Bloomberg Businessweek:

Havel, who died in his sleep Dec. 18 at the age of 75 after a long illness, was a symbol for opposing totalitarian regimes in the former Soviet bloc and helped lead the nation to democracy [capitalist rule] following the Velvet Revolution that overthrew communism in Czechoslovakia in 1989. He was president for almost 13 years and counted figures including Nelson Mandela and Lech Walesa as friends.

“This reminds me of the atmosphere of 1989 when people gathered to end Communism,” said Zdenek Lauschman, a 52-year- old teacher, who stood watching the hearse drive away. “It is also a reflection of what has happened in the last 20 years. Havel was the only one in politics who was decent and managed to remain in politics. He’s cut from a different cloth than other politicians.”

‘Truth and Love’

The streets around the funeral procession were lined with Czech flags, with some mourners in the procession carrying candles and photos of Havel in the cold morning light. A sign in the crowd read: “Truth and Love Will Triumph over Lies and Hatred,” one of Havel’s best-known citations. Black flags hung from state buildings as church bells tolled along the route and crowds applauded the hearse.
***

In the years after the fall of communism in 1989, Havel’s reputation and his ideas brought international renown to his new country. He was a strong advocate for expansion of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization and the European Union. Under his presidency, the Czech Republic became a NATO member in March 1999 and joined the EU in 2004.

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James Petras: The Velvet revolution

Act 1, Scene 1

(A cafe in upper west side of Manhattan not far from Columbia University. Grovel Havel sits with an editor of N.Y. Review of Books and a professor sympathetic to the New Left… drinking coffee… a cigarette hangs from his lip in the style of Jean Paul Belmondo. He is wearing casual clothes.)

GH: Nothing works under Communism but everybody does his job. The workers pretend to work and the regime pretends to pay them. It is a form of resistance… Czech style.

NYRofB Editor: It must be terribly difficult to work under a Stalinist regime.

GH: They control everything: radio, television, book publishing; they have a small group of mediocrities who run the Writers’ Unions and the major journals. We survive, thanks to Western solidarity.

Prof: Doesn’t the financial speculator Soros fund many of the Czech dissidents?

GH: Yeah, what do you expect when you face a totalitarian monster, you take support from wherever you can. In the US, you can afford to question some of these foundations – for us they are a lifesaver.

NYR of B: Most of the Left in this country use double-standards, denouncing US policy in Indochina but they always have reservations about criticizing Soviet abuses in Eastern Europe.

Prof: (Indignant) That’s not true!

GH: (Grins) Come on.. .This is all in the family. I sympathize with the students’ rebellion, the Civil Rights movement in the United States. It’s the same libertarian spirit as in Prague 1968. We identified with Paris, Berkeley; we were all part of the same struggle against all the authoritarian crap. It’s all about freedom. Only it’s easier to fight in the West because, despite all the atrocities, you are democracies. I know… (he nods to the Professor) capitalist democracies.

NYR of B: Basically the Communists are “bourgeois” without our democratic values.

GH: (Grins) They like the old palaces, the neckties and shirts, and they fall over themselves to have a dacha in the countryside, while they condemn the “bourgeois life style” of the dissident intellectuals. They drool over the svelte daughters of the old aristocracy. .. ‘Ape and grope’ Communists.

NYR of B: How long did you stay in the Gulag?

GH: (Fidgets in his seat, hesitates) Well, it was a prison not a concentration camp – about 4 weeks.

Prof: Did they torture you?

GH: Psychological pressures – interrogations, repeating the same boring questions. The worst of it was they didn’t let me read or write or talk to my friends.

NYR of B: Just like the Chilean secret police that Washington put in power.

GH: (Hesitates, mulls over his response) Well, in a way, you’re right. Dictatorships have their own logic.

(GH sits with a group of US congress people and aides.)

Congressman for a Southern State: That was a wonderful speech Grovel – you’re not offended if I call you by your first name?

GH: Of course not, it is my name. (Jovial laughter)

Congressman from the South: “You know that critique you made of Marxism’s materialism was right on the mark. I remember when I was a poor kid on my father’s farm. I was inspired by the local minister who preached a similar lesson about how the spirit conquers bodily needs. I sure appreciated that because there were many time we didn’t have enough to eat.

GH: (Fidgets a bit uncomfortable.) Well, who knows if I don’t make it as President. I can turn to the pulpit (everyone laughs).

Senator from New York: That a brilliant turn of a phrase, turning Marx’s dialectic on its head. “Consciousness determines existence, not vice versa.”

GH: (Smiles). Yeah. A Russian writer in the fifties wrote a book called “Not by Brad Alone” that touched a sensitive nerve. (GH picks at a juicy morsel of filet mignon.)

Congressman from the West: (picks up a piece of bread) Well I agree to a certain point. Only I wouldn’t want to go too long without any material sustenance.

GH: Of course that was only a metaphor…

Congressman from Texas: You know Grovel we sure appreciate your recognizing the beauty of our democracy. I mean, we have some problems in our urban cities but you put it all in perspective. This is the best of all democracies and we know that, as an intellectual with a critical eye, you didn’t flatter us to get any foreign aid handouts.

GH: (a serious and sincere look crosses his face): I meant every word of it. You can’t reduce people to their class positions or class interests. People have other more basic spiritual and cultural identities.

(All in chorus – “That’s right!”)

Congressman from Northwest: I bet you got a lot of rebuilding to do. The Communists ran everything into the ground. I hear they gave you a parachute along with your ticket when you got into one of those Soviet made airplanes.

GH (laughs): Not quite. But it’s a good idea to bring a cushion to sit on (everyone laughs.)

Congressman from the Northwest: Well if you decide you want to upgrade your air fleet, give me a call and I’ll put you in touch with some friends at Boeing.

Congresswoman from the Midwest: Oh come on, this is no time for business.

GH (takes card from Congressman): I’ll keep it in mind. I greatly appreciate all the support the US gave us over the years in throwing off the Communist yoke.

And I don’t just mean the material support – the moral inspiration of a living democracy was just as important.

(Everyone lifts their glass to toast GH. They begin to chant “Grovel, Grovel.”)

Southern Congressman: “Morality determines existence”, isn’t that another way of saying it.

(GH nods).

(The two actresses sipping a coffee with a pair of writers.)

Writer 1: (Looking at the want ads in the paper.) The Housing Authority returned my apartment building to an ex-Nazi sympathizer and he immediately quadrupled the rent and tried to throw out some old retirees who have been living there for 30 years.

Actress 1: (Reading the newspaper.) Here’s an apartment just for you, “artistic studio in the old center” – only $500 (in dollars no less) a month.

Writer 1: That’s my salary for the month!

Actress 2: Price of freedom my boy, that’s what Grovel told us.

Writer 2: What did he tell you?.

Actress 1: Knock on the doors of Volkswagen, McDonalds – see if they’ll fund you.

Writer 2: Why not try the porno circuit. They have ads looking for “open-minded actresses willing to learn on the job.”

Actress 1: Don’t laugh. One of the ballerinas has taken up an occasional gig to pay the rent.

Writer 1: Who read books anymore? A friend of mine who is a bookseller told me they just warehoused Grovel’s last book, Consciousness and Existence, to make space for the latest Stallone and Schwartzenegger videos.

Actress 2: That’s consciousness over existence for you.

Writer 2: Yeah, anybody who can forge a property title and get a credential verifying that they are a bona fide political exile coming back to claim their piece of real estate.

Actress 1: McDonald’s is negotiating with the bishop to lease space in the Cathedral.

Writer 2: The Pope’s coming to give a mass and mobilize the faithful. He has a long list of property to reclaim before the Americans and Germans gobble it up.

Actress 1: Hey, maybe. Disney will buy the State Theater.

Actress 2: Didn’t you hear it’s going to become a disco? The Russian Mafia and a group of NY real estate developers are buying it. It’s a good way to launder drug money.

Writer 1: (Sarcastic.) Rumors, rumors. The point of the matter is you have to adapt to the new times. I’ll go to work writing advertisement jingles to sell deodorants.

Actress 1: Plenty of malodorous smells.

(A group of tourists walk by, one asks to take a picture of them. They ignore them.)

Actress 2: Maybe we should charge to pose for the tourists. “Unemployed leftovers from Communism.”

Writer 1: No, they are American. We should advertise ourselves as “the Former Freedom Fighters turned entrepreneurs!”

Actress 2: Yeah, selling child porn to clean old Brits.

Writer 2: Are you going to call Grovel’s aide? Maybe they can send you on tour, if you sleep with him.

Actress 1: (Blows smoke in his face.)

Act 2 – Scene 3 The Presidential Palace

(Grovel is wearing a button-down pin stripe shirt with a subdued tie and dressy suspenders. His aides are dressed in suits and ties. His secretary, receptionist and administrative assistant file in and out of his office bringing him papers to sign, ushering visitors in and out.)

Secretary: Ms. Olc is here to see you President Havel.

(He rises and waves her in. She is a woman in her late 50s to early 60s, elegantly dressed with silver streaks of hair.)

MO: “Grovel, how good to see you. When was the last time? Wasn’t it at the fundraiser on the upper east-side with all those Peace and Democracy types and those wealthy Jewish investment brokers?

GH: (Cool and businesslike.) You have a good but selective memory. What can I do for you?

MO: (She looks him straight in the eye.) We have a property claim, you know. The Communists confiscated our country estates along with our financial assets and family holdings in Prague.

GH: That’s being looked into by our Commission to Return Properties.

MO: (As a teacher to a student.) My dear Grovel, that’s a start but its not good enough. You know there are still many old line Communists in positions of power – the current judicial process could take years. (Raises her voice, indignant righteousness.) In the meantime, all those state farmers continue to exploit our land.

GH: Do you want me to throw them off the land? (He becomes a bit testy.)

MO: (She fixes an icy glare.) I think it would be a positive signal to the World Bank and our friends in the US government and the European Union that this government really wants to make the change to a market economy irreversible.

GH: (Heaves a slight sigh.) You’re right, it’s very important to give the right signals to The EU. I’ll look into signing a Presidential decree.

MO: You’re a wise, President Grovel. The people will love you. We’ll invite you for dinner once we get the country house fixed up.

GH: (Murmurs under his breath.) The “right people” already love me. (She takes her leave). While Grovel calls in his secretary to dictate a decree “enabling former landowners to reclaim their land in order to prepare the soil for the planting season.”

(The receptionist announces the Finance Minister, Klaus Louce. The administrative assistant leads him into the office.)

KL: Good morning, Mr. President. I have the list of enterprises to be privatized

GH: (Glances at the list.) It includes everything except the water, air and pavement. (slightly ironic.) How did you miss them?

KL: We are working on finding a private water company, but the one in England has a record of high E. coli content and excessive rates.

GH: Of course, efficiency must be balanced with public safety.

KL: We’ll put them on the auction bloc shortly: 50% to foreign buyers, 50% for the wage earners.

GH: How will that work?

KL: The workers will get shares, but investors will run the firm – hire, fire, etc.

GH: That’s fair enough. What about the price?

KL: Mr. President, the price is secondary. It’s getting the firms into the market, making capitalism irreversible. It’s a good policy to sell cheap and get the connections with the Germans and the Americans.

GH: That means entry into NATO and the EU. You have my support. (They shake hands. As KL leaves, Grovel mutters) “as if it mattered, he announced the privatization in yesterday’s newspapers.”

(The secretary announces a Party leader from a Czech nationalist group. He enters boldly – they embrace.)

Otto Benclic: Greetings President Havel.

GH: Let’s not be formal. What’s on your mind?

OB: The Slays and their emotional nationalism, their inferiority complex will wreck the country.

GH: (Looks pensively.) Too close to Russia too far from the West.

OB: They say we are hogging all the government subsidies, that we are closing all their defense industries.

GH: (He rises from his chair and paces the room, stroking his tie.) Let them go their own way. It’s a tragedy. I have tried to convince them that this transitional period will be painful for all of us and that they have to share their part of the burden.

OB: All they talk about is the fact that their economy depends on the arms industry. That unemployment is double the rate here.

GH: (Yawning, a bored look.) We can only try to persuade them to stay with us. Ultimately they will decide and have to live with the consequences of a separation. We have Germany, We don’t need them.

OB: But a break up will make us a smaller country.

GH: (Putting on a grave face.) Yes it will be a tragedy. They are stuck in the old Stalinist model of heavy industry and arms exports. Isn’t it more humane to have more unemployed and fewer arms? It’s a tragedy.

GH: (Strokes his silk tie. Walksaround the desk and leads OB out of the room. Walks around the office engaging in a soliloquy.) So much has changed. Who would have imagined that we democrats would be leaving the Warsaw Pact to join NATO; choose to be junior partners with Germany rather than stay with the Slovaks. Evict collective farmworkers to return land to the landowner. (He stops and brightens up and becomes ironic.) Yeah and the Marxists would say that my policies or consciousness reflects my bourgeois existence. Who needs to bother with them anymore… they don’t exist. Whatever the social costs, they are secondary. We are becoming a civilized Western country again.

(In the Office of the President. Grovel paces the floor anxiously awaiting his next visitor. The receptionist announces US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright.)

Grovel: (Moves forward to meet her, arranges his tie, puts on an ingratiating smile. She nter. He extends his hand a bit prematurely.) Secretary Albright, what a pleasure to have you visit us. (They shake hands.)

Albright: Yes, I enjoy being back here after so many years. You know, the city has changed, so much traffic and pollution.

Grovel: That’s the cost of prosperity – everybody has a car now.

Albright: Of course! Let’s get to this business about your application to join NATO. Is your government ready to abide by the rules of NATO?

Grovel: (Sententiously.) It’s a great opportunity for, us to be part of the West. It’s the best way to consolidate our democracy and deter the Russians if Yeltsin drinks himself into the grave.

Albright: (Smiles for a second and then becomes business like.) We provide protection but there is a price; reciprocity. We want to be able to build bases and to relocate missiles and nuclear warheads when we decide its a strategic necessity.

Grovel: (Frowns for an instant) That will have to be discussed with the parliament and…

Albright: (Interrupts him.) Grovel. This isn’t a literary exercise. You’re the President. Do you want to be part of the West? You have to shoulder part of the burden.

GH. (Fawning) Of course. Don’t get me wrong. I have no objection but we have a democracy. I’ll have to call the party leaders. There won’t be any problems. It’s of the utmost importance for our independence to be under US leadership in NATO.

Albright: (A mixture of cynicism and thinly veiled contempt.) There’s only one superpower today, Grovel. Your are making the right choice. The only choice.

Grovel: (Smiles weakly) It’s our own free choice and the great majority of the people support it.

Albright: (She gets up, shakes hands and starts to walk out.) Goodbye.

Albright: (Soliloquy in the doorway) Where does he get off with all that spiritual bullshit and holier than thou attitude? Telling us what the “real meaning” of NATO is all about.

Ha. We only organized it, put it under our command and showed our European allies how to shine our boots. (Stops, reflects.) I guess he’s so used to, mouthing all that mushy gook to his liberal camp followers he really believes he can walk on the Danube. How did he put it in that article of his… “We the free people of the Czech Republic will provide a new definition of the purpose, mission and identity of NATO…” Listen Grovel, NATO is about U.S. power, get it, telling the world we are ‘Number One’. (Face reddens, stops, reflects and brightens up.) I guess there’s no harm in letting Grovel put a moral varnish on our march to the Russian border. Sometimes I wonder if he’s bucking for my job, describing the “new NATO” as “a guarantor of Euro-American civilization and thus as a pillar of global security.” I like it… Makes you feel good while we’re sticking it to the Russians. Oh Grovel, if you ever lose your job I’ll get you a position at the United States Information Agency. S till he’s a pompous ass. Every time you talk to him it seems like he’s reading a draft of a piece he’s submitting to the New York Times op-ed page or an open letter to New York Review of Books Still that high-falutin rhetoric makes it easier for liberals to swallow our power politics. (Smirks.) For a guy with such high moral standards, he could borrow Monica’s knee pads. (She laughs gleefully.)

Grovel: (Soliloquy) She’s more of a mediocrity than I thought. But you know if you represent a great power, you can spell your name backward and still get respect. Look at Reagan, he fell asleep at meetings and still everyone in Europe thought he was a genius. Ach… What an opportunist she is. Anything to curry favor. First she is a hatchet person at the U.N. for the Neanderthals in Congress. Then she is a woman and gets in the Cabinet, then she is a Czech to talk to the Europeans, then she discovers she’s Jewish to verify her credentials to make Middle East policy. (He throws hands up in a dramatic gesture.) What I have to sacrifice for this country…

(Knock on the door.)

GH: Come in.

Secretary: (Walks in.) There is a group of writers. They claim they have an appointment.

Grovel: I don’t want to see them. They’re probably looking for a job. Send them to the Ministry of Culture.

Secretary: They said they got purged for their ideas.

Grovel (Indignant) Part of the nomenclature hacks probably from the Stalinist Writers Union. (Presses buzzer, an aide rushes in.) Escort those unemployed Stalinists out.

Aide: You mean those middle-age professors of literature?

Grovel: How do you know they teach literature?

Aide: One of them was my professor. He supported Dubcek and got kicked out by the Stalinists and taught classes in his tiny apartment for a while.

Grovel: Alright, you go talk to him. Maybe find him a job in some high school.

The Official James Petras website :: http://petras.lahaine.org ::

James Petras is a Bartle Professor (Emeritus) of Sociology at Binghamton University, New York. He is the author of 64 books published in 29 languages, and over 560 articles in professional journals, including the American Sociological Review, British Journal of Sociology, Social Research, Journal of Contemporary Asia, and Journal of Peasant Studies.  He has published over 2000 articles in nonprofessional journals such as the New York Times, the Guardian, the Nation, Christian Science Monitor, Foreign Policy, New Left Review, Partisan Review, Temps Moderne, Le Monde Diplomatique, and his commentary is widely carried on the internet. His most recent titles are The Power of Israel in the United States and Rulers and Ruled in the US Empire: Bankers, Zionists and Militants, (acquired for Japanese, German, Italian, Indonesian, Czech and Arabic editions), Zionism, Militarism and the Decline of US Power, Global Depression and Regional Wars: The United States, Latin America and the Middle East, and War Crimes in Gaza and the Zionist Fifth Column in America. He has a long history of commitment to social justice, working in particular with the Brazilian Landless Workers Movement for 11 years. In 1973-76 he was a member of the Bertrand Russell Tribunal on Repression in Latin America. He writes a monthly column for the Mexican newspaper, Le Jornada, and previously, for the Spanish daily, El Mundo.

He received his B.A. from Boston University and Ph.D. from the University of California at Berkeley.
We thank our colleague Gaither Stewart for researching this article. 

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