UNLOCKED -- Socialism With a Human Face: The Prague Spring & Its Defeat (Czechoslovak Socialism Part II)

Continuing what has become a series on Czechoslovak Socialism, we dive into the attempt to reform the Czechoslovak system. The official ML narrative and the liberal narrative about the Prague Spring are the same, they say that it was an attempt to re-establish bourgeois democracy. However, it seems clear that the intentions of its participants were the opposite. They appear to have been a genuine attempt to revitalize and push forward the communist project.  The Action Programme of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia https://www.marxists.org/subject/czech/1968/action-programme.htm Stoneman, Anna J. “Socialism With a Human Face: The Leadership and Legacy of the Prague Spring.” The History Teacher49, no. 1 (2015): 103–25.  Prague Spring Archive at MIA (worth browsing for historical first impressions) https://www.marxists.org/subject/czech/index.htm The Prague Spring of 1968: a glimpse of socialism? http://isj.org.uk/the-prague-spring/ Liehm, A. J. (1978). The Prague Spring and Eurocommunism. International Journal, 33(4), 804. doi:10.2307/40201691 Skilling, H. Gordon. "The Prague Spring Reassessed." Slavic Review 38, no. 4 (1979): 663-66. doi:10.2307/2496570. Reform and Counter-reform in Bureaucratic Power https://www.cddc.vt.edu/sionline/si/reform.html Music: Karel Kryl - Veličenstvo kat (English Translation) In a gloomy light of a gothic hall the scared profiteers are gazing into their missals and a horde of slayers is asking for blessing After all the first of the knights is his majesty executioner Aaah look the first of the knights is his Majesty Executioner Priest – the devil who served the mass is wearing a stole made from a hangmans slope Having a bottle of vitriol under the purple rochet The smell of sulfur coming from the mortars is crawling under the red hood of the first from all the knights his Majesty Executioner Aaah to the first of knights look it is his Majesty Executioner On the national flag there is an emblem with guillotine And the barbed wire smells by something decayed In our region is a flock of raven nesting the master hangman reigns these people The king is kneeing infront of Satan eagers to have the sceptre And the rabble is hanging the wise council at the plane tree And the heretic crowd is exhilarated and rejoices After all the first of knights is his Majesty Executioner Aaah the first of knights is his Majesty Executioner At a streetcorner a murderer is holding a lecture about moral Infront of the prison's door the guardians are walking From the military armour plate the black sign proclaims that the first of the knights is his Majesty Executioner Aaah that the first of the knights is his Majesty Executioner Over the government palace rises the flag with guillotine The children love the ice cream cornets The judges were upset about them so they killed their ice cream man A horrible state it was, as you ha Send us a message (sorry we can't respond on here). Support the show Visit the Regrettable Century Merch Shop