Czechoslovaks Renew Call for Government to Resign

Czechoslovaks renewed their massive street protests Monday as more than 150,000 people jammed into the capital’s main square to demand the resignation of a Communist-dominated government appointed only the day before.

The protest set up a new confrontation between the country’s recently formed opposition movement pressing for free elections and Czechoslovakia’s beleaguered Communist Party, which is fighting an increasingly desperate battle to survive.

After briefly stunning the opposition by taking 16 of 21 seats in the new Cabinet named Sunday, the Communists by late Monday showed signs of being once again on the retreat.

Opposition Civic Forum speakers set a Sunday deadline for a new, more balanced government and threatened a general strike the following day to underscore their resolve.

“We demand a complete change of government by next Sunday that will reflect the new mood of the people,” declared Jiri Cerny, a Civic Forum member.

The new government is transitional, with its principal mandate to prepare Czechoslvakia for its first free elections in over 40 years, possibly by next July.

There were also large anti-government demonstrations in Bratislava, Ostrava and other cities.

In another significant move Monday, Civic Forum said it will for the first time nominate individuals for interim government posts.

“Civic Forum will support certain persons toward this new government,” spokesman Vaclav Maly said.

The group’s resistance to put forward specific names despite requests by Communist Prime Minister Ladislav Adamec may have been one reason for the preponderance of Communists in the government that was announced, analysts believe.

Civic Forum also said it plans to endorse a slate of candidates for the national elections next year but will still not declare itself a political party.

The tactic is similar to that successfully employed by the Polish opposition group Solidarity, whose endorsement guided voters to otherwise unknown candidates.

The size of the crowd in Prague and the power of its response to speaker after speaker seemed to visibly revive spirits among exhausted opposition leaders, who had appeared shocked and in disarray after the unveiling Sunday of a new Communist-dominated government.

Opposition leaders had called for an interim government “of professionals and technocrats” to lead the country toward full democracy.

The crowd was filled with faces young and old, and entire families huddled together trying to keep warm in the freezing fog.

Euphoria Missing

Monday’s mass protest carried little of the elation and euphoria that came with the first doses of freedom two weeks ago.

Instead, the gathering had a distinctly harder, impatient edge as speakers demanded an end to Communist-dominated government.

The demands, which also including the resignation of President Gustav Husak, were met by roars of approval that echoed through the frigid late autumn afternoon.

Husak was installed as Communist Party leader after the 1968 Soviet-led invasion that toppled party leader Alexander Dubcek and ended his Prague Spring reforms.

While the initial demonstrations last month that toppled party leader Milos Jakes’ regime focused heavily on personalities within the ruling Politburo, the issue had broadened Monday.

Demonstrators seemed to be rejecting communism as such.

“We are fed up, we are fed up!” the crowd shouted at one point, while on another occasion, the chant, “We hate them, we hate them” rose from the protest.

One sign read: “Five Crumbs Won’t Feed Us”--a reference to the five non-Communist posts in the new Cabinet.

For the first time, there were also calls to punish those members of the hierarchy who had already resigned.

Civic Forum protest organizers have consistently stressed the moral element of their movement and fretted about possible violence.

“People can only be insulted so often,” said Michal Horaceck, a Civic Forum negotiator, expressing concern that the refusal of the Communists to yield power was adding to tensions in the street.

Protest organizers Monday did not immediately call for another demonstration for today, instead telling early risers to listen on the radio for instructions.

In an agreement worked out in recent days with the government, Civic Forum was awarded 1 1/2 hours of radio time, including the 6:30-7 a.m. slot, a time of peak listening in Prague.

In a speech to protesters, a representative of the Workers Strike Committee, Igor Pleskot, called for elections of the Communist-dominated trade union committees by Dec. 20 and an end to party committees at workplaces.

Others called for the abolition of the party’s praetorian guard, a body known as the People’s Militia.

While Monday’s demonstration was smaller than some previous protests, it was seen as enough to regenerate strong political pressure on the Communist Party hierarchy to cede more power.

Some analysts questioned whether citizens would respond to a new call for demonstrations a week after they had been suspended.

There seemed little hesitation among those in the capital.

“I’ve had it up to here with them,” commented a middle-aged store clerk as she put her hand level with her nose. “I will protest for weeks if I have to.”

Responding to the powerful public reaction, Communist Deputy Prime Minister Bohumil Urban met with a Civic Forum delegation Monday in talks that reportedly centered on how to build a new government.

A Civic Forum strategist described the talks as paving the way for substantive negotiations the group hopes to conduct with Adamec when he returns later this week from Moscow.

In another development, the Czech regional government responsible for the administration of Bohemia and Moravia suspended the announcement of its new Cabinet lineup, apparently in light of Monday’s demonstrations.

Tough Talks

Civic Forum spokesman Josef Lavrosek said late Monday that “tough” negotiations were under way with Frantisek Pitra, premier of the Czech republic government, for a new lineup that might contain a minority of Communists. The governments of the Czech and Slovak republics control key areas such as justice and education in their respective regions.

The Czechoslovak Communists were also buffeted by the mass resignations of their East German colleagues and the Warsaw Pact statement in Moscow that condemned the 1968 invasion.

Opposition figures predicted the additional weight of such a joint international declaration would further damage those members of the country’s Communist leadership linked with the invasion.

“It’s inevitable that the president and a few dozen very high officials and members of Parliament will have to resign,” said Civic Forum’s Jan Urban. “It will mean that in a very short time, they will have to rehabilitate one-half million people.”

In the years after the invasion, Jakes led a purge of Dubcek and the liberal wing of the party that supported him that resulted in the expulsion of nearly half a million party members.