Communist Party of Poland denounces the political repression in the Czech Republic

KSCM rally in Prague, 2023 -- image via the KSCM

Statement of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Poland:

The Communist Party of Poland strongly condemns the recent amendment of the penal code of the Czech Republic that criminalizes "any form of support or promotion of the communist movement”.

The new law proposed by the government and adopted by the parliamentary majority is a part of a wider campaign against the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM) and other communist organizations. Petr Fiala's government violates basic principles of democracy and freedom of speech.

This legislation is based on falsifying history and the false equating of nazism with communism – the theory of the so-called two totalitarianisms. It is being implemented in the year marking the 80th anniversary of the great anti-fascist victory. The new law completely disregards the fact that communists liberated Czechoslovakia during the Second World War and led the country towards development during the socialist period. This new legislation is another step, following the destruction of socialist and anti-fascist monuments in Central and Eastern Europe, in distorting the history and memory of socialist reality.

The change of the penal code is an expression of the hypocrisy of the so-called "democrats”, whose "democratic values” are in fact serfdom to the interests of large capital and its monopolies.

The situation in Czechia is a consequence of the Europe wide offensive against communism. Similar anti-democratic measures were already implemented in Poland and some other countries of Central and Eastern Europe, especially the Baltic ones. For years we have struggled against the attempts to illegalize our party, and our members were facing political persecution.

Capitalist governments facing crisis and imperialist wars tend to ally with the extreme right and even fascists, and at the same time are afraid of the communist ideology. They try to ban it because anti-capitalist sentiments are dangerous to their political and economic rule.

The Communist Party of Poland expresses its full support for our Czech comrades in their struggle against anti-communist legislation. No repressive law can silence the communist ideology and movement.

The spectre of communism will continue to haunt reactionists and capitalists!