from:— The Action Programme Of The Communist Party Of Czechoslovakia

The main thing is to reform the whole political system so that it will permit the dynamic development of socialist social relations, combine broad democracy with a scientific, highly qualified management, strengthen the social order, stabilize socialist relations and maintain social discipline. The basic structure of the political system must, at the same time, provide firm guarantees against a return to the old methods of subjectivism and highhandedness from a position of power. Party activity has, so far, not been turned systematically to that end. in fact, obstacles have frequently been put in the way of such efforts. Am these changes necessarily call for commencement of work on a new Czechoslovak constitution so that the draft of the new constitution may be thoroughly discussed among professionals and in public in all important points and submitted to the National Assembly shortly after the Party Congress.

But we consider it indispensable to change the present state of things right now, even before the 14th Congress, so that the development of socialism and its inner dynamics are not hampered by the outdated factors in the political system. Our democracy must provide more room for the activity of every individual, every collective, every link in the management, both at lower and higher levels, and in the centre, too. People must have more opportunity to think for themselves and express their opinions. We must radically change the practices that turn the people's initiative and critical comments and suggestions from below into words that meet with the proverbial deaf ear. We must see to it that the incompetent but adaptive (to anything) people are really replaced by those who strive for socialism, who are concerned with its fate and progress, with the interests and needs of others, and not with their Own power or advantages. This will affect people both "above" and "below". It is going to be a complicated process taking some time. It is necessary to make clear everywhere—at all levels of management, in the Party, in State and economic bodies and in social organizations—which body or which official or which worker is realty responsible, for what, where to look for guarantees of improvement, where to change institutions, where the working methods, and where to replace individuals. The attitude of individual Party officials to new tasks and methods, their capability of carrying the new policy into practice, must he the basic political criterion.

No responsibility without right Who, which body and which official is responsible for what, what are his rights and duties, must be perfectly clear in all our system of management for the future, and we consider this to be (he basic prerequisite for correct development To this end, each component part should have its own independent position. Substitution and interchanging of state bodies, agencies of economic and social organizations by Party bodies must be completely stopped. Party resolutions are binding for the communists working in these bodies, but the policy, directing activities, and responsibility of the state economic, and social organizations are independent. The communists active in these bodies and organizations must take the initiative and see that the stale and economic bodies as well as social organizations (notably the Trade Unions, the Czechoslovak Union of Youth, etc.) take the problem of their activties and responsibilities into their own hands.

The whole National Front, the political parties which form it, and the social organizations. will take part in the creation of state policy. The political parties of the National. Front are partners whose political work is based on the joint political programme of the National Front and is naturally bound by the Constitution of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic, is fully based on the socialist character of social relations in our country. The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia considers the National Front to be a political platform which does not separate the political parties into the government and the opposition in the sense that opposition would be created to the state policy as the policy of the whole National Front and a struggle for political power in the state were to exist. Possible differences in the viewpoints of individual component parts of the National Front, or divergency of views as to the policy of the state, are all to be settled on the ba ol the common socialist conception of the National Front policy by way way of political agreement and unification of all component parts of the National Front. Formation of political forces striving to negate this concept of the National Front, to remove the National Front as a whole from politi power, was ruled out as long ago at 19 after the tragic experience of both our nations with the prewar political development of the then Czechoslovak Republic; it is naturally unacceptable for our present republic.

The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia considers the political management of the Marxist-Leninist concept of the development of socialism as a precondition for the right development of our socialist society. It will assert the Marxist-Leninist concept as the leading political principle in the National Front and in all our political system by seeking, through the means of political work. such support in all the component parts of our system and directly among the masses of workers and all working people that will ensure its leading role in a democratic way.

Voluntary social organizations of the working people cannot replace political parties, but the contrary is also true: political parties in our country cannot exclude commoninterest organizations of workers and other working people from directly influencing state policy its creation and application. Socialist state power cannot be monopolized either by a single party, or by a coalition of parties. It must be open to all political organizations of the people The Communist Party of Czechoslovakia will use every means to develop such forms of political life that will ensure the expression of the direct say and will of the working class and all working people in political decision-taking in our country.

The whole existing organization, forms of activties, and incorporation of the various organizations in the National Front must be revised in principle under the new conditions and built up so that the National Front may carry out the qualitatively new tasks. The National Front as a whole and all its component parts must be allowed independent rights and their own responsibility for the management of our country and society.

Voluntary social organizations must be based on really voluntary membership and activity. People join these organization be cause they express their interests therefore they have the right to choose their own officials and representatives who cannot be appointed from outside. These principles should be the foundation of our unified mass organizations the activities of which are still indispensable but which should meet, by their structure, their working methods and their ties with their members, the new social conditions.

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The implementation of constitutional freedoms of asembly and association must be ensured this year so that the possibility of setting up voluntary organizations, specialinterest associations, societies, etc. is guaranteed by law to meet the actual interests and needs of various strata and categories of our citizens, without bureaucratic interference and without monopoly of any individual organization. Any restrictions in this respect can be imposed only by law and only the law can stipulate what is anti-social, forbidden. or punishable. Freedoms guaranteed by law are applicable in this sense, in compliance with the constitution, also to citizens of individual creeds and religious demoninations.

The effective influence of views and opinions of the working people on all our policy, opposition to all tendencies to suppress the criticism and initiative of the people, cannot be guaranteed if we do not ensure constitution-based freedom of speech and all political and personal rights of all citizens, systematically and consistently, by all legal means available. Socialism cannot mean only liberation of the working people from the domination of exploiting class relations, but must make more provisions for a fuller life of the personality than any bourgeois democracy. The working people, who are no longer ordered about by any class of exploiters, can no longer be prescribed by any arbitrary interpretation from a position of power, what information they may or may not be given, which of their opinions can or cannot be expressed publicly, where public opinion may play a role and where not. Public opinion polls must be systematically used in preparing important decisions and the main results of the research are to be published. Any restriction may be imposed only on the basis of a law stipulating what is anti-social—which in our country is mainly the criminal law. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia considers it necessary to define more exactly than hitherto in the shortest possible time by a press law. when a state body can forbid the propagation of certain information (in the press, radio, television, etc.) and exclude the possibility of preliminary factual censorship. It is necessary to overcome the holding up, distortion, and incompleteness of information, to remove any unwarranted secrecy of political and economic facts, to publish the annual balance sheets of enterprises, to publish even alternatives to various suggestions and measures, to extend the import and sale of foreign press. Leading representatives of state, social and cultural organisations are obliged to organize regular press conference and give their views on topical issues on televisoin, radio, and in the press. In the press, it is necessary to make a distinction between official standpoints of state. Party and journalist bodies; the Party press especially must express the Party's own life, development and criticisms of various opinions among the communists, etc., and cannot be made fully identical with the official view-points of the state.

The Party realizes that ideological antagonists of socialism may try to abuse the process of democratization. At the present stage of development and under the conditions of our country, we insist on the principle that bourgeois ideology can be challenged only in open ideological struggle before all of the people. It is possible to win over people for the ideas and policy of the Party only by struggle based on the practical activity of communists lor the benefit of the people, on truthful and complete information, and on scientific analysis. We trust that in such a struggle, all sections of our society will contribute actively towards the victory of truth, which is on the side of socialism.

At present the activity and responsibility of publishing houses, chief editors, of all Party members and progressive staff of mass communication media, must grow to push through socialist ideals and to put into effect the policy of the Party, of the National Front. and of the State.

Legal norms must guarantee more exactly the freedom of speech of minority interests and opinions also (again within the framework of socialist laws and in harmony with the principle that decisions are taken in accordance with the will of the majority). The constitutional freedom of movement particularly the travelling of our citizens abroad, must be precisely guaranteed by law; in particular, this means that a citizen should have the legal right to long-term or permanent sojourn abroad and that people should not be groundlessly placed in the position of emigrants; at the same lime it is necessary to protect by law the interests of the state. for example, as regards the drain of some categories of specialists, etc.

We must gradually solve in the whole legal code the task of how to protect in a better and more consistent way the personal rights and properly of citizens, we must especially remove those stipulations that virtually put individual citizens at a disadvantage against the state and other institutions. We must in future prevent various institutions from disregarding personal rights and the interests of individual citizens as far as personal ownership of family houses, gardens, etc, is concerned. It will be necessary to adopt, in the shortest possible time, the long-prepared law on compensation for any damage caused to any individual or to an organization by an unlawful decision of a state organ.

It is a serious fact that hitherto the rehabilitation of people—both communists and non-communists—who were the victims of legal violations in the past years, has not been always carried out in all its political and civic consequences. On the initiative of the Communist Party Central Committee bodies, an investigation is under way as to why the respective Party resolutions have not been fully carried out, and measures are being taken to ensure that the wrongs of the past are made good wherever it has not been done yet. No one having the slightest personal reason from his own past activity for slowing down the rectification may be either in the political bodies, or prosecutor's and court offices that are to rectify the past unlawful deeds.

The Party realises that people unlawfully condemned and persecuted cannot regain the lost years of their life; it will, however, do its best to remove any shadow of the mistrust and humiliation to which the families and relatives of those affected were often subjected, and will resolutely ensure that such persecuted people have every opportunity of showing their worth in work, in public life, and in political activities. It goes without saying that even in carrying out full rehabilitation of people, we cannot change the consequences of revolutionary measures made in the past years in accordance with the spirit of class law aimed against the bour-geoise, its property, economic, and social supports. The whole problem of a rectification of past repressions must be approached with the full responsibility of the state bodies concerned, and based on legal regulations; the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia supports the proposals that the procedure in these questions and the problems of legal consequences be incorporated in a special law.

A wide democratic concept of the political and personal rights of citizens, their legal and political safeguards, are considered by the Party to be a prerequisite for the necessary strengthening of social discipline and order, for a stabilization of socialist social relations. A selfish comprehension of civil rights, an attitude to social property according to the principle "it's not my concern", a preferring of particular interests over those of the wholesociety—all these are features which communists will oppose with all their might.

The real purpose of democracy must be the achievement of better results of practical work based on wider possibilities of purposeful activity, in order to carry out the interests and neeeds of the people. Democracy cannot be identified with general speechmaking, cannot be understood in opposition to discipline, professionalism, and effectiveness of management. But arbitrariness and obscure stipulation of rights and duties makes such a development impossible. It leads to irresponsibility, to a feeling of uncertainly, and hence also to indifference towards public interests and needs. On the other hand, it is a more profound democracy and its measure of civic freedom that will help socialism to prove its superiority over the limited bourgeois democracy and will make it an attractive example for progressive movements even in industrially advanced countries with democratic traditions.

In the whole stale and political system it is necessary to create, purposefully, such relations and rules that would, on the one hand, provide the necessary safeguards to professional officials in their functions and, on the other hand, enable the necessary replacement of officials who can no longer cope with their work by professionally and politically more competent people. This means to establish legal conditions for the recall of responsible officials and to provide legal guarantees of decent conditions for those who are leaving their posts through the normal way of replacement, so that their departure should not amount to a "drop" in their material and moral-political standing.

The Party policy is based on the principle that no undue concentration of power must occur, throughout the state machinery, in one sector, one body, or in a single individual. It is necessary to provide for such a division of power and such a system of mutual supervision that any faults or encroachments of any of its links are rectified in time, by the activities of another link. This principle must be applied not only to relations between the elected and executive bodies, but also to the inner relations of the state administration machinery and to the standing and activities of courts of law.

This principle is infringed mainly by undue concentration of duties in the existing ministry of the interior. The Party thinks it necessary to make of it a ministry for internal state administration including the administration of public security. The schedule that in our state was traditionally within the jurisdiction of other bodies and with the passage of time has being incorporated into the ministry of the interior, must he withdrawn from it. It is necessary to elaborate proposals as soon possible passing on the main responsibility for investigation to the courts of law; separating prison administration from the security force, and handing over of press law administration. of archives, etc. to other state bodies.

The Party considers the problem of a correct incorporation of the security force in the state as politically very important. The security of our Lives will only benefit, if everything is eliminated that helps to maintain a public view of the security force marred by the past period of law violations and by the privileged position of the security force in the political system. That past period impaired the progressive traditions of our security force as a force advancing side by side with our people. These traditions must be renewed. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia deems it necessary to change the organization of the security force and to split the joint organization into two mutually independent parts—Stale Security and Public Security. The State Security service must have such a status, organizational structure, numerical state, equipment, methods of work, and qualifications which are in keeping with its work of defending the state from the activities of enemy centres abroad. Every citizen who has not been culpable in this respect must know with certainty that his political convictions and opinions, his personal beliefs and activities, cannot be the object of attention of the bodies of the State Security service. The Party declares clearly that this apparatus should not be directed and used to solve internal political questions and controversies in socialist society.

The Public Security service will fulfil tasks in combatting crime and in the protection of public order; for this its organization. numerical state, and methods of work must be adapated. The Public Security force must be better equipped and strengthened; its functions in the defence of public order must be exactly laid down by law and. in their fulfilment, the service will be directed by the national committees. Legal norms must create clearer relations of control over the security force by the government as a whole and by the National Assembly.

It is necessary to devote the appropriate care to carrying out the defence policy in our state. In this connection it is necessary to work for our active share in the conception of the military doctrine of the Warsaw Treats countries, the strengthening of the defence potential of our country in harmony with its needs and possibilities, a uniform complex understanding of the questions of defence with all problems of the building of socialism in the whole of our policy, including defence training.

The legal policy of the Party is based on the principle that in a dispute over right (including administrative decisions of state bodies) the basic guarantee of legality is proceedings in court which are independent of political factors and are bound by law The application of this principle requires a strengthening of the whole social and political role and importance of courts of law in our society.