The Anti-Authoritarianism of the Movement of Revolutionary Youth in Czechoslovakia. Three Possible Explanations

Abstract

In both the collective and individual writings of members of the Czech Movement of Revolutionary Youth (Hnutí revoluční mládeže, HRM), there is a strong accent on the anti- authoritarian dimension of radical Left politics. This accent has multiple dimensions: 1) an accent on concrete freedoms in social life (often connected with the position of young people), 2) a tendency to reevaluate some moments in the history of the workers' movement (conflict in the First International) and an accent on an anti-authoritarian interpretation of the works of authors such as Lenin and Trotsky, 3) an analysis of state socialism as concerning countries in which socialism had been built but which were ruled by a bureaucratic caste, meaning that political revolution for self-government is the task of the day 4) a focus on social self-management as the core of programmatic activity.

This anti-authoritarian accent may be surprising in the context of the prevalent image of Trotskyism, but it has three possible explanations which we will discuss: (1) the state socialist explanation - that this position reflected the experience of real socialism and especially the position of young people in real socialism (students); the framework for comparison here is the other revolutionary socialist groups in state socialist countries, above all Kuroń and Modzelewski as their Open Letter to the party was translated by an author close to the HRM (2) the (post)-Trotskyist explanation - since the death of Trotsky, it has also been possible to perceive an anti-authoritarian drive and focus on bureaucratic power in the (post)Trotskyist movement, especially in the "Johnson-Forest" (C. L.

R. James and Raya Dunayevskaya) Tendency and Marxist Humanism (3) the historical moment explanation - the influence of the temporal dynamics of the "World revolution of 1968".