Combining Laclauian Discourse Analysis and Framing Theory Václav Havel’s ‘Hegemonic Rhetoric’ in Charter 77

The literature on the resistance and protest movements of Czechoslovakian dissidents and intellectuals during the communist period is abundant, but little attention has been devoted to close rhetorical analysis of the texts by the leaders of these movements. In conducting a case study of the rhetoric of the Czechoslovakian social movement Charter 77 during its early period of activity (1977–1978) as embodied in the early political essays of its leader Václav Havel and in the declaration of the movement, this article highlights the need to combine two theories in studying the rhetoric of social movement leaders: Laclauian discourse analysis and social movement framing theory. The article claims that, in order better to explain the choice of rhetoric of social movements, the two theories can be used in a single framework as an empirical method for analyzing social movements’ strategies. The study shows how combining Laclauian discourse analysis with framing theory expands social movement analysis; in combination, this framework explains the inception, emergence and choice of strategy of the Charter 77 movement.

Charter 77 in the journalism of the Parisian “Kultura”

Although the Czechoslovak theme was not of particular interest in the journalism of “Kultura” (compared to Ukrainian or Lithuanian issues), it covered issues concerning Poland’s southern neighbour. The year 1968 marked a special period of increased interest in Czechoslovakia and the associated process of a series of social, political and economic reforms, which went down in history under the name of the Prague Spring. The period after the invasion by the Warsaw Pact troops and the start of the so-called process of normalization was also closely commented on by columnists and analysts of “Kultura”. However, particular attention was paid to the activities of the opposition in the area of Charter 77. The purpose of this article is to show how the Parisian “Kultura” referred to the opposition movement in Czechoslovakia. Moreover, Czechoslovak writers associated with Czechoslovak immigrant communities spoke out more often in “Kultura” pages

Ukrainian Theme in the Documents of Czech Civic Initiatives During the Second Half of the 1980s.

The authors analyzed the presence and content of Ukrainian theme in the documents of Czech civic initiatives during the second half of the 1980s. The development of citizens initiatives has become a catalyst of socio-political life in Czechoslovakia. The number of participants in civic initiatives increased, and their programs were politicized. In program statements the principle of the so-called leading role of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia was rejected as inconsistent with the principle of equality of citizens and the code of civil and political rights. The source base of this research comprised documents and materials of human rights activists, first presented in the self-published (samizdat) bulletins of independent Czech civic initiatives: “Information on Charter 77” (“Informace o Chartĕ 77”), “The Case of the East European News Agency” (“Zprava vychodoevropske informačni agentury”) and “Bulletin of Independent Peace Commonwealth – Initiative for demilitarization of society” (“Bulletin nezavisleho miroveho sdruženi – Iniciativy za demilitarizaci společnosti”). It has been shown that the Ukrainian theme is presented in two documents of the human rights association of Charter 77: the document “Before the Chernobyl Accident” (May 6, 1986) and the telegram of Czechoslovak human rights activists to Lviv, addressed to the group “Dovira” (“Trust”) (April 22, 1989). Czech “Independent Peace Commonwealth – Initiative for demilitarization of society” and Ukrainian, Lviv, “Dovira” Group, exchanged a letter and a telegram of solidarity. The informational reasons for creating the documents were the Chernobyl disaster – man-made accident on a global scale and the brutal dispersal of a peaceful demonstration in Lviv. Documents of Czech human rights activists and pacifist activists focus public attention on late Soviet realities: concealment of information from society about radioactive contamination and another human rights violation in Soviet Ukraine

Civil Society and Art/Theory Producers as Parallel Polis? Reflections on the Challenges of Dissident Culture from 1968 to 1989 and Beyond

The article deals with Czechoslovak dissident culture after 1968, in particular with the movement Charter 77 and its legacy after 1989, focusing on the concept of paralelní polis (parallel polis) introduced by Václav Benda and widely discussed among dissidents: the idea of creating new and independent cultural, economic, and media structures parallel to the official structures. The study considers the paralelní polis as an instrument through which the (post-)‘68-movements led by intellectuals, artists, and theorists sought the emancipation and diversification of civil society in both capitalist and socialist countries. With the collapse of the socialist world after 1989, the history of the paralelní polis reveals that the ‘68 idea of civil society was ambivalent, while Charter 77 proved to be a heterogeneous movement. Many ex-Chartists came to believe that capitalism could better enable the existence of a civil society than socialism, while others did not accept this view. Moreover, even among the supporters of capitalism there was no unity (some were close to neoliberalism, others were critical of it). In contrast to the 1960s and 1970s, there was no dialogue between these different positions within civil society, but rather radicalization and exclusivity. The radical left, anarcho-capitalism, and Christian fundamentalism developed their particular and mutually exclusive narratives about the legacy of paralelní polis.

Opportunity and threat behind the Iron Curtain: The failed diffusion of human rights activism in Romania

Research has highlighted the importance of diffusion processes for the emergence and spread of collective action, yet less attention has been paid to cases where diffusion fails to lead to successful campaigns. This article analyzes an instance of failed movement diffusion to explicate how proximate episodes of contention interact with domestic configurations of opportunity and threat. The authors draw on a failed human rights campaign in communist Romania. In the mid-1970s, several Eastern bloc nations signed international human rights covenants to improve international relations, unintentionally sparking dissident movements across the region. Activists in Romania sought to emulate Czechoslovakia’s dissident movement, Charter 77. But despite the success of its model, the Romanian campaign failed to materialize. This article analyzes the movement and finds that the failed diffusion resulted from a combination of limited structural opportunities at the domestic level, weak perceptions of collective efficacy, and the state’s use of flexible repression strategies.

Environmental Journalism? Radio Free Europe, Charter 77 and the Making of an Environmental Agenda

The primary aim of this paper is to outline concisely the history of environmental journalism in Czechoslovakia and to compare it to the development of Radio Free Europe’s environmental agenda. This comparison can help us better understand how important a role society – and by extension social constructivism – played in twentieth-century environmental history. An explanation for these discrepancies can, in my opinion, be found not only in the internal discussions at RFE and among dissidents but also in the international context. Upon greater scrutiny, the simple question of why and how RFE’s environmental agenda emerged, and why certain environmental topics but not others were covered in RFE’s broadcasts and reports, appears to be multi-layered, and, if we attempt to answer it, can reveal how and why environmental issues become socially and politically relevant.

Elite Cultural Work and Discursive Obstruction of Human Rights Activism

When challenged, states frequently respond with discursive campaigns meant to undercut the legitimacy of social movements. However, we know little about how the social and cultural status of challengers affects the state’s discursive response. We address this gap by analyzing an important historical case of human rights activism in Communist Czechoslovakia. Despite its long history of violence and repression, Czechoslovakia signed several international human rights covenants during the 1970s to improve its reputation. A group of citizens that included well-known political, social, and cultural figures soon formed a domestic movement for human rights known as Charter 77. Drawing on state media articles, we analyze the state’s public response to Charter 77. Results highlight four discursive strategies through which the state sought to undermine the cultural legitimacy of the movement: vilification through character assaults, message distortion that constructed activists as enemies of socialism, symbolic amplification of socialist values, and the co-optation of culturally valued identities to speak as state proxies. By further developing the concept of discursive obstruction, we show how the state navigated the complex cultural field in its effort to suppress high-profile human rights activists.

Human Rights, Prison, and Amplifiers

The dance of non-politics during communism was taken into account in its most public form in Charter 77. This chapter begins with the Second Festival of the Second Culture in 1976 and takes us until the early 1980s showing the relationship between dissidents associated with Charta 77 and Undergrounders. The assembly and framing of the relationship between establishment, self, and music in the Underground during the first part of the 1970s provided an entrance point that paired the Underground and the Czechoslovak dissident opposition. I problematize notions of resistance as tied to dissent and protest by taking a critical approach to the paradigm of protest music. The chapter seeks to show how music helps sort out and align groups of people.