File spoon-archives/marxism-international.archive/marxism-international_1997/marxism-international.9708, message 375


Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 10:48:12 +0200
From: Robert Malecki <malecki-AT-algonet.se>
Subject: Re: M-I: "Overcoming Communism": An "Analysis" from RFE/RL


Dennis Grammenos wrote:

> Eastern Europe: Analysis From Washington--Overcoming Communism
>
> By Paul Goble
>
> Washington, 27 August 1997 (RFE/RL) - Countries seeking to overcome
> their
> communist pasts are finding that task far longer and more difficult
> than
> they and their supporters had expected.
>
> On Monday, a German court convicted former East German Communist
> leader Egon
> Krenz of manslaughter for his role in the shooting deaths of those who
>
> attempted to flee to the West during the Cold War.
>
> Also this week, Polish officials began to enforce a new law which
> requires
> candidates for parliament to declare in writing whether they ever
> collaborated with the secret police of the communist regime.
>
> And this month, Hungary also launched a campaign to expose those,
> especially
> elected officials, who had collaborated with the secret police during
> communist times.
>
> All three of these actions are part of the more general effort across
> the
> post-communist world at lustration or screening designed to weed out
> of
> public life those who committed crimes of one sort or another under
> communism.
>
> But all these efforts have run into legal, practical, and political
> difficulties that underscore both the unique features of the communist
>
> system and the problems all the successor states have in moving toward
>
> democracy.
>
> Legally, efforts to try those who served the communist regimes under
> the
> laws of the post-communist states raise many questions. In the Krenz
> case,
> for example, the former leader argued that he "wasn't convicted
> because
> of a crime" but because of his past position.
>
> Given the general prohibition in Western democracies against judging
> people
> by laws they were not then living under, many democrats both in these
> countries and in the former communist states are reluctant to use the
> law in
> this way.
>
> Practically, all these countries are discovering that the police files
> from
> communist times are extremely difficult to use. These files have gaps,
> make
> false claims and contain fabrications, all of which were designed to
> entrap
> people then and now.
>
> The courts in the post-communist states thus face the daunting task of
>
> trying to determine who is telling the truth. Moreover, they must do
> this
> even as some politicians in these countries use charges of past
> collaboration to advance their own political careers.
>
> And politically, these efforts to screen out those who committed the
> worst
> offenses in the past have run into a number of serious obstacles.
> Where
> should the post-communist countries draw the line in prosecuting those
> who
> engaged in evil actions in the past?
>
> How should these governments deal with those who committed these acts
> but
> subsequently changed their political position and have made
> significant
> contributions to the emergence of democracy?
>
> And what should be the statute of limitations on such crimes? Should
> people
> who acted according to communist dictates always be at risk of
> exposure and
> condemnation by the state authorities?
>
> Because of these problems, many in the West have opposed such
> screening.
> They sharply criticized the Czechoslovak parliament in 1991 for its
> law on
> lustration and urged other post-communist countries not to follow the
> example of Prague.
>
> But the problem of coming to terms with the communist past and the
> continuing role in public life of those who served the communist
> regimes
> will not go away for at least a generation either in these countries
> or
> as a problem for the international community.
>
> The many victims of communist regimes in these countries will
> certainly
> continue to demand justice. And few of them are likely to be satisfied
> with
> a ritualistic denunciation of the past, especially when they see their
> past
> tormentors in positions of power today.
>
> Such demands pose a difficult problem for the international community
> as
> well. In many cases, the people in the post-communist states will be
> seeking
> vengeance rather than justice and that could sow the seeds of a new
> authoritarianism, something no one in the West wants to see.
>
> But the Western democracies have few models on which to draw for
> giving
> advice. Their only previous experience with overcoming totalitarianism
> --
> rooting out fascism in Germany and Japan following World War II --
> does not
> seem applicable in the current situation.
>
> The post-communist states of Eastern Europe did not come into
> existence
> as a
> result of military defeat and foreign occupation. Rather these states
> emerged when their peoples and even leaders liberated themselves from
> communist totalitarianism. That very different pattern will inevitably
>
> affect how they go about the task of overcoming communism.
>
> But this difference does nothing to change the nature of the
> totalitarian
> evil of the past. And consequently, unless these countries are
> successful in
> overcoming that past, they are likely to face a very difficult future.
>
> 27-08-97
>
>                ) 1997 Radio Free Europe / Radio Liberty, Inc.
>                             All Rights Reserved.
>
>

Dennis,Is this suppose to be a joke or a serious effort in your "human
rights" campaign of yesterdat to the lists. If it is the latter it is
quite obvious that it is the CIA running this operation. The above
document is nothing but a post Stalinist cold war document produced to
withchhunt any communist and certainly not the Stalinists. In fact most
of the Stalinists are junior partners these days in capitalist
counter-revolution in the former East European States and ex USSR. This
is a "Marxist" list and
CIA run front operations like this do not belong here (especially when
they are sent in without any
political comment at all) which is the case with this piece of filth!

I demand that you clear up exactly what you mean by sending this shit to
the list..

Bob Malecki


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