Union declarations

We appeal to all...!
December 2001

   A declaration of the Union of Czech Writers in response to the situation of the Czech culture and Czech literature.

   On 8th December, 2001, a member meeting of the Union of Czech Writers was held. The meeting agenda involved discussing the current role of Czech writers within our society, the current state of the Czech culture, particularly literature, and the functioning of the Czech Literary Fund. After an extensive discussion, the writers issued the following declaration:

   We observe the situation of our national culture in all non-profitable, both professional and non-professional areas with great concern. Contrary to many official defenders of economic relations, we do not agree that our culture is flourishing. We believe that the bloom of our culture is a mere illusion created for the eyes of the public. Our so-called contemporary culture with its disproportional focus on entertainment represents only superficial values and lacks true quality. The real values of our national culture are being relentlessly eliminated by the dictate of economy and money. This elimination is further reinforced by the influence of the media. The result is the loss of space for the presentation of our culture, and our cultural and spiritual values. Spiritual values are being oppressed, the publishing of both classical and contemporary literature has been drastically reduced, and the production of motion pictures and art for children is suffering a major downturn. Cultural life is decaying on a regional scale throughout the country, and for most people culture has become a luxury they simply cannot afford. We are aware that the unsettled economic conditions closely connected with the demoralization of our society share the blame for the negative state in which culture finds itself. We are also aware that the long-term disparaging attitude of various power hierarchies towards culture is equally responsible for this decline. Alongside culture, sciences and education on all levels are also deteriorating for the same reasons. Our mass media and their publishers consistently aid this liquidation of culture. Understandably, the foreign (German, Dutch, Swiss, and other) publishers of our media are not interested in promoting our culture, our spiritual values, and our views. What is taking place here is the elimination of the real leaders of our social, cultural, and scientific life, the erasing of our nation's memory, the deliberate shaping of social perception to create a society with a very narrow focus on consumption and entertainment. Artistic, scientific, and humanistic intelligence has been deprived of its space and its opportunity to influence our nation's perception, and has become the subject of deliberate isolation. Its place in our society has plunged in a spiral of regression to a voluntary level. We strongly emphasize that for an entire decade artists and writers are being discriminated against, particularly those who published during the former regime and those with left-wing political orientation. The issue is not only the dictate of economy but also the vendetta ideology. Media boycott on many writers and artists is a denied fact. Candid inquisition methods show striking similarities to the so-called period of normalization at the beginning of the 70's, which affected mainly literature. The global overview of all Czech literature is deliberately being distorted. Distorted interpretations of story books, literature textbooks, summaries, dictionaries, scripts, and history books take place through the elimination of the names of many writers and literary theoreticians, because these literary works are not being judged by their quality, but by non-literary ideals and prejudices. This distorted picture then reflects in the presentation of our literature in our daily newspapers, in various types of periodicals and other media, and on all Czech radio and TV stations. By their very nature, these methods disrespect the principals of democracy, ultimately to the point of being against the law. We will draw attention to these practices in international forums, and we urgently appeal to those who are responsible and competent to act to put an end to them. We consider the transfer of funds to foundations, which took place in 1994 and was approved by the art organisations, and the introduction of entrepreneur taxes for artists with the subsequent abolishment of the 2% levy on royalties, publishing profits, and other income, as the biggest mistake made during the restructuring of the Czech art organisations. In this way they have effectively allowed themselves be cut off from their main source of financing, which had previously served to provide support for new creativity, grants of art scholarships, social assistance etc. Art organisations have thus become forlorn and their expiration is now only delayed through the sales of their remaining assets. As such, they are not able to defend the professional interests of artists, and only barely deal with major problem areas. Our suggestion is to reinstate artist funds on the basis of the previous proved model. It is our belief that even writers from the Village of Writers (Obec spisovatelů), as well as artists from other organisations will also support this idea. At the same mime, we cannot stand by and become passive observers of the mono-sided presentation of non-art, distaste, vulgarity, exhibitionism and negativism (nested under the banner of postmodernism), whilst art, centred around humanistic, ethical and aesthetic principals containing important moral human messages is being systematically oppressed and degraded. We consider the above to be yet another contributing factor to the disgraceful state of the Czech culture today. Although our contemporary leaders in the ministry of Culture have taken steps to undo some of the harm caused by the multitude of errors of their predecessors and by the imprudent unwise policies of former governments, we feel that relative to the extent of the situation these steps have been insufficient. What is missing is a fundamental, conceptual approach to the functioning of the whole non-profit cultural sector. We have already learned that leaving it in the grip of economic relations is detrimental and ultimately leads to its devastation. We realize, however, that the ministry's efforts are limited by the lack of funds and are undermined, above all, by the resistance of the opposition, media, and bureaucracy. From the minister of Culture we expect a truly unconditional and helpful support of literature. We consider it crucial to implement such a cultural policy structure in our country, which would also ensure the operation of non-profitable as well as amateur aspects of culture, and would nurture the creation and promotion of new cultural values and protect existing ones. We appeal to the leaders of our art organisations and to all artists who are free from idealistic prejudices and egotistical attitudes and care deeply about the fate of our culture to join our declaration. Let their voices find the courage within to stand up in defence of cultural values against the crushing pressure of a globalised culture, against the dictate of commerce, desperate lack of soul, and moral decline. We mustn't let them take our culture away from us, we mustn't give up the right to present and promote it. The position of a country is founded on its strength and capital, this we don't have, but the position of a nation is founded on the strength of its own culture. If we become passive observers of the destruction of the Czech culture then, from the viewpoint of future, prospects we become the culprits of the disassembly of our nation.