Vol. 74/No. 9      March 8, 2010

According to Radio Prague, many cops testified in court in favor of the ban, describing DS demonstrations against Roma, an oppressed nationality referred to disparagingly as “gypsies” who have been a target of rightist groups throughout Europe.

The DS holds no national seats in the Czech Republic and just three local ones. It is expected to get about 1.5 percent of the vote in the next election. DS leader Tomas Vandas said if the ban is not overturned on appeal, party members will simply regroup under a new name.

The move to ban the DS, whose racist, anti-working-class views make it widely detested, sets a precedent to go after workers organizations in the future. According to the Prague Daily Monitor, Czech interior minister Martin Pecina said that the courts “must have the courage to fight not only with rightist, but also leftist extremism that ‘promotes communism.’”

The government initiated the action leading to the DS’s dissolution, and all other Czech parties supported it, including the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSCM). Vojtech Filip, KSCM chairman, praised the ban on the DS and said he wasn’t worried about attempts to ban his own party. Several senators have called for outlawing the KSCM, which got 14 percent of the vote in European Parliament elections last June, coming in third.

On the pretext of opposing their views and violent activities, several other European governments have sought to ban rightist groups in recent years. The Belgian government outlawed the Vlams Bloc in 2004, charging it violated laws against racism. The Slovak Supreme Court dissolved the Slovak Solidarity-National Party, which advocates restricting the right to vote.

In the case of the Czech Republic, the government itself perpetuates the oppression of Roma people at the same time it bans the DS supposedly for its anti-Roma activities. A January report by Amnesty International found that Prague continues to send healthy Roma children to public schools for the mentally disabled despite a 2007 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights against the practice. Forced sterilization of Roma women—done routinely by the Stalinist regimes from the 1970s to 1990—continues to occur, according to the European Roma Rights Centre.
 
 
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Czech ban is danger to workers  
 
 
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