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VITEZSLAV NADEJE
lead the two nations toward socialism. Alfred Cerny, former Party
secretary in the Brno region, who was recently sentenced to three
years' imprisonment, said in his letter to the Fourteen th Congress dele–
gates, circulating in
samizdat
form: "The Communist party of the
future is not organized . .. it does not have a name, but it has ...
critical thinking and solidarity. The Party associated with the past has
power and the means to disorient and intimida te, bribe and divide, but
it cannot prevent these very means from turning against it. By its ac–
tions it is creating conditions for a new unity of a ll truly democratic
forces of all classes and strata.. . .
It
is ca ugh t in a vicious circle of
promises which it cannot meet. The forces of the past prevail at the
moment, but the Party of the future will be born out of this very
domination. . . ."
The events of 1968 demonstra ted incontrovertibly that although
the Soviet Union is prepared to tol era te Romanian nat iona lism which
does not affect the existing power structure, it will not, indeed cannot,
permit changes that extend participation in decision-mak ing to the
people and involve testing the validity of socialist theo ries in practice.
The Soviet Union respects power and unders tand s th e language of po\\'–
er far better than appeals to its ideologica l commitments. But that does
not mean that it is insensitive to crit icism by the Western Left, and
especially by Western Communist parties. Therefore. e\'ery \'oice raised
by the Western Left on behalf of soc ialism in Czechoslovakia and else–
where has significance. In the long run such protests may con tribute to
the formation of a genuine alliance bet\\'een sincere soc ia lists and Com–
munists, which will cut across the frontiers of spheres of interest.
In this context it is particularl y sad that Angela Davis did not
join Western Communist parties in deploring the Czech trials, The
statement issued in her name left the socialist freedom fighters in the
Soviet bloc no choice.
If
they stayed in their countries and \'oiced
their opinions, as the majority did, they landed in jail. As they \I'ere
officially "undermining their governments," Angela, although she had
pledged to aid all politica l prisoners, had no mercy for them.
If
they
left their countries, they were acting against the "socialist system ob–
jectively speaking," and Angela rega rded th em as having taken a
"retrograde step."
This attitude is reminiscent of the starry-eyed naivety of some
~ocialists
outside the Soviet Union in the 1930s.
It
could be shrugged off,
if it were not held by a person \\'ho, thanks to the backing she re–
ceived by the Left all over the world, including those whom she now so
crudely dismisses, has the po\\'e r to help them and to enlist g reater sup-
