himself, argues that the Communists should be allowed to participate in political life. "It is much better to beat them at the polls," he argues, though it is very unlikely his own party will come out ahead of KSCM.
Political analyst Jiri Pehe, who also advises Paroubek, argued that what made the communists so evil wasn't their desire to have free universal health care, free tuition, regulated rents, and strong labor unions. Instead, in Pehe's view, it was the communist control over the media, the judiciary and the educational curricula, limited freedom of movement, and so on. Pehe argued that the pre-1989 Communist party was able to do all this because they were backed up by Moscow. Pehe points out that the situation is dramatically different today. The Czech media is today in the hands of Swiss and German press barons who exert commercial rather than political pressure. Regarding the liberty to travel, Pehe points out that most Czechs feel the greatest impediment is US visa law. In a 30 November 2005 editorial in the national daily Mlada Fronta, Pehe wrote, "Communism has ended and it will never return. The sooner all those who fight against it realize this, the sooner standard democracy will prevail in the Czech Republic."
Finance Minister and CSSD Chair Bohuslav Sobotka, considered the standard bearer for the moderate faction within the party, mentioned cooperation with the Communists in December 2005, saying he would rely on their support, if necessary, to pass dozens of key bills before the election next June. During the political uncertainty surrounding then Prime Minister Gross, Sobotka had said that he would resign if Gross were to set up a minority government supported by the Communists.
President Klaus, who has said he would not attend a KSCM party congress because of the party's past, nevertheless disagreed with any attempt to ban communism now. Klaus reasoned that communism was defeated in November of 1989. He said communism as a political movement doesn't exist anymore.
Vladimir Mlynar, former dissident, former journalist for the liberal weekly RESPEKT, former minister without portfolio and Minister of Informatics and member of the liberal party, the Freedom Union, is generally regarded as a life-long anti-Communist. He doesn't regard the Communist party as a threat and felt that, although he disliked the party, it was a part of the political spectrum today and should be treated as such.
The American polling firm, PSB, hired by CSSD for the 2006 election campaign, released the results of a survey 30 November 2005 showing that 55% of Czechs felt that KSCM should be treated like any other standard political party. Two thirds of those responding said the Communist Party should not be banned. Ironically, some of the most vocal opposition to the Communists is coming from young activists who would have only experienced communism in their infancy. On the other hand, some of the traditionally pro-US voices in the country were saying that it no longer made sense to outlaw, or even ostracize, the Communists.
This reduced the leverage of the opposition Civic Democrats, as well as CSSD's junior coalition partners, since the opposition Communists had already said they would support several key government bills. It was also undercutting one of the main 2006 election themes of the Civic Democrats, namely that support for CSSD will lead to a reemergence of the Communists. Current opinion polls gave left-of-center CSSD and KSCM combined a slight lead over right-of-center ODS and KDU-CSL.
VII. Congress was held between May 17 and 18, 2008, in Hradec Králové. Number of Resolutions, Declarations and Statements were passed by the delegates; among others Declaration of KSCM VII. Congress to traders, small and middle entrepreneurs, or Resolution of KSCM VII. Congress against US radar station on Czech Republic's territory, and others. JUDr. Vojtech Filip was re-elected KSCM president, by vast majority in election first round. Subsequently, the Central Comkmittee elected six vice-presidents - Ing. Jirí Dolejš (for professional development), Leo Luzar (for party's work), MUDr. Jirí Maštálka (for both international politics and European integration), PhDr. Vera Žežulková (for media politics and elections), Jana Bystrická (for regional and communal politics and for civil sector), Ing. Cenek Milota (for party economics).
There have been debated whether the successors of the totalitarian Communist Party of Czechoslovakia should be outlawed. An attempt by members of the Czech Parliament’s upper house were rejected by the government in 2009. In February 2011 the Czech Interior Ministry set up a special team to compile a report that might justify a petition to the country’s Supreme Administrative Court, demanding the party be dissolved as a threat to democracy. In July 2011 the Interior Ministry report found the government would hardly justify a petition concerning the Communists, which had taken in between 12 and 18 percent of votes in the past four general elections.
TOP 09 supplanted the Communists as the Czech Republic's third largest party in 2010.
VIII. Congress was held between May 19 and 20, 2012, in Liberec. Main Report about KSCM's work and Speaking towards current political situation in were passed by 456 delegates. In the same time, the Congress took the document of “Socialism in 21st Century” into account.
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