The new Czech extremist "revolution"

Who is being defended here?

In the days of his greatest glory before November 1989, Ševčík was the chair of the founding organization of the Czechoslovak Communist Party (Komunistická strana Československa – KSČ) at the University of Economics (Vysoká škola ekonomická – VŠE), prior to which he had been a member of the Socialist Union of Youth for years – in other words, he himself was once a UNIONIST and part of a political STRIKE FORCE. Somehow, today he is still at that same university as the Dean of the Faculty of the National Economy, which is a real bother to him, because he apparently prefers to spend his free time wandering past different demonstrations – absolutely randomly, of course – to see his friends from the days when they were waging jihad together for successful Five-Year Plans.

Ševčík joined the KSČ back in 1984. He may claim today to have been against the then-ongoing occupation of Czechoslovakia by troops from the Warsaw Pact, an invasion that was decided by the Kremlin in 1968, but if that were so, then he would not have joined the party.

By doing so, he automatically agreed with the ongoing occupation. Věra Čáslavská, the Czechoslovak gymnast who protested the Soviet Union during the Olympic medal ceremony in 1968, said the following about Ševčík in 2007: “It seems sad to me that a person who has influenced not just our own lives [in a dispute over the death of her husband, who was Ševčík’s uncle], but who harmed many students at VŠE in Prague in the past, still gets the green light to keep on going. Hardly anybody knows, apparently, that Mr. Ševčík was, before the [1989] revolution, an enthusiastic communist who taught Marxism-Leninism at the University of Economics! He was strict, too! He’s also not bragging about the fact that he ran as a candidate for the extraordinary congress of the KSČ during the revolution.”

Ševčík did an about-face after the 1989 revolution. Čáslavská again: “Overnight he turned from being a communist to being a free marketeer, he even established an Institute for that. He is an intelligent person who thinks, who consciously espoused a regime and its teachings that were totalitarian and undemocratic and who exploited the advantages available to him. He held out until the last moment of the collapse of communism. Such a person cannot be a straight shooter…“

Today Ševčík may claim to be representing just himself as an individual when he demonstrates, but at these various appearances he is introduced as the Dean of the Faculty of National Economy at the VŠE and the head of its departments, so he speaks as a dean, not just as a citizen. For example, in September 2022 he spoke at a demonstration and added hatred for the “rotten West” to his account of his personal history, thus returning in a roundabout way to his youth, in which he proudly faced down the capitalist “dogs” of Wall Street.

On that occasion, Ševčík did not neglect to remind his audience that according to American figures who are allegedly close to him, the current conflict in Ukraine is actually a proxy war between Russia and the USA. “Maybe some of you doubt whether what is happening in Ukraine is in the interest of the United States of America, but dozens of influential Americans admit it… According to them, this is a war between Russia and the USA…,” which is indirectly affecting the Czech Republic as well, he said.

“According to our politicians we have to cut back on our spending so we can aid a country that most probably doesn’t even deserve it. Hang in there,” he told that gathering, among other things.

To recap: Ševčík is labelling the West, Germany, the USA, and above all the Czech Government as the “bad guys”, along with Ukraine, which in his view mostly does not deserve aid. So, Dean, I can’t quite figure it out – who is it that’s left over to be the “good guy”?

Those doing the defending

Before 1989, Tomáš Vandas was cheerfully studying away in more than one field, which I cannot believe could have been done without his membership in the Socialist Union of Youth. After 1989 he proudly served as a functionary in the Rally for the Republic – Republican Party of Czechoslovakia (Sdružení pro republiku – Republikánská strana Československa or SPR-RSČ) run by Miroslav Sládek, the famous racist and xenophobe, where he learned his trade.

After that, Vandas established his own neo-Nazi party. The days of his greatest glory happened in February 2010, when the Czech Supreme Administrative Court abolished his “Workers’ Party” (Dělnická strana – DS) for being a neo-Nazi party continuing Hitler’s national socialism.

“The Workers’ Party, in its program and its speeches, continues the ideology of German national socialism, albeit in a somewhat ‘more modern’ execution as neo-Nazism… The Workers’ Party, during the course of this proceeding, has asserted that it has nothing in common with Nazism, but the course of this proceeding and the evidence introduced have obviously refuted that claim. Since the Court finds that the intention of the Workers’ Party is to replace the current ‘System’ of democracy and the rule of law with the ideology of national socialism, which is totalitarian, there can then be no doubt as to its assumed breach… of the Constitution… The Court has also concluded, partially in association with the collaboration that has been proven between the DS and neo-Nazi movements, that the DS will not forswear the use of violence to achieve its aims, that it intentionally calls for such violence through its activities, and that it also publicly approves of and celebrates violence committed by its members and sympathizers…” the court’s verdict on abolishing the DS states.

Vandas, however, was already prepared for that outcome, and he flipped the DS into an already-prepared shell with the name of the Workers’ Social Justice Party (Dělnická strana sociální spravedlnosti – DSSS), where he continued his work, making pacts with German and Slovak fascists and neo-Nazis, including Marian Kotleba. He swept through every Romani ghetto he could, heaping abuse on Romani people, minorities, refugees, foreigners, humanism, NGOs/nonprofits and democracy in general, all as his adherents chanted “Gypsies to the gas chambers”.

In 2011 a court convicted and sentenced Vandas for his defamatory remarks about minorities. Czech President Václav Klaus then saved him with his prisoner amnesty, which aided extremists and “tunnelers” the most.

The amnesty was a day when the extremes were reconciled for Vandas, both his neo-Nazism and his “extremism of the center” (the concept of freedom as an absolute value). Ever since, extremists of every stripe have been assembling comfortably here and keep managing to have each other’s backs – even when it is unfortunate, at times, such as when Vandas calls the enemies of Dean Ševčík a “unionist strike force”, which must have unintentionally insulted him as a unionist who is part of a political strike force.

The new “revolution”

These two men are showing us what this new “revolution” is all about. Extremists of all kinds, hateful people, the traffickers in misery and various mentally unstable individuals who believe conspiracy theories are able to come together around several subjects and gradually absorb people among them who are not extremists, but who are similar to them – genuinely decent people with good intentions. Propaganda is used to lead them astray.

Their aim is to overthrow democracy and seize power. After that, freedom of speech will end.

Those who today are calling the most for freedom of speech from these positions are no advocates of democracy – they are just doing so to be able to take that freedom away from everybody else in the long run. Czechoslovak Communist Party leader Klement Gottwald did exactly the same in his day.