KSM in struggle against anti-communist repression

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Vytvořeno 8. 1. 2011

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History of the Communist Youth Union (KSM)

The KSM has a long history of its work as well as of its struggle against repression. The KSM was founded as an organization uniting young communists of all the nationalities of Czechoslovakia in 1921 and was a member of the Communist International of Youth established from Lenin's initiative in the same year. During the bourgeois First Czechoslovak Republic (1918 - 1938) the KSM was banned two times by the state power and continued its work underground. It was an important reservoir of cadre for the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia.

The young communists were an active force within the anti-Nazi resistance movement during the occupation of our country in 1938 - 1945. The name of the organization at that time was the Communist Union of Young Generation (KSMG). After the destruction of the First illegal Central committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia in 1941 the KSMG retook editorial activity of the party newspaper Rudé právo and maintained the tasks of the communist party network until the establishing of the Second illegal leadership of the party. A number of young communists were active in the illegal party central committees (four of them were gradually destructed by Nazis) and a large part of them gave their lives in the anti-Nazi struggle like Maruška Kudeříková, Jan Zika or Julius Fučík.

After the liberation in 1945 the young communists were most actively engaged in the construction of socialism. The name of the youth organization was Socialist Youth Union. After the overthrow of socialism in 1989 the Communist Youth Union was re-established with the direct reference to the KSM from the pre-war period profiled as a Marxist-Leninist revolutionary organization.

KSM's struggle against illegalization and anti-communist attacks since 1989

The Ministry of interior of the Czech Republic launched a process leading to the ban of the KSM on November 2005 threatening the KSM with making the organization dissolved by the state power if the KSM did not stop its political activities and did not renounce its Marxist-Leninist character. The ministry of interior:

In the following period the KSM opposed the arguments of the ministry in series of letters and during a personal meeting with the minister of interior. Subsequently, the ministry dropped a part of its previous arguments and brought new ones. Finally, the ministry decided to ban the KSM on 12th October 2006 stating that its Political program goal of replacing private ownership of means of production with collective ownership of means of production was in contradiction to the Constitution and laws of the Czech Republic.

The KSM received solidarity from several political parties in the Czech Republic (e.g. Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia), civic associations, from representatives of anti-fascist guerrilla fighters from the period of the Second world war, important personalities and large number of citizens. The KSM together with its allies abroad launched an unbelievably large and successful solidarity campaign, a great number of youth organizations, civic associations, political parties, various initiatives and individuals (including Nobel Prize Winner writer Dario Fo, subcomandante Marcos or singer Bono Vox) expressed their support for the KSM and bombed the Ministry of interior of the Czech Republic  and Czech embassies abroad with their protests. WFDY organized a solidarity campaign in support of the KSM titled "Future can not be banned", the protests were articulated on the floor of several parliaments (e.g. Greece, Portugal, European parliament) and our friends organized a number of demonstrations in their countries protesting against anti-communist violation of basic democratic rights in the Czech Republic.

The KSM filed an action against the decision of the ministry of interior and appealed to the Municipal court of Prague which in March 2008 confirmed the anti-communist decision of the ministry. In this moment the KSM held its VIII. Congress that decided to continue the activity of the organization under any conditions. The court openly revealed its politically biased and dependent role. Therefore the KSM waged its legal struggle further and sent its legal protest to the Supreme administrative court that finally abolished the decision of the Municipal court of Prague on 28th August 2009 and returned the cause back to the Municipal court of Prague for reconsideration. The Municipal court of Prague therefore had to discuss the legal dispute again and following the mentioned judgement of the Supreme administrative court it abolished on 27th January 2010 the illegalization of the KSM. This was an important victory of the KSM, its allies abroad and a huge international solidarity campaign which contributed enormously to the defeat of the anti-communist moves of the Czech state power. On 13th March 2010 the KSM held its extraordinary legalization IX. Congress and stepped out of illegality.

Although the abolishing judgement of the Supreme administrative court opened a way to the legal victory of the KSM it did not generally oppose the logic of argumentation used by the ministry of interior and the first judgement of the Municipal court of Prague because the Supreme administrative court accepted the anti-communist arguments of the mentioned institutions and based its annulment of the judgement on a statement that the ministry did not bring sufficient evidence proving that the activity of the KSM posed danger to the constitutional system (read capitalist system) of the Czech Republic. This leaves a space for new attacks on the legal existence of the KSM and also of other progressive organizations in the Czech Republic. In other words it suggests the anti-communists and (secret) police to carry on collecting information data to be used for new attacks against the KSM.

The latest legal against the KSM attack in 2010

The latest attack against the KSM followed in September 2010 when a new complaint against the KSM was delivered by the Czech anti-communists to the prosecution authority of the Czech Republic.

The accusation refers to the explicitly anti-communist § 405 of the Penal Code, which describes a criminal act of the so called "denial, impugnation, approval and justification of a genocide" for publication of series of articles bringing information on the Katyn events in the period of the Second World War on the internet page of the KSM in 2010. The § 405 of the Penal Code reads literally: "Who publicly denies, impugns, approves of and justifies or is trying to justify Nazi, Communist or other genocide or other crimes against humanity committed by Nazis and Communists will be punished with imprisonment for 6 months up to 3 years." This as well as other legal norms are a codified expression of the state anti-communism of the Czech Republic.

The KSM contributed to the international struggle against the omnipresent anti-communist propaganda that used falsified so called "evidence" continuing the Nazi fabricated propaganda blaming the Soviet Union armed forces of the execution of the Polish Army officers and soldiers in Katyn. It is illustrative that anti-communists acting explicitly as inheritors of a Nazi propaganda are trying to equate in their legal norms Nazism and Communist movement.

The complaint was signed by prominent anti-communists: Jiri Oberfalzer, senator of the ruling right-wing Civic Democratic Party (ODS), Stanislav Novotny, former president of the Police of the Czech Republic and a photographer Antonin Kratochvil.

The KSM was the only organization in the Czech Republic that has opened its media for the publication of the concrete arguments, evidence and testimonies in defence of the historical truth and freedom of scientific research in contradiction to the anti-communist Katyn propaganda campaign. The struggle continues!

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