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Prague, August 21, 1968

In 1964-through-1968 the Prague Spring took place when democracy started to bloom in the country under imposed Communism. It was a period of political liberalization, in then Czechoslovakia, from the Soviet Union domination. On January 5, 1968, the reformist Alexander Dubek was elected First Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KS), and he continued in that post until August 21, 1968 when the Soviet Union and other members of the Warsaw Pact invaded the country to halt the reforms.

During my visit to Prague

I happened to be in Prague on August 21, 2017. My hotel location was not too far from the Wenceslas Square-in Czech Vclavsk nmst, where Vclav Havel, the 1st President of the Czech Republic, called for the Prague Spring. That morning I took a long walk and when I arrived at the Vclavsk nmst square I saw media commotion that arose my curiosity and here is the result of that curiosity.

The former Member of Parliament, Michael Kocb

At the square I was introduced to Michael Kocb, a Czech composer, singer and political activist and a friend of world renowned musician, Frank Zappa.

According to Mr. Kocb, the freedom of the Czech Republic is in a limbo; it is by far not the democracy the people deserve.

Mr. Kocb repeats the much known to Czechs history. On August 21st, 1968, 500,000 Soviet and Polish soldiers, accompanied by 6,300 tanks and 830 military planes, a military force three times the size of then the Czechoslovakian army, invaded the country to suppress the Czech Spring. The result, 137 Czechs and Slovaks lost their life and 500,000 Czechs became refugees. Bitterly he tells me that only, then Yugoslavia, now Slovenia, Croatia, Serbia, Herzegovina, Montenegro, Kosovo, Macedonia, supported the Czechs dissention, which the Soviet Union opposed, and thus the invasion.

As expected from its deplorable inactions or actions, with the Veto allowance to Russia, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) did not help the freedom fighters and in this case the United States support was missing but joined in support of free Czechs later on.

On October 26th, 1968, the Czech Parliament signed an agreement with the Soviets in which 75,000 Soviet soldiers and their families will be stationed in Czechoslovakia. This contract ceased to exist on March 26th, 1990.

In the early 1990s, Mr. Kocb, then a Member of Parliament and acting Deputy Chair of the Freedom Committee, led a parliament commission which negotiated the repatriation of Soviet soldiers from Czechoslovakia and breaking the contract with the Soviets. Mr. Kocb claims that he also found a Soviet nuclear facility on Czech land, which the Soviets denied existed. On June 30th, 1991, the Czechs kicked the Russians out of their land and though was negotiated and agreed, Russia never compensated the Czechs for its oppression and atrocities but the Czech nation comforts itself with being a free nation.

Mr. Kocb was a friend of late Vclav Havel, the legendary symbol of the Czech Republics liberty. Mr. Havel was the new republic president and Mr. Kocb was his personal advisor for over a decade. Mr. Kocb is also a friend of current president Mr. Milo Zeman and supported him. He seemed to be one of us but he has changed, Mr. Kocb expressed his disappointment in his friend and the reason for the movement to keep the Czech Republic clean of communism.

The Democracy is in question

The current Czech Republic president is Milo Zeman and his proclivity to China and Mr. Putin of Russia is a worrisome to every freedom loving Czech.

One who worries a great deal about the encroaching communism in the Czech Republic is Mr. Peter Marek, the head of a growing civil movement to find justice for those who communism hurt. Mr. Marek is dissatisfied of the current winds blowing from the current presidents palace. After Communism collapsed and we became a democracy so little was done, if at all, to punish the communists and their communism system, which hurt so many, Mr. Marek claims. He wants to find justice for those who were persecuted and murdered during the Communist era. Society is developing with a broken spine, Mr. Marek shared his worrisome. In his opinion, tolerance to Communism and its philosophy is deeply imbedded in the Czech Republic education system and that has to change, must come to an end.

The movement Mr. Marek heads goal is to change the public view through education. First the Czech public and then expand its actions beyond the Czech Republic borders.

In the West Communism is not detested as much as Nazism and it is very well alive, Mr. Marek points to a view that should worry every freedom loving individual in the liberated from the Communism yoke Czech Republic.

Knowing what is taking place in so many USA universities, I left Pragues new town Vclavsk-Wenceslas Square ready to join this initiative. I hope this article will light some fire under people who seek real freedom.

See the article here:
Prague to the World: Without Communism - NewsBlaze (registration) (blog)

Growing up, I always associated communism with being a bad thing and capitalism as being great. Sometimes in life, we just accept what were told if enough people are saying the same thing until we dig a bit deeper to find out for ourselves why we believe it.Today I question if the definitions are mixed up, not my thinking. I spoke to a few Cuban natives who helped put things in perspective for me when I asked them if they had the opportunity to come to the U.S. tomorrow, would they? The response was the same amongst all; an emphatic NO!

One lady explained to me that her health condition is one main reason why she wouldnt go. She went on to say that in Cuba, the government provides free healthcare and free education. She even spoke about how once her roof was leaking, the rain was coming in, and the government stepped in to take care of it.

She told me how freedom for her was having her family and friends around her; this was all she needed in life.

I spoke to a gentleman who was sipping on his rum and enjoying a cigarette when we walked up. I asked him the same questions about feeling free in Cuba and whether he would want to come to the states. He chuckled and said they have their problems in Cuba but he is content and he loves his life. He stated that hes fine with following the path that life has taken him. I equated this statement to one of my favorite poets, Mark Nepo, who speaks about not swimming upstream but to go with the current.

These people may not be able to pull their BMWs or Teslas into the nearest Shell or Chevron to fill up but instead, have to trek for kilometers to get the gas and bring it back in what feels like triple-digit weather. The richness they seem to have that we lack is peace. The only question I have for today is the little boy in I took a photo of with his arms crossed. I wonder if he will grow up to be Tesla or the guy trekking to get gas.

Perhaps while theyre looking through a 1950s television screen, they are seeing a much bigger picture than the latest and future inventions Silicon Valley has to offer.

Read more here:
Communism, bad for whom? - The Pioneer

Insisting there is a spooky-bad innate authoritarianism within a leftwing opposition is not so much a bold new direction for the Liberals as it is an act of projection. Photograph: Mick Tsikas/AAP

A spectre is haunting Australian politics the spectre of communism. All the powers of old conservatism have entered into a holy alliance to exorcise this spectre. By which I mean Mathias Cormann and Eric Abetz, responsible for the two legit funniest political pronouncements this week.

Cormanns announcement to the Sydney Institute Wednesday night claimed that the policies of Bill Shorten were akin to communist East Germany. The issue is not that Shortens asking the electorate to vote into existence an Australian Stasi, because he isnt, or planning to seize all private property, because he wont, nor building a wall to separate leafy, lefty Melbourne from the rest of the country. Please as if anyone would want to be trapped in with all those Greens.

Its that Bill Shorten wants to reform the Australian tax system so Coalition style $65bn tax exonerations arent given to a corporate community whose profits are already up 40% on last year. Its a situation with which East Germany was, conspicuously, unencumbered.

This is no liquidation of the kulaks. Its a basic platform of redistributive egalitarianism. And its one that the majority of Australian kulaks, proletarians and rational economic agents can get behind. At least, thats what the polls have been saying for 18 straight weeks in a row.

Its those polls that are informing the relentless and personal attacks on Shorten like Cormanns on Wednesday. The Labor leaders lacklustre preferred PM polling is all a Coalition beset by missteps, mistakes, mismanagement and majority-threatening fifth-columnist sleeper agents from New Zealand New Zealand! has left to seize upon.

But in the established tradition of this government, the strategy seems somewhat clandestine, and unwisely so. The Coalition has spent four years attacking Shortens willingness to work with employers when he was a union leader. Turnbull engages in outright mockery of his upstart temerity to maintain relations with the big end of town. Their new initiative of red baiting Comrade Bill the Workers Friend is an effective remedy to the effects of their own propaganda. As much, certainly, as Malcolm Turnbull himself spending the week making political appeals to the same people he condemned Shorten for even knowing.

Turnbull and his benches of blue-tie bunyip bourgeoisie, of course, have never met a mistake they couldnt make at least twice. Just ask Barnaby Joyce and Fiona Nash. Or Bronwyn Bishop and Sussan Ley.

Ive heard somewhere that history repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second time as farce. Eric Abetz has heard it, too, for, with the precision of a professional clown, Tasmanias favourite entertainer doubled down on Cormanns comments. I shit you not, Bill Shorten surely knew of GetUp! Soviet funding: Eric Abetz was an actual headline that appeared in the actual Australian actual newspaper on Thursday. Uncle Erics concern is the donation of $10,000 made to activist group GetUp! by an organisation called The USSR Australia Friendship Society.

2006. A full fifteen years after the collapse of the Soviet Union.

Is this like the time the banned anarchist society at Macquarie Uni named itself The Bert Newtown Club, but in reverse? Are they the same guys? Theres a certain kind of former campus radical who maintains both left wing politics and a wacky sense of humour into their productive relations in later life ahem! I cant help but wonder if The USSR Australian Friendship Society of 2006 might be it. The alternative is a political movement whose moment has past, whose activist opportunities have shuttered and whose last grasp at relevancy was a handout of cash to their last remaining allies.

You know, sort of like the Coalition and the business community.

Insisting there is a spooky-bad innate authoritarianism within a leftwing opposition is not so much a bold new direction for the Liberals as it is an act of projection. Its the Coalitions George Brandis whos building the Australian surveillance state. Its Peter Dutton whos leading the Security Super Mega McMinistry. The building of walls is a current fetish on the right side of politics, not the left.

Not to mention that judging the intimate lives of others, allowing different laws to govern minority groups and giving license to propaganda hate campaigns that demonise sections of the community sounds a lot more like well, Eric-Abetz-and-friends personal achievement in enforcing the loathsome marriage equality postal survey debacle.

Wherever Turnbulls people may individually sit on this specific issue, the brand portrayed is now so poisonously illiberal, theyve enabled Shorten to stake a claim on Australias centre even as leftward zeitgeist that flowed behind Corbyn and Sanders is allowing Labor to articulate in its own words not the totalitarianism of East Germany, but the best traditions of its own democratic and inclusive leftwing heritage.

And this is the problem even Cormann admits he has. The Berlin Wall came down 28 years ago, which means roughly 18% of Australians enrolled to vote were born after the fall of the Berlin Wall, he said Wednesday night. Cold War propaganda doesnt work on diverse-media Australian generations who can see the inequality increasing around them and with sober senses just arent satisfied with the politics of more-of-the-same.

Dont Labor know it, too. Bill Shortens acting as if hes already won the next election! Cormann wailed to his comrades. Jesus, if sabre-rattling at the invisible armies of a dead empire is all youve got left, Mr Cormann why wouldnt he?

Go here to read the rest:
Is sabre-rattling at the spectre of communism all you've got left, Mathias Cormann? - The Guardian

During the past few months, many in the media, as well as a number of political figures, have pushed the idea that Americans have a binary choice between communism and white nationalism. In Charlottesville, Virginia, some outlets portray Antifa and other communists as some sort of protector and savior against evil white nationalists. Other figures argue that even though white nationalist ideology is despicable, that people should side with them in the situation. However, ultimately, there isnt a good side with either of them. In essence, they are two sides of the same coin, desiring basically the same thing. And by giving such an enormous amount of attention to one another, they both gain what they really want- attention to both sides that then accomplishes their primary goal of just burning everything to the ground to start over. As long as they both clash, they create a choose your side scenario for a good many people.

At their core, fascism and communism have the same basic goal to eliminate the idea of the individual and focus instead on the collective. Fascists have an idea of a protected class of people in mind that can be based on race or national identity. Communists have a protected group of people in mind based upon economic station. Both, in search of protecting their chosen class of people, desire to eliminate individual identity in favor of a group identity. If you do not belong to their chosen protectorate group, then you must be driven down to a subjugate status, driven away from the national borders, or in an extreme case, eliminated entirely. The end result of both is a ruling authoritarian regime that includes favoritism for their chosen class of people, viewed through the lens of a group identity where everyone else is an enemy.

Collective thinking is a dangerous game. Once people are deemed to be identified as groups of people rather than as individuals, it becomes easier to see them as less human. People wonder how Hitler could have so callously murdered millions for the sole reason of their perceived race, or how Stalin could have purposefully starved millions to death in the name of the greater good. Its because once people no longer have their individual identity, the group to which they belong becomes a faceless mass that portrays more animal than human. It becomes far easier to ignore an individuals humanity in favor of serving the protected class. The thinking becomes, Either we survive as a group identity or this other group of people will overtake us. So, the murders and death camps begin.

The reason people fall prey to collectivism is because it is so seemingly enticing in the beginning. A group of people is shown to be downtrodden and victims of a larger group or class of people. Instances of a larger, almost conspiratorial, movement against them are demonstrated in the rhetoric of either fascists or communists and the roots take hold. Its easy to blame a faceless mass for your problems, because without focusing on individuals, there isnt a way to tie things directly to any one person. If you come to believe you are a victim of a group of people rather than situations or specific individuals, then collectivism easily sets in. The progression from the idea that you are a part of a group suppressed by another group (or groups) easily leads to a path of wanting to either separate from, subjugate, or destroy the other group. Collectivism is easy individualism is difficult, but far more rewarding.

Americans, as well as much of the world, are being pulled into a sham debate. One that pits fascists against communists and asks which is the lesser evil. The sham is that both are evil and that there is a very attractive alternative. The binary option is not fascism vs. communism. It is individualism vs. collectivism. Most people like neither fascists nor communists and cannot conceive of aligning themselves with either one. So, ignore the rhetoric being spouted by the main stream of media and political discussion. Dont allow fringe groups to burn our system to the ground. By giving them the attention and platform to spread their hatred, their groups grow in number. Avoid the group think of the collective. Focus on what is best for individuals as individuals. The most minor, underserved, and unrecognized class of people in the world is the individual. When you find yourself not siding with either evil, then side with the people who support individualism.

This post was written by Danny Chabino.

The views expressed here belong to the author and do not necessarily reflect our views and opinions.

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Excerpt from:
Red Dirt Liberty Report: Communists vs. Nazis - Being Libertarian

Victims of communism and Nazism remembered on Black Ribbon Day, 77 years after the signing of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, Aug. 23.

"At a time when the fundamental values of the European Union are openly questioned by the rise of far-right movements and neo-Nazi parties across Europe, the above-mentioned initiative is very unfortunate,"Kontonis said in his letter to the organizers of the conference, which was also quoted in the Greek media.

"The initiative to organize a conference with this specific content and title sends a wrong and dangerous political message that is the result of the agreements that followed the Second World War, revives the Cold War climate that brought so much suffering to Europe, runs contrary to the values of the EU, and certainly does not reflect the view of the Greek government and the Greek people, which is that Nazism and Communism could never exist as the two parts of the same equation," the minister said.

"The horror we lived through Nazism had a single version, the one we described above," Kontonis continued. "Communism, on the contrary, gave birth to dozens of ideological trends, one of which was Euro-communism, born in a communist regime during the Prague Spring period, in order to combine socialism with democracy and freedom."

The European Parliament in 2009 declared Aug. 23 as the European Day of Remembrance for Victims of Communist and Nazi Regimes, 70 years after the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop pact on that day in 1939.

Estonia has invited representatives of EU member states and Eastern Partnership countries to participate in the conference to be held in Tallinn on Wednesday.

Greek Minister of Justice Stavros Kontonis is a member of the prime minister's party Coalition of the Radical Left, popularly known by its syllabic abbreviation Syriza.

See the article here:
Greek minister turns down invitation to conference on crimes of communism - ERR News