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Czech Wounds Still Open, Communists Face a Ban
NY Times ^ | December 26, 2009 | Dan Bilefsky and Jan Krcmar

Posted on 12/27/2009 4:06:13 AM PST by UAConservative

PRAGUE — For many Czechs, it is a historical reckoning that is 20 years too late.

Two decades after the Velvet Revolution overthrew Communist rule here in 1989, a group of Czech senators is pressing to ban the Communist Party, the only surviving one in the former Soviet bloc in Europe and, to its many critics, a national embarrassment and aberration.

“The Communists ruined this country and oppressed freedom and yet here they are 20 years later in our Parliament,” said David Cerny, the iconoclastic Czech artist, who in 1991 painted a Soviet tank pink, transforming a memorial to the liberation of Czechoslovakia by the Red Army in 1945 into the equivalent of a large toy. “It is a national disgrace. The Communists are endangering the country. The Czechs need to wake up.”

This month senators took the first step, petitioning the government to file a legal complaint with the Supreme Administrative Court, the country’s highest electoral authority, for suspension of the Communist Party’s activities.

While there is an incongruity here — the anti-Communist campaigners say they are acting to defend democracy while working to ban a party that is still doing well in elections — the senators insist that there is a real danger. They say the Communist Party, the third strongest force in the Czech Parliament, remains loyal to undemocratic revolution. And they are calling for it either to disband or to abandon its Marxist call to arms, which they say flouts the Czech Constitution’s insistence that political parties renounce violence.

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS: communism; czech; czechoslovakia; czechrepublic
At least one country has their act together.
1 posted on 12/27/2009 4:06:14 AM PST by UAConservative
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To: UAConservative

Hubert Humphrey wanted to ban the Communist Party in the USA. We should have.


2 posted on 12/27/2009 4:10:57 AM PST by Brugmansian
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To: UAConservative

I would like to ban them in Amerika, but I’m not sure Joe Biden is ready to be president.


3 posted on 12/27/2009 4:12:51 AM PST by NavVet ("You Lie!")
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To: UAConservative

The Times seems ambivalent on this isssue. I wonder if they have any problem with the Germans banning the Nazi Party?


4 posted on 12/27/2009 4:17:13 AM PST by MSF BU (++)
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To: UAConservative
Czech Wounds Still Open, Communists Face a Ban

Were that we as smart as the Czechs.

Communism should carry a death sentence in the USA.

5 posted on 12/27/2009 4:19:02 AM PST by Caipirabob (Communists... Socialists... Democrats...Traitors... Who can tell the difference?)
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To: Brugmansian

They just changed the name to Democrat.


6 posted on 12/27/2009 4:24:58 AM PST by screaminsunshine (!!)
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To: UAConservative

Americans should be so enlightened. They just might be in 2012.


7 posted on 12/27/2009 4:25:25 AM PST by Constitutional Patriot (Socialism is the cancer of humanity.)
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To: Caipirabob

“Communism should carry a death sentence in the USA. “

This would make for many vacancies at all levels of federal government :)


8 posted on 12/27/2009 4:26:26 AM PST by Constitutional Patriot (Socialism is the cancer of humanity.)
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To: UAConservative

My first reaction is that expression of political speech is a right, a fundamental right in our republic. In that light we should let the Left spew their venom and defend their ideas in the marketplace of ideas.

OTOH, the Left has all but completely muzzled the expression of religious beliefs, and is working hard to kill conservative media outlets, of every kind.

The Left are not political opponents. They are the enemy.


9 posted on 12/27/2009 4:39:36 AM PST by Jacquerie (Tyrants should fear for their personal safety.)
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To: UAConservative
While there is an incongruity here — the anti-Communist campaigners say they are acting to defend democracy while working to ban a party that is still doing well in elections — the senators insist that there is a real danger. They say the Communist Party, the third strongest force in the Czech Parliament, remains loyal to undemocratic revolution.

Do Obama's followers still think he is not a Marxist? Obama has had time to put his shadow government in place...will America wake up in time to stop this insanity?

10 posted on 12/27/2009 4:39:56 AM PST by yoe ( Fight organized crime: Re-elect no one...)
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To: Brugmansian

“Hubert Humphrey wanted to ban the Communist Party in the USA. We should have.”

I think he was the last good Liberal Democrat, wasn’t he? Before their party was hijacked by the NWO-run Communist Party.


11 posted on 12/27/2009 4:41:24 AM PST by RoadTest (Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3)
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To: Caipirabob

“Communism should carry a death sentence in the USA. “

Would that you and I ruled!


12 posted on 12/27/2009 4:42:15 AM PST by RoadTest (Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God. John 3:3)
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To: UAConservative
Two decades after the Velvet Revolution overthrew Communist rule here in 1989,

I used to patrol the Czech border with the 2nd ACR. It's hard to believe that it's been 20 years already.

13 posted on 12/27/2009 5:45:26 AM PST by Sarajevo (You're jealous because the voices only talk to me.)
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To: UAConservative
The Communists are endangering the country. The Czechs need to wake up.”

The Communists are endangering the country. The Czech Americans need to wake up.”

Some overpaid NYT editor was asleep at the switch....usually they don't make it this easy to edit!

14 posted on 12/27/2009 5:51:43 AM PST by CRBDeuce (here, while the internet is still free of the Fairness Doctrine)
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