Czech Communist youth under attack

Shown in the photo is a recent demonstration of the Communist Union of Youth in the Czech Repub lic (KSM) protesting the U.S. war against Iraq. The KSM is the youth organization of the Communist Party (KSCM), a party that won substantial representation in the last parliamentary election there. Last November the Czech government threatened to make the KSM illegal, using both a technical and political excuse for the attack, including that the KSM wrote in a journal that it “struggles for the revolutionary overthrow of the capitalist order by the masses of the working people.” The KSM considers this an attack on the pro-socialist forces in the Czech Republic and asks people internationally to send letters of protest to the Czech government before a March 3 hearing. Messages can be sent by e-mail to [email protected] to register the protest, with a copy to [email protected].

—John Catalinotto