Word: havelent
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...last Tuesday, Vaclav Havel stepped from a silver Volkswagen Golf and, trailed by eight fellow members of the Civic Forum, proceeded to a second-floor conference room in the cream stucco building. Prime Minister Ladislav Adamec opened the talks with a seven-minute statement outlining the government's concessions. In return, Adamec said, "please terminate your strikes. This is my wish and my plea." Havel was in no mood to be conciliatory. For the next 18 minutes, he listed the Civic Forum's demands, all of which, he said, must...
...know that looks like an ultimatum," Havel said...
...Havel quickly called for a recess. After consulting with his delegation for 25 minutes, Adamec reconvened the group and agreed to virtually every request except the call for the immediate resignation of his government. Next day Czechs watched in amazement the first ever live-television broadcast of a session of the national parliament. By a vote of 309 to 0, the legislators struck down infamous Article 4 of the constitution, which enshrines the "leading role" of the Communist Party...
...Havel and company had been emboldened by the response to their call for a two-hour strike last Monday. At the stroke of noon, millions of workers and students took to the streets, shutting down hundreds of enterprises, from huge steelworks to the local Fiat service agency. Not only was the astounding turnout a sharp rebuke to the country's leaders, but it was a warning that a few cosmetic changes within the Politburo would not satisfy the demands for a more democratic system...
There are also hints of potential rifts within the Civic Forum. Until now, the organization has striven to encourage consensus and avoid partisan affiliation. "The Civic Forum's purpose," says Havel, "is to be a bridge between the totalitarian system and true pluralistic democracy." But popular heroes are already emerging. One is Valtr Komarek, 59, director of the official Institute of Forecasting of the Czechoslovak Academy of Sciences. An academic with a magnetic speaking style, Komarek seized the nation's imagination last weekend with a nine-minute televised address that detailed Communist incompetence in economic management. By the Monday strike...