NEW EVIDENCE ON THE CZECH CURRENCY RIOTS

Press, Volume XC, Issue 27405, 19 July 1954, Page 8

NEW EVIDENCE ON THE CZECH CURRENCY RIOTS

RESTIVENESS BEHIND THE CURTAIN

[By the Vienna Correspondent of “The Times")

Reliable eye-witness reports reaching the West during past months shed new light on the disturbances in Czechoslovakia which followed the currency reform on June 1 last year. Taken together with Communist press reports, they indicate that the most violent anti-Soviet and a^^SJTeSst 1 demonstrations yet reported fromeastern Europe, apart -from the Berlin riots, took place. Bitterness over the reform, regarded as downright robbery, was expressed in strikes, demonstrations, and damage *o industoa. plant and Government property in Pil sen, Ostrava, Prague, Brno Bratislava and other parts of the country. The Czechoslovak government, after vainlv trying to hush up the disturb ancesT decided to follow the example of East Berlin and blame them ot the “former bourgeoisie and subversive agents from abroad. ■ It is a que. tion of annihilating the subversive plans of reactionary agents wherever they are manifest, alike in Pilsen or Berlin/’ Mr Zapotocky, thej Czechoslovak President, said on July 5. In fact, the June disturbances appear to have been the spontaneous and uncoordinated reaction of Czech workei. to the loss of their savings. Mr Zapotocky’s linking of Pilsen with Berlin is a measure of ■ with which the Communist Government viewed events there, which were thus described “ the PilsenCommunist newspaper, Pravda . The worK ers of Pilsen were surprised by the attack of the bourgeoisie; they did not at once appreciate its extent and did not develop against it such a counter assembly as would have crushed provocation right at the start. It was only when the organisers of the antiState demonstrations fully revealed themselves by their riots that our workers realised the threatening dan ger and liquidated the rioters with the assistance of security units.’ Start in Skoda Works

The truth seems to be that the Pilse.n disorders were largely instigated by the workers of the V.I. Lenin —the i° r mer Skoda —works and that only after about nine hours of noting was the situation brought under control by a military force including tanks. Various eye-witnesses agree that the demonstrations began about 9 a.m on June 1. when a number of workers succeeded in ramming the Fourth gate of the Lenin works at Placka street. The factory militia made some show of resistance but were overcome. The rioters, who by this time had attracted many others, moved to the main square and shouted slogans ' against the currency reform in front of the town hall. When the chairman of the Pilsen National Committee (local authority) attempted to address the crowd, estimated by one observer as about ouvu. he was shouted down and withdrew. The building was then stormed and the windows broken. Some of the rioters entered the building and used the local loud-speaker system .to make speeches demanding free elections and to be rid of the Communist Government. The Soviet flag on the building was torn down, busts of Stalin and Gottwald and other Russian and Czechoslovak Communist leaders were thrown into the square and trampled upon, and documents and papers were thrown out to the crowd, who made a bonfire of them. Later a large picture of President Benes was put up on the town hall. Some members ot the militia were seen to mingle with the crowds. In another part of the town a crowd burnt a sign saying “Long Live the Soviet Union” in front of the Thomas Masaryk monument, sang hymns, and shouted anti-Government slogans. From time to time a small aircraft flew overhead, presumably manned by security personnel taking photographs of the demonstrators for later identification. About noon, when some of the rioters returned home for food, a unit of the border guard cleared the main square and attempted to hold it against the crowds on their return, but with limited success. Although they had fixed bayonets they did not use them against the crowd. One or two S.T.B. (State Secret Security) officers received injuries, but casualties on either side do not appear to have been very heavy. Shots were .fired, but it is not known whether they were aimed at the crowd.

The rioters continued to shout to‘j Government slogans and to do minnr damage in the centre of the town unt? the arrival about 4 pm. of a militaj! force with tanks, motor-cycles, IorSS and some artillery. The square war cleared and a number of the rioten arrested. The troops continued tn occupy the square during the night- thn guards at all entrances of the Skodn works were reinforced. About 8 nrn the Communists organised a “swm taneous” counter-demonstration ki some 80 workers who marched to thi Masaryk monument and destroyed it The only report of the davV events in the Pilsen newspaner “Pravda,” on the following day a short article describing the urn. Government demonstrations. During the following weeks troon« guarded the main vantage points in tC town and patrolled the streets whilZ investigating committees visited al’ enterprises to identify workers who were not at work on June 1. Man? arrests were made. Skoda works employees who told the committees that the riots were instigated and led bv the former bourgeoisie and were able to give the names of ringleaders were released without punishment. Miners on Strike Miners at many pits in the Ostrava area went on strike on hearing the news of the currency reform; when they were induced a few days later to return to work they adopted “go slow” tactics. Already hard hit by the reform, as they receive high wages, thev were further incensed by the fact that the local authorities had in previous weeks displayed placards denying rumours of an impeding “currency de. valuation,” blaming then) on the “class enemy.” Scenes were reported in a number of towns in which some party members even publicly tore up their party cards and flung them and currency notes into the faces of local officials.

About 10,000 workers, includins Communists, at the Tatra works, not far from Ostrava, also went on strike when they heard the news of the reform about 10 p.m. on Sunday, May 31 according to a former employee. Tlie factory militia and the S.TB personnel did not interfere in the strike, which lasted two days, and it was largely due to their passivity that no serious acts of violence took place. The former employee said the workers would have been only too glad if the S.T.B. had attempted to enforce a return to work as they had been “out for blood.” The action at the Tatra works was not isolated on June 6; “Nova Svoboda,” the provincial party newspaper of Ostrava, mentioned various places, including Vaclav, Zofie, and the Pionyr mines, the Gustav Kliment and Bohumin steel works, and the Stalingrad steel works at Liskovec as the scenes of disorders. Transport workers were apparently among the disaffected. Passive Resistance Strikes lasting from a few hours to one or two days also took place in many factories and industrial concerns in other parts of Czechoslovakia. Besistance was generally passive, although one or two instances of arrest after minor riots are reported. In Brno workers in at least six factories struck on the morning of June 1. Several persons were -arrested afte fighting had broken out between Communist and non-Communst railway employees. In Bratislava there were violent protests and mihor disturbances in toe streets but no strikes; 32 workers were reported to have been arrested cc charges of damaging machinery. Leave fot the 5.N.8., the National Security Corps, and the S.TB. was cancelled and special precautions taken, including guarding of radio installations. A strike was organised at the Text- , liana works at Liberec during June ' 3-4, the leaders of which were suteevquently arrested. Work also stopped at the Silka textile factory in wester i Bohemia. In the UMA plastics -factory ; in Semtin, near Pardubice, several per . sons were arrested after a five-hoc ' strike by 600 workers. Police w. [ local militiamen were summoned» t occupy the factory. Other disturbances and strikes were reported free [ Kladno. Jaromerice, near Jevieso.aa > Velke Popovice, and the Holesoviet - Liben, and Vysocany districts ft : Prague. Disciplinary committeas wen ; appointed to single out supposed ringleaders.