A Dream of East-West Accord

JAN KAVAN WAS a student leader during the late 1960s in Czechoslovakia. After the 1968 Soviet invasion and subsequent crackdown in Czechoslovakia, Kavan was forced into exile in England. There he founded the Jan Palach Press to distribute the literature and statements of Charter 77 and other Czech oppositionists to a Western audience. He is also editor of the East European Reporter, which features the views of independent activists and movements from throughout the Soviet bloc.

In his capacity as a link between East and West, Kavan has played a key role in the process of dialogue between the Western peace movements and the independent human rights and peace groups in the East. He was interviewed by Danny Collum and Polly Duncan when he visited Sojourners' office in late May of this year.
--The Editors

Sojourners: You told us that over the past six years of dialogue between Eastern human rights activists and Western peace groups you've seen a convergence of views on the relationship of their struggles and even the potential for coalition. This process is obviously still in embryonic stages, but if you could allow yourself to dream about where it might go, what would your dreams be?

Jan Kavan: If I'm allowed to dream, ha! Good question. A Czech poet of the period between the world wars once wrote that you kill your dreams by implementing them. Nonetheless, I do have dreams--some short-term and some long-term. But they're all dreams. And bear in mind that all the different components of my dreams could easily be altered. This is more an indication of a tendency rather than a blueprint of how to achieve it. I'm quite flexible with my dreams. That said, I could perceive, for example, the following dream.

First, a number of East European human rights, civil rights, peace, and other independent groups--cultural, ecological, etc.--would be able to overcome the enormous barriers which their governments put as obstacles to communication between them. Right now the East-East dialogue is in fact much more difficult than even the East-West dialogue. Nevertheless, I would say it is even more important.

So, as one step in my dream, the East-East dialogue that has already started will deepen and result in greater coordination and cooperation, at least between groups in those countries where there is increasing similarity in the social, political, and economic situation. This could result eventually in the formulation of a common political program between social forces in, for example, four frontline countries such as Czechoslovakia, Poland, East Germany, and Hungary. This is one aspect of my dream.

Next, a dialogue between these political forces in, the East and the independent, democratic peace groups and forces in the West would result in a much greater and deeper political consensus about what kind of democratic transformation of Europe and the world is necessary to guarantee real, stable peace, social justice, and basic democratic rights. And within that dialogue, these groups would agree jointly on tactics and strategy to achieve such an aim. That is the second component of the dream.

Then I could see, for example, the following development. In Eastern Europe, the unsolved contradictions between economic and social systems would provoke a drive for more economic reform. This could develop jointly in several countries from reformists within the Communist Parties and supported by the independent groups I already mentioned.

And in the Soviet Union, there would be in power a kind of pragmatic, technocratic, reform-oriented leadership, as exemplified by Gorbachev. This leadership could develop a more flexible and pragmatic approach and possibly consider a change in the status quoin Eastern Europe or Europe as a whole. On one hand this would loosen Soviet political and military control over Eastern Europe, but it would also take into account the Soviets' strategic interests and their fear, legitimate or otherwise, of a NATO attack. Such a possibility would have to be strong enough so that the Soviet Union would feel silly to refuse.

SUCH AN OFFER of a change to a more democratic restructuring of Europe would only be possible if another component of my dream takes place. The West, under pressure perhaps from its peace movements or other sane, democratic forces, would adopt a much more non-aggressive stance toward the Soviet Union and the East. It would take much more seriously various disarmament and arms control proposals. It would abandon the idea that democratic changes in the East can be provoked by military threats; or that anything positive can be achieved by threatening the use of nuclear weapons. Under those circumstances, it just might be possible for pragmatic superpower leaders to accept a cautious, step-by-step evolutionary process which would, in the end, alter the current setup in Europe.

The current status quo in Europe gives the impression of being stable because there hasn't been a war for 40 years. But in fact it is highly unstable. It has in it the seeds of a possible future confrontation.

This instability is inevitable because the continent has been artificially divided, and in the Eastern part of that continent 150 million people feel that their basic rights have been curtailed. Those people will always try to find a way of changing that status quo. If nothing is done about it, then that tension could eventually result in some major spark, and there could be a confrontation on the Iron Curtain line.

Such a confrontation could engulf the whole of Europe in a major war. And given the current state of nuclear weapons, that confrontation would engulf the whole world in a fatal conflict. Therefore, it seems to me that it is in the interest not just of the Europeans but of the Americans and others to entertain any possible proposals to make that continent into a genuinely peaceful place. And in my dream, that could just about be possible if these developments would take place, but not just on one side. Changes on both sides would have to complement each other.