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Czechoslovakia Auxiliary Parties, Mass Oganizations, and Mass Media
The KSC is grouped together with the KSS, four other
political parties, and all of Czechoslovakia's mass organizations
under the political umbrella of the National Front of the
Czechoslovak Socialist Republic. Founded in 1945 to coordinate
the coalition of ruling parties, the National Front became
subordinate to the KSC after the 1948 coup. Since then the
National Front has functioned as a conveyer of KSC policy
directives to the other political parties and mass organizations.
An important function of the National Front is to nominate all
candidates for public office and to supervise elections.
Individuals running for public office need not be communist, but
all candidates must be approved by the National Front. Thus,
National Front candidates typically receive more than 99 percent
of the votes (voters in Czechoslovakia have the right to refrain
from marking their ballots if they do not want to vote for any of
the National Front candidates; however, few voters exercise that
right for fear of official reprisal).
The National Front in the 1980s included two Czech
noncommunist parties and two Slovak noncommunist parties. The
Czechoslovak Socialist Party, which had approximately 17,000
members in 1984, drew most of its membership from the former
urban middle class and white-collar workers. The Czechoslovak
People's Party, which had about 66,000 members in 1984, was
primarily Roman Catholic and rurally based. The two Slovak
parties, the Slovak Revival Party and the Slovak Freedom Party,
were very small and drew their support from the peasant
population and Roman Catholics. Each party was organized along
the lines of the KSC, having a party congress, central committee,
presidium, and secretariat. Other than having a small number of
seats in the Czech National Council, Slovak National Council, and
the Federal Assembly, these parties had little input into
governmental affairs. They served as auxiliaries of the KSC and
in no way represented an alternative source of political power.
The National Front also grouped together a myriad of mass
organizations in the workplace, at schools, and in neighborhoods.
Although mass organizations permeated nearly all aspects of
social organization, the most important consisted of trade
unions, women's groups, and youth organizations. Whereas in
noncommunist nations such organizations act partly as political
interest groups to put pressure on the government, in
Czechoslovakia the mass organizations have acted as support
groups for the KSC and as channels for the transmission of party
policy to the population at large. This is evidenced by the fact
that KSC officials direct the mass organizations at virtually
every level.
The Revolutionary Trade Union Movement, which claimed over
7.5 million members in 1984, combined trade unions of workers in
virtually every productive capacity. In 1987 its president,
Miroslav Zavadil, also chaired its governing body, the Central
Council of Trade Unions. The organization of the Central Council
of Trade Unions is similar to that of the KSC in that it consists
of a central committee that selects a secretariat and a
presidium. In addition to the chairman, the Central Council of
Trade Unions has two deputy chairmen. In the spirit of
federalized bureaucratic structures that permeated Czechoslovak
political organization in the 1970s, the Czech Council of Trade
Unions and the Slovak Council of Trade Unions were created.
The Czechoslovak Union of Women, which had about 1 million
members in 1984, was chaired in 1987 by Marie Kabrhelova. Its
structure includes the familiar secretariat and presidium and a
central auditing and control commission. Like the trade union
governing organization, the Czechoslovak Union of Women oversees
the Czech Union of Women and the Slovak Union of Women. In 1986
Vasil Mohorita headed the Czechoslovak Socialist Union of Youth,
which in 1983 claimed over 1.5 million members. A branch
organization for youth from eight to fifteen years of age is
known as the Pioneers. The aim of both groups is to indoctrinate
youth in socialist values and prepare them for membership in the
KSC. Other mass organizations include the Union of Agricultural
Cooperatives, the Union of Anti-Fascist Fighters, the Union for
Cooperation with the Army, the Peace Committee, and the Physical
Culture Association.
As in all East European communist countries, the mass media
in Czechoslovakia is controlled by the party. Private ownership
of any publication or agency of the mass media is generally
forbidden, although churches and other organizations publish
small periodicals and newspapers. Even with this informational
monopoly in the hands of organizations under KSC control, all
publications are reviewed by the government's Office for Press
and Information. Censorship was lifted for three months during
the 1968 Prague Spring but afterward was reimposed under the
terms of the 1966 Press Law. The law states that the Czechoslovak
press is to provide complete information, but it must also
advance the interests of socialist society and promote the
people's socialist awareness of the policy of the communist party
as the leading force in society and state.
The chief newspaper of the KSC is the Prague daily, Rude
Pravo, which, with a circulation of 900,000, is the most
widely read and most influential newspaper in the country. Its
editor in 1987 was Zdenek Horeni, a member of the Secretariat of
the KSC Central Committee. Its sister publication, Bratislava's,
Pravda, is the organ of the KSS. Other Prague dailies with
large circulations are Lidova Demokracie, published by the
Czechoslovak People's Party; Mlada Fronta, published by
the Czechoslovak Socialist Union of Youth; Prace,
published by the Central Council of Trade Unions; and Svobodne
Slovo, published by the Czechoslovak Socialist Party.
Government concern about control of the mass media is such
that it is illegal to own a duplicating machine or to reproduce
more than eleven copies of any printed material. Nevertheless, a
fairly wide distribution of underground publications (popularly
known as samizdat throughout Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union)
that were established during the Nazi occupation continued
throughout communist rule into the 1980s.
The Czechoslovak Press Agency (Ceskoslovenska tiskova
kancelar--CTK) receives a state subsidy and is controlled by the
federal government through its Presidium. The government also
controls several domestic television and radio networks. In
addition, many citizens in Czechoslovakia have been able to pick
up foreign radio and television stations, both from communist
Poland and Hungary and from noncommunist countries like Austria
and the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany). The Voice of
America and the British Broadcasting Corporation also have had
sizable audiences in Czechoslovakia, and their broadcasts have
been subject to only occasional jamming. Radio Free Europe
broadcasts, however, were extensively jammed.
Data as of August 1987
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