We are pleased to announce the English translation of our pamhplet on the Czechoslovak Velvet Revolution of 1989. In 2009, when it was originally published, we wrote: The demise of the Stalinist monopoly in November 1989 presented a relatively open situation… which the working class did not exploit to establish itself as an independent political force. This pamphlet emphasizes that the “socialist regime” was very successful at demobilizing the proletariat, and adds that the working class was prevented from finding its political, subversive face by the vanguard of the “Velvet Revolution”, the Civic Forum. Under its leadership, the working class became a prisoner of the concept of citizenship – and, defenceless as it was, later a passive victim of the infamous “tightening of belts” in the 1990s. The true symbol of November 1989 was no velvet, but rather a straitjacket knit from the civic tricolor.
The pamphlet is available as a free PDF below…
Contents: Chronology — A change along the course of history — Handing over of power: the anatomy — The working class: Captive in the Stalinist experience and the concept of citizenship…
November 1989: The Working Class Trapped Under the Velvet Tricolour
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