On January 25, 2024 at 11 a.m. Czech time, in connection with the recent (December 20, 2023, International Day of Human Solidarity) Julius Fucik International Prize on the occasion of the 120th anniversary of his birth and the 80th anniversary of his death, the organizers from the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia and the members of the Independent Academy for the Julius Fucik Prize agreed to hold a roundtable meeting on the very topical topic "How does the Ukrainian conflict affect events and processes in the Czech Republic and Europe?"
The round table was attended by some of those who received the award, as well as invited guests - journalists from the Russian Federation and Ukraine. Among the participants were prominent personalities and award-winning journalists who presented interesting views, opinions, analyses, as well as personal experiences that relate to current events and processes in the transformation from a unipolar to a multipolar world. From an overall perspective, the discussion gave an interesting realistic view of the implications arising from the conflict in Ukraine.
The main speakers were Valery Mikhailovich Korovin, a journalist, writer and representative of the leadership of the International Eurasian Movement, who raised issues mainly from a geopolitical perspective, as well as the brothers Alexander a Mikhail Kononovich, who mentioned the impact of the conflict in Ukraine, including the Ukrainian opposition, and elaborated on the issue of their own political process. Another contributor was Roman Blaško, a representative of the organizing party of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, who as a journalist has long focused on issues of systemic processes in the conflict zones of the East, as well as in Western countries. Speech Petra Prokšanová from the point of view of a party functionary and publicist, it was about the concrete situation of the current power in the Czech Republic, the opposition parties and especially the left-wing front.
Europe in agony
At the roundtable meeting, Vallerij Korovin greeted all those present at the outset and said: "It shows that there is a demand and a need to discuss in detail the situation in the Czech Republic and in Europe as a whole and that in this global conflict this is a kind of fundamental issue where it is also necessary to realize what role the Czech Republic and Europe have in this process." He added that he would like to bounce back from that, "that the unipolar world and its global management by the United States of America has not led the world to any development of states, but on the contrary, has led the world into various conflicts based only on US national interests. In the end, it turned out that it only defends its position, its role as a global hegemon in the world, and on the contrary, it hinders development. And that they are experimenting with world domination'..
He went on to say that it turns out that you don't have to be an analytical politician because from this angle you can see a very clear picture: "The rapprochement of Russia to Europe, where the distancing of Europe from the US threatens US dominance, and therefore the US is using Ukraine very consistently today, then Moldova, and tomorrow Poland, then Finland, just whoever they want. They have no pity for these nations."
"We need to free ourselves from American domination, external control, US influence, and try to influence our destiny more sovereignly. Set priorities and decide independently with whom Europe and the Czech Republic will be bargain cooperate and develop relations and with whom it is inconvenient, without Washington's involvement."
It is impossible to be neutral
Roman Blaško said that we must first of all realise that this process is a clash between two models of civilisation. To simplify, the liberal democratic, neoliberal Western model is clashing with the traditionally national conservative model of the East Eurasian wing. He added that "At the same time, there is a process underway here to end the concept of the world policeman, which is often called PAX americana and which has been imposed in various ways on the whole world through the United States of America. It has established a world under the dictatorship of the United States, which by some proxy methods and a hidden control system is run by a global elite."
This concept of systemic world governance must end, he said, because in the end it has proven to be both unviable and destructive. "A multipolar world is emerging today, and it has long been shown that it is this concept of a multipolar world that the world welcomes, and also that it will be governed by the Eurasian part of the world that will belong to the 21st century."
"At this point, as I have long pointed out, it is not possible to take a neutral position, because this body would be essentially neutralised by the current structure that has established repressive institutions. Humanity, if it wants to survive, will also have to shift to a mode of sharing, given the need to build an ecological architecture of the world," He added.
Peace - there is no other way
Peace - there is no other way
Representative of the Youth Commission Petra Proksanova pointed out in her contribution that "After February 2022, we, as the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, pointed out the roots of the conflict in our statement. The central role of the US and other players" and she went on to say that "In general, we called for an end to all illegal military operations and the prevention of casualties and, of course, we strongly emphasised and continue to emphasise the need for peaceful solutions. We stand with all those who promote those peaceful solutions in any way, and in our time it was the People's Republic of China most vociferously with its 12-point proposal," She added.
Prokšanová also said: "All of these activities of ours, and of course they are not just the activities of the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia, but of the entire progressive movement in the Czech Republic, which includes, for example, the Communist Youth Union, the Czech Peace Movement, and others, so all of these activities of ours, which appeal to a relatively large part of the public, have caused the government structures to intensify persecution on their part and to introduce censorship practices into our laws, such as a very loose concept of verbal offenses and the like. There can then be included basically anything that is inconvenient to the regime and can generate a political process out of it."
The level of Ukrainian terror
A personal confession illustrating the atmosphere in Ukraine was given by Alexander Kononovich, who began by saying: "Unfortunately, there is such terror in our society here that you can't even imagine. For example, I was in detention with a doctor who was a dermatologist, he was a candidate of medical sciences, and he was put in prison for simply saying, 'I visited Crimea, and there is free medical care and medicine!' Just for those words that he said in public, he got the same sentence as us, 10 years in prison. You can imagine the level of terror that is going on in Ukraine. Michal and I are facing 10 years in prison and we don't know what for. We simply said we don't want war, we don't want NATO, we want peace for Ukraine."
"And let me tell you something, there are around 100 000 people in prison at this moment because of unjust political processes. This is the number of people who are directly in prison, I'm not talking at all about those who are persecuted at liberty or under house arrest like us, and are forced to undergo this terror."
No one can save the old communists
Mikhail Kononovich complemented his brother with other specific examples. "Unfortunately, some of our comrades and friends have already been killed. Also, no one can save our old comrades from the Communist Party of Ukraine, because they are locked up in prison for a long time, even though they are For example 80 years old. Here is the terrible essence of the very tragedy of the communists in Ukraine."
"Do you understand what primitivism is? Do you understand the absurdity of, for example, our accusation? There were 37 prosecutors in our trial. There were 15 state guards who supervised our case. And on the basis of one false testimony, when we were directly accused by an unreliable witness of a coup in Ukraine, that we wanted to seize power in parliament. That's why we were accused and put in jail."
Dead Czech, good Czech?
Zbyšek Kupský, a journalist and columnist, took his contribution a little away from the seemingly straightforward political processes. He quoted from a recently published interview with Stanislav Novotny, chairman of the Association of Independent Media, where he quoted a question and answer. Question: "Even though there is a lot of information available today, when societies sort of, figuratively speaking, deal the cards and determine who is good and who is bad, is the world so black and white in your opinion and it is enough that someone puts Israel, Ukraine or Taiwan in one group and in the other, maybe Palestine, Russia or China? Is it really supposed to be like that, like in a football match, to cheer for one and not for the other?" A Stanislav Novotny He replied: "The black and white vision leads to totalitarianism. If we do not get intelligent, educated and responsible personalities back into the leadership of the country in the spirit of the best European traditions, we will perish. The primitives have been installed by the West, it suits its national interests to suck out everything it can. They are even able to operate under the slogan of a dead Czech, Moravian or Silesian - a good Czech, Moravian or Silesian. So, on the war in Ukraine and the Middle East, or in the dispute with Taiwan, we are today supposed to take a position favourable to the USA, but I want to take a position favourable to the Czech Republic. What about you?"
At the end of the roundtable, participants agreed that this opened up specific questions and topics. It then logically followed that it would be good to continue similar roundtables.
(ZA) Viktor Nowak
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