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under which he is being held. You could send lawyers to the
country, raise the demand for a free public trial, demand that
conditions in prison correspond to the conditions laid down in the
law, and so on.
At the same time, the main problem is not prison per se,
although a number of people are in prison. The main weapon of
repression used by the government is a threat to people's liveli–
hoods. They resort to arrest only when that weapon, unemploy–
ment for political reasons, fails. Officially, Czechoslovakia
abolished unemployment long ago, and therefore there is no form
of unemployment benefits.
If
you are denied work for political
reasons, you find yourself without any income whatsoever.
If
you
are starving, the establishment simply tells you, "There's no need
for you to starve in a socialist society because we have no unem–
ployment."
If
you then recant your views, or apologize, you'll get
ajob the next day . But that particular weapon could be defeated if
trade unions in the West were prepared to send money as an
unemployment benefit, as a form of direct solidarity with those
people who are under this kind of economic pressure. I can't think
of anything which would be of greater practical help. One could
also create jobs that people could perform without emigrating, so
that the financial help could have a moral impact, and be
something other than just charity. This would also deprive the
government of another weapon it uses to threaten the people who
are unemployed as a result of government action.
If
these people
remain unemployed for more than three months, the government
can say, "We will charge you under the law against social parasites
and send you to prison for several years." That kind of catch-22
situation, consciously created by the government as a trap, can be
broken by the kind of solidarity I've been talking about.
Howard:
I thank you, Jan. You've told us a number of things we can
do to make a holy alliance. Perhaps it's also true that you've given
us some ideas to think about concerning our own societies.
