WORLD : Pravda Backs Communist Party as Guiding Force in Society
Pravda today defended the leading role of the Communist Party, which has been scrapped by East Germany and Czechoslovakia and is now under assault in the Soviet Union.
The Communist Party daily said any article of the Soviet constitution could be reviewed or abolished but that dumping Article Six, which makes the party the guiding force in society, would not promote reform.
It said that among those now calling for its removal were people who wanted to weaken the Communists in order to promote their own political ambitions.
The Parliament in the Soviet republic of Lithuania abolished its Article Six on Thursday and legalized a multiparty system, while Estonia’s leaders gave the go-ahead for a similar move by its Parliament later this month. Radical deputies, including Andrei D. Sakharov, have called for the issue to be discussed next week in the Soviet Congress of People’s Deputies, the highest legislative body.
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