International Socialists

At the end of last year, an inspiring struggle broke out for control of Czech TV, the main public broadcaster in the Czech Republic. Czech TV workers have led the struggle with massive support from the Czech people. Unlike previous struggles of the last 10 years, the workers have won significant victories and are confidently fighting for more.

 

The Velvet Revolution of 1989 overthrew the old Stalinist regime and led to expectations of a better life. Such expectations have run aground on rising unemployment, closed hospitals and schools, and a general economic malaise. Some 56% of people want the main political leaders thrown out  and, tragically, support for the former Stalinists has risen to 24 per cent, in the hope of better social policies.

 

An indication of the discontent was seen on 3 December 1999 when 80,000 marched in Prague for an end to the present coalition government. The protest convenors were quite conservative, limiting their demands merely to new elections and pleading futilely for socialists and anarchists not to attend the demonstrations.

 

Unionists too were independently active, with a 2,000-strong rally demanding unpaid factory wages, and the first occupation strike since the 1989 Velvet Revolution at the Kohinoor mine in Northern Bohemia.

 

The same discontent has led to pressures at Czech TV, culminating in the present struggle. Right-wing political interference and censorship of programme content has been an issue for a number of years.

 

When one of the leaders of the coalition government, Vaclav Klaus, faced tough questioning in a current affairs programme in 1998, the head of Czech TV News was sacked. There were further sackings more recently, when staff refused to read out a two-hour government political statement.

 

The government-appointed Czech TV council responded by appointing Jiri Hodac to general manager on 22 December. Hodac was expected to tame any left-wing ideas at Czech TV and to prepare it for privatisation.

 

Some 1,400 staff immediately went on strike, demanding his resignation. Journalists began picketing Hodac-controlled news broadcasts, appearing behind the newsreaders in T-shirts emblazoned with political slogans.

 

Encouraged by massive popular support, the strikers began producing their own version of the news, playing it to daily demonstrations of 5,000-10,000 on projectors outside the news studios  to the accompaniment of huge cheers or howls, depending on the content.

 

Czech TV workers occupied the news studios on 24 December, forced out security guards, and took over the transmitters after Czech telecommunications workers refused to transmit management's propaganda. The workers' news broadcasts appeared with a very uncorporate logo - the word Strike - in the top left-hand corner.

 

There have been mass demonstrations in support. Some 100,000-200,000 rallied on 3 January, the biggest demonstration since the Velvet Revolution. A similar number marched on 11 January and further weekly demonstrations were planned. The slogan "1968, 1989, 2001" - referring to heroic Czech struggles for freedom in the past - began to be taken up.

 

Finally the strike forced the resignation of Hodac on 11 January. Striking Czech TV workers then confidently upped their demands: the sacking of the entire management, along with the government-appointed council that oversees Czech TV.

 

In some ways the workers' demands are contradictory, being against both government control and privatisation. The only resolution is a TV council that is directly elected by the Czech people - and there are demands for such control already. These demands put the Czech government in an increasingly untenable position.

 

Some anarchists involved in the Prague S26 protests dismissed the Czech TV strike as a "power struggle between vested interests." Such an attitude is counter-productive. The logic of the Czech TV workers' struggle is towards democratisation of both the TV station and its programme content. This can only mean more positive coverage for actions like S26 in the future.

 

The success of the struggle so far has built confidence among the Left in the Czech Republic generally. It has also opened up splits in the coalition government and exposed its fundamental weakness in the face of a united workers' struggle. We can only hope that such trends are built upon and spread.