Already before the call for (general) strikes on 14 November there was
clear that a lot of different action would be organized on the 17 November
– the International Student Day, a national holiday of the Czech Republic
known as The Day of Student Fight for Freedom and Democracy.
This holiday commemorates firstly the general attack of German nazi
occupants against high education in the „Protectorate of Bohemia and
Moravia“ in 1939 when 9 official student leaders were executed, 1200
students sent to concentration camps and all universities and colleges
closed down until the end of war in 1945. But for today´s students it is
long time away like middle ages so honoured are the students from the
commemoration march on 17 November 1989 beaten down by police en mass which
became a signal for the „Velvet revolution“ and fall of the Communist
government in Czechoslovakia.
Almost every civic protest initiative organized an action on that day.
The Alliance of Labour and Solidarity interlinked their actions with a
march connecting the college (attacked in 1939) with the places of 1989.
Between 10.000 and 20.000 people protested against the austerity measures
at the biggest demonstration called „The Democracy Looks Otherwise“ on the
Wenceslas Square in Prague, organized jointly by the biggest trade unions
confederation CMKOS with a plenty of civic initiatives. The speakers
proclaimed it to be a part of the European-wide 14N strikes and actions.
Some other actions, demonstrations, marches, happenings and carnivals like
„Throwing the Government Down“ (as ministers´ figures from a bridge) were
organized by civic initiatives and movements not only in Prague but in a
dozen of other cities of Czechia.
Quite characteristical for Eastern Europe was that while the majority of
the protest actions was aimed against the neo-liberals and their austerity
measures others protested against contemporary Communists who have recently
won democratic regional elections in some regions in Czechia and are parts
of ruling coalitions (mainly with Social Democrats) in 8 out of 14 regions.
I would recommend for the next time not to bind actions to symbolic dates
(at national ot international level) but to jointly co-ordinate a
simultaneous actions, having consulted the dates and forms of them also
with Central/Eastern European partners where the social/economic conditions
are different.
In solidarity,
Mirek Prokes
Prague Spring 2 – network against right-wing extremism and populism