The Guardian of Liberty - Nemzetőr, 1987 (10. évfolyam, 2-6. szám)

1987-03-01 / 2. szám

MARCH-APRIL, 1987 Radical Reform Planned in pre-Communisl Hungary BY DR. STEFAN VIDA This article (a shortened version of one originally written for our German edition) shows that, contrary to the Communist version of 20th-century history, Christian move­ments striving for radical social reform in Hungary were becoming increasingly in­fluential long before that country was absorbed into the Soviet empire in the years immediately after the Second World War. T he fragmentation of Catholicism in Hungary after the Communist take­over in the 1940s began with the violent sup­pression of groups which fought vigorously, in the spirit of Christian hmanism, for the redress of social grievances. The confiscation of the Church’s religious houses and institutions, and the nationalisa­tion of everything connected with the Press, as well as the seizure of all parochial schools, only came later, but within a few years. (Marxist Christians might give this some thought). Nazi activists fought strenuously against the Catholic people’s movements, many of whose leading members were imprisoned. The fact that “anti-Fascism“ was a part of their programme was no help to them under the subsequent Russian occupation. The most important of these reform move­ments were formed, independently, in 1935. One of these was called the Worker Groups in Parishes, in Hungarian Egyházközségi Munkásszakosztályok (EMSZO). Its birthplace was Budapest. The other originated in Sze­ged as a Catholic rural youth movement. (Katolikus Agrárifjúsági Legényegyletek Or­szágos Testületé, KÁLÓT). Both movements developed in sudi a way that their efforts no doubt would have brought about healthy reform — had the Communist takeover, meantime, not put the Hungarian pople in chains. imiiHmttniRtiiiwnnmiiHiiiiinminiwiiniunirrnriiriiniMiirii^itvnim^mitnriin. MORE WORKERS UNDER MARTIAL LAW Reports have reached Western Europe of increased unrest among Romanian industrial workers, to which the authorities have reacted by imposing military discipline. The discontent has been most marked in Transylvania; it is not, however, necessarily connected with the minority problem. This is partly because the authorities have, over the years, resettled Romanians in what were pre­viously the areas with a Hungarian majority, ceded under the Treaty of Trianon in 1920, but still more because President Ceausescu's only way of getting his people to work is by coercion. The first areas where industrial unrest mani­fested itself late last year were Brasov (Brassó) in southern Transylvania, in the heavy industry plants, then Tirgu Mures (Marosvásárhely) and Cluj-Napoca (Kolozsvár). An important result of the frenetic pace at which Romanian industry is made to work is neglect of industrial safety. On January 15, 1987, the proof of the "Unio" mining equipment factory in Satu Mare (Szat­­már) caved in, reportedly killing more than 20 people. Then on January 26, five people were killed by an explosion which damaged an oil refinery at Ploiesti, Romania's main oilfield. As always, in such cases, the area was seal­ed off and the local inhabitants forbidden to say anything about the accident to anybody. This feeling that safety is neglected reinforc­ed the workers’ discontent at their poor pay and living conditions, particularly the food shortages. So president Ceausescu has put military com­manders in charge of more factories; work and fulfilment of norms thus becomes for the workers an obligation under military discipline. This measure is a sequel to a Presidential decree of October 17, 1985, under which milit­ary commanders were put in charge of power stations. This imposition of martial law was reported to apply to all parts of the energy sector, including mines and factories producing equip­ment used in the power industry. A Deputy Prime Minister, loan Avram, and the Minister of Electric Power, Nicolae Busui, were dis­missed. The miners are now reported to be fulfill­ing their norms by producing coal with a large mixture of stone and shale. ROMANIA A few years after the appearance of the papal encyclical Quadragesimo Anno (QA), the Catholic Action of Budapest prepared a series of lectures on Catholic social doc­trine. Among the speakers and in the audience were some long-standing champions of the failure of their traditional organisa­tion and who were looking for new paths. They planned to found Catholic trade unions. Encouraged by the social-minded Vi­car General of Budapest, János Mészáros, they drew up rules for the unions in 1935. Similar groups originated within individual congregations. A number of workers and college teachers, backed by a few priests, committed themselves in this way. What was lacking, however, were “go­­getter“ organisers to take on the whole endeavour. The problem was just how to find such dynamic people. About the same time, dozens of university students and recent graduates were doing intensive social work in the slums of Buda­pest. They were acting on the initiative of a young Jesuit, Gyula Tornyos, who started this voluntary “settlement movement“ in the early 1930’s. Such work also owed its exist­ence to the general trend of a “rebirth“ in the wake of QA. EMSZO formed a modest Central Corn­ HUNGARY Conscientious Objector Arrested T he arrest of a young Hungarian is con­centrating renewed attention on the question of East Europeans with a conscien­tious objection to military service. Zsolt Keszthelyi disobeyed an order to re­port for military service in the town of Kis­kunfélegyháza on February 25. He was ar­rested at his Budapest apartment and taken away after a brief interrogation. He is not a pacifist. His reasons for refus­ing to do military service are political. He is reported to have said shortly before his arrest: “I do not wish to serve in an army which is not under the control of a con­stitutional government.“ The example he gave, however, was not what Soviet forces had done to his own country, but the fate of another “ally“ of the Soviet Union: “If I did serve in the army“, he is reported to have said, “I might be used to do anything — 1968 is an example of that“ (an allusion to the Warsaw Pact in­vasion of Czechoslovakia). He also pointed out that the freedom of conscience guaranteed in theory by the Hun­garian Constitution is not honoured by the law in practice. Keszthelyi had already shown he had a mind of his own and the courage to express it, thereby incurring the displeasure of the authorities. He edited a samizdat journal, Hungary Awakening (Ébredő Magyarország). Copies of it had been seized by the police at the beginning of February. This is believed to be the first case in Communist-ruled Hungary of conscientious objection to military service on political grounds, but there have been several in Po­land, another country where servicemen are required to swear loyalty to their father­land’s “allies“. The Soviet marshal whom Stalin made Polish Minister of Defence and Commander­­in-Chief, Konstantin Rokossowsky, introduc­ed in 1952 a new military oath, in which the phrase “So help me God“ was dropped and which required servicemen to swear alle­giance to the USSR as well as to their own country. In recent years several Polish conscripts have refused to take this oath. A typical example is Marek Adamkiewicz, who was sentenced to two and a half years in prison in December, 1984. In 1985-6 more than ten other Polish con­scripts took the same line and formed them­selves into a movement called Freedom and Peace (Wolnosc i Pokój). Although Keszthelyi is the first conscien­tious objector on political grounds in Hun­gary, there have been more than 100 cases on religious grounds. Most have been given a three-year sentence. ininiHiiiniininiiiimiiiiiiiiiiiiniiiiiiininiiiiimiiiiiniiiiiiiniiinHiniiimiNiimiitiiiiii!iii!iiiii FORINT AGAIN DEVALUED The official Budapest news agency, MTI, re­ported on March 11 that Hungary’s currency, the forint, had been devalued by eight per cent. There was a previous eight per cent de­valuation last September. Further dévaluation is expected ... 3

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