Date: Sat, 17 Jan 1998 20:24:33 -0600 ................... Newsgroups: alt.revolution.counter Subject: Capitalism under Vaclav Havel Here's a description of conditions under 'free market' capitalism in the Czech Republic, as created under the counter-revolutionary leadership of the celebrated Vaclav Havel: "Havel's 'democratic reforms' have brought cuts in health care, public housing, and education; and reductions in rent and fuel subsidies to low income people. The condition of labor has drastically declined. Sick leave, maternity leave, paid vacations, and other job benefits once taken for granted under communism have been cut or abolished. Worker sanitariums, vacation resorts, health clinics, sports and cultural centers, daycare centers, and other features that made communist enterprises more than just workplaces, have nearly vanished. Hospitals, libraries, houses of culture, and public transport systems are closing or services have drastically declined. Rest homes formerly reserved for workers have been privatized and redone as casinos, night clubs, and restaurants for the nouveaux riches. Real income has shrunk by as much as 30 percent under Havel's free market rule. More than one-third of citizens live in abject poverty and large numbers hold two or more jobs and work up to 14 hours a day. Those who have suffered the most are among the more vulnerable: women, children, the elderly, and ordinary workers and peasants. There is an upsurge in official corruption and organized crime, as well as in street crime, murder, homelessness, drug addiction, mental and physical illness, and suicide. Women are being recruited in unprecedented numbers for the booming sex industry that caters to foreign and domestic businessmen. Unable to find employment in their fields, many highly educated women go abroad to work as prostitutes. Children are also channeled into the sex market. 'Prague and Budapest now rival Bangkok and Manila as hubs for the collection of children to serve visiting pedophiles.' Oddly, the Prague police force today under Havel's free market "democracy" is many times larger than it was under the 'communist police state,' when 'relatively few police were needed.'" This is an excerpt from the article, "Vaclav Havel's Warm and Fuzzy Image," by Michael Parenti in COVERT ACTION QUARTERLY, Fall 1997, p. 47.
