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OPPOSITION MOVEMENTS AND FIRST DEMONSTRATIONS
News spread like wildfire about the security forces' brutal response in Prague. Especially theater actors supported the student's demands by striking-scheduled performances were replaced by open debates with audiences. The international radio stations, Voice of America and Radio Free Europe, also spread information about breaking events. Then on November 19, around 300 people-artists, environmentalists, activists and students-met at the Slovak Art Forum in Bratislava. This meeting convened a broad civic platform against the ruling regime as the Public Against Violence (VPN) movement, while the Václav Havel-led Civic Forum (OF) was established in Prague.
VPN quickly came to include political activists from numerous Slovak social backgrounds and regions. In November, it became a broad-spectrum citizens' platform against the totalitarian regime with a steadily crystallizing program. On November 20 VPN representatives and Bratislava students organized a successful demonstration in the city center, followed by an even bigger gathering the very next day. The courage and demands of demonstrators increased hand-in-hand with their numbers on the streets: they called for society-wide dialogue, an enquiry into the events of November 17, and the resignation of the responsible party and state officials. Of particular note was a demand to remove the article in the Constitution that cemented the Communist Party's leading role.
Although the communist regime gradually weakened when faced with such popular pressure, some leading officials nevertheless strove to mobilize party reserves. On November 22, members of the Communist Party's 'armed fist'-the People's Militia-massed in Prague, and the army was put on standby. Still reluctant to forcibly intervene, the Czechoslovak Communist Party (KSČ) instead entered into negotiations. Finally, on November 24, realizing their own powerlessness and feeling the pressure from the demonstrators, the party leaders from the Presidium of the Central Committee of the KSČ resigned. This was a triumph for the civic opposition that strengthened its hand and accelerated demands for the end of the communist rule. |