DISMISSAL IN PRAGUE NOVOTNY AFFAIR A LANDMARK IN COMMUNISM’S HISTORY

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31580, 18 January 1968, Page 8

DISMISSAL IN PRAGUE NOVOTNY AFFAIR A LANDMARK IN COMMUNISM’S HISTORY

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BRIAN BEEDHAM.

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LONDON, January 9.—Here we are, only two weeks into the New Year, and we already have what promises to be the most under-reported Story of 1968. It is astonishing how little has been written about the downfall of President Novotny of Czechoslovakia. Yet both the wav it happened, and the fact that it happened at all, make the Novotny affair a landmark in the development of Communism,

Nothing quite like tbit bat happened in a Communiat country before. Mr Novotny was ejected from the leadership of the Czechoslovak Communist Party on January 5, by the party’s central committee, because he was unwilling to liberalise his country as fast as tbe majority of the party wanted. Racial Rivalry The issue was complicated, as all issues tn Czechoslovakia are, by the ancient rivalry between Czechs and Slovaks. Mr Novotny, is a Czech; the man who hat taken over from him Is a Slovak. But essentially this was an argument between liberals and conservatives about the proper way to run a country, and when it came to a vote the liberals won. We know tbe line-up in the praesidium, the inner group of party loaders: it was seven to three against Mr Novotny. Nobody has yet revealed tbe details of the voting in the central committee, the bigger body to which the matter was then referred. But we know that it took the committee two long sessions of Several days apiece—one before Christmas, tbe other at the start Of the New Year—to reach its decision. It has all been dene with an almost English decorum. Mr NOvotny has not been packed off into semi-exile. His name has not vanished from the Czech newspapers in the way tha. Mr Khrushchev’s name vanished from the Russian press tn 1964, He has been allowed to stay on as President of the country even though the loss of the party leadership has stripped him of all real power.

Changing A Ruler Yet the very tidiness of the operation underlines the importance of what has happened. For tbe first time a Communist country has found a way of changing its ruler—and thus Its policies as well —without either having to wait for the old man to die or else going through a major upheaval. Mr Novotny’s removal opens the way to a number of radical changes In Czechoslovakia. The disgruntled writers will get some of the extra freedom they have been demanding. The economic reform that was put into operation last year will presumably be pushed to Its logical conclusion, even though this means that the Communist Party will lose mueb of its

control over tbe day-to-day running of tbe economy. And all this will have been achieved without the shattering crises that Poland and Hungary had to go through in 1956 to change tbeir rulers; without even the nail-biting tension that accompanied Mr Khrushchev’s removal from power in Russia in 1964. Mini Election That vote ia the Czechoslovak central committee on January 5, was a little bit like a miniature general election. Two rival points of view confronted each other; and with a minimum of fuss one of them proceeded to take over the reins of government from the other. A little bit like a general election: but not quite like one. The Czechs are now running pretty close behind the Jugoslavs in tbe business of liberalising their country. But even the relatively fortunate Czechs and Jugoslavs still have one major obstacle to surmount before they can claim to have a working democracy. The obstacle is Illustrated by what has been happening in Jugoslavia in the last few weeks. Marshal Tito’s Government has had considerable difficulty in getting a number of important measures through the Belgrade Parliament. The debates have been long and angry. Some of the Government’s proposals got through with only a tiny majority. As it happens, what the Government wanted to do was

sensible and liberal; It was Parliament that was being stickily conservative. But that is not the point. Th* main point is that tbe debate was not what we would call a genuinely democratic oae because the parliamentary opposition had no alternative Government to turn to. If It rejected the Government’s bills, and the result wss deadlock, the country would—in theory, anyway—have ground to a halt. Irony Of History Neither the Czechs nor the Jugoslavs nor any other Communists will really have solved their problem until they accept the existence of a formal, organised opposition: that is, of an alternative government ready to taka over whan tbe government of the day runs out of popular support. No doubt this opposition group will formally call itself Marxist. Tbe essential thing is that the Marxist political structure should allow for the existence of two different schools of thoughtcall them liberal and conservative or what you will. By one of those Ironies that history loves, this year marks the 350th anniversary of the great Defenestration of Prague in 1618. That was when the rebellious Czechs chucked the representatives of the old Habsburg order out of the window of Prague castle. Mr Novotny has just suffered his own defenestration. The old order is changing in the Communist half of Europe: but the change still has quite a way to go.