The Limits of Tolerance for Intolerance. Young Democracy and Skinhead Violence in Czechia in the 1990s

Abstract

The article deals with the intersecting topics of liberty, democracy, and contentious politics in Czechia in the 1990s. After the fall of the Iron Curtain, Czechoslovakian citizens could once again freely enter the public space and articulate their demands. But what if contentious claim-making acquires intolerant or even violent forms? The author chooses a specific case of skinhead violence and engages with the question of how the borderline between tolerated and forbidden acts was negotiated and reshaped during the democratic transition and subsequent consolidation in Czechia in the 1990s.

Notes

1 Skinhead subculture emerged in the late 1960s in the United Kingdom. Its roots can be traced to the other working-class subcultures, the British ‘mods’, and the football terrace hooligans, the ‘boot boys’ (Hebdige 1979; Marshall 1994). The second wave of skinhead subculture came in the late 1970s as a reaction against the commercialisation and ‘antisocial’ attitude of the punk subculture. The second generation of skinheads was distinguished by its progressive politicisation, resulting in an identity crisis and the eventual split of the subculture/movement into several, partially feuding branches: a racist one (inclining to extreme right ideologies), an anti-racist one (emphasising the subculture’s multicultural roots and anti-fascism, for example, S.H.A.R.P.—Skinheads Against Racial Prejudice), and a neutral one, which rejected any commitment to political battles (including active anti-fascism) and referred itself to the original style and lifestyle of skinheads from the 1960s (Marshall 1994; Brown 2004). Since the 1990s, all three major streams of skinhead culture have been present in Czechia; however, the racist branch has been dominant for most of this time.

2 Subcultures can, as the example of skinheads shows, intersect with social movements. The borderline between a subculture and a social movement is fluid. One of the major differences between them is their relation to the existing social order. Whereas most subcultural actions are directed towards members of the ‘in-group’, the actions of a social movement are directed at policy and/or political change (Piotrowski 2013, p. 411). The delimitation between the skinhead subculture and the movement that grew out of it is not the aim of this study. The author addresses Czech skinheads after 1993, when the first skinhead organisations appeared, as a political movement.

3 ‘Contentious politics’ denotes a ‘subset of public politics in which the claims are collective and would, if realised, affect their objects’ interests’ (Tilly 2003, p. 30). In a territory of contentious politics, governments always ‘become parties to contention as claimants, objects of claims, or stakeholders’ (Tilly 2003, p. 26).

4 ‘Repertoire of contention’ denotes, in Charles Tilly’s understanding, a set of actions and/or approximate scenarios for political interaction which are available to a political actor within a given time frame (Tilly 2003, pp. 45–6).

5 The anarchist zine A-Kontra, the S.H.A.R.P. zine Bulldog, and 80 far-right skinhead zines from the period 1991–1999 were provided by Jan Charvát, Charles University, Czech and Slovak Subcultures Archive (Český a slovenský archiv subkultur), Prague, and the Archive of Youth Cultures (Archiv Der Jugendkulturen) in Berlin.

6 A key source of inspiration was an investigative report on Western skinheads by German journalist Gerhard Kromschröder (1986). The report was published under the title ‘The Skinheads Are Really Great Guys’ (Holohlavci, to jsou, pane chlapci) in 1986 in the magazine 100+1 Zahraničních zajímavostí.

7 Interviews with: Vladimír Červený, former punk, and a S.H.A.R.P. skinhead, Prague, 26 September 2018; Petr (anonymised), a former punk, Prague, 16 August 2018.

8 Oi! represents the sub-genre of punk-rock associated with the subculture of skinheads dating from the 1970s.

9 According to some subcultural sources, the first Oi! band is considered to be the band Hubert Macháně (‘Historie skinheads v Čechách’, Skinhead Pride, 3). In 2019 Hubert Macháně was still active.

10 Hussitism was a Christian movement in the fifteenth century, which aims for reform of the Catholic Church. The movement’s name is derived from that of Czech reformer Jan Hus. For skinheads, Hussitism incorporated a ‘symbol of Czech resistance against all external threats’ (‘Historie skinheads v Čechách’, Skinhead Pride, 3).

11 Interview with Filip Vávra, a former neo-Nazi skinhead, Prague, 19 September 2018.

12 These issues were raised in early skinhead zines such as Skinhead Pride (approx. 1994–1996).

13 Interviews with: Petr (anonymised), a former punk, Prague, 16 August 2018; Filip Vávra, a former neo-Nazi skinhead, Prague, 19 September 2018.

14 ‘White Power’ music is music that serves as a medium for extreme right ideologies. It is not restricted to a specific style; as well as rock, there are WP punk, black-metal or hardcore/hatecore bands. Besides Orlík, the Czech bands Braník, Buldok, Valašská liga, Agrese 95, Apartheid, Vlajka, and others fall under the category of WP music.

15 Interviews with: Filip Vávra, a former neo-Nazi skinhead, Prague, 19 September 2018; Vladimír Červený, former punk and currently a S.H.A.R.P. skinhead, Prague, 26 September 2018; Roman (anonymised), a former fan of heavy metal and a S.H.A.R.P. skinhead, Prague, 22 August 2018.

16 ‘Založení republikánské strany’, Česká tisková kancelář, 31 December 1989, available at: https://www.ctk.cz/, accessed 1 September 2018.

17 Interview with Martin, a former neo-Nazi skinhead, Brno, 22 December 2018.

18 Many Vietnamese citizens came to Czechoslovakia in the socialist period for study or industrial work (Kocourek 2006).

19 Interview with Filip Vávra, a former neo-Nazi skinhead, Prague, 19 September 2018.

20 ‘Sochař Opočenský zproštěn obžaloby’, Rudé Právo, 1 July 1995.

21 Interview with Václav (anonymised), a former punk, Prague, 22 August 2018.

22 Interview with Filip Vávra, a former neo-Nazi skinhead, Prague, 19 September 2018.

23 ‘Klid před bouří?’, Rudé Právo, 14 August 1991.

24 ‘Návštěvní hodiny pro skinheady’, A-Kontra, 19, 1.

25 Interview with Buqičák, a former punk and S.H.A.R.P. skinhead, Prague, 24 September 2018.

26 No. 84/1990 Sb., Zákon o právu shromažďovacím, available at: https://www.zakonyprolidi.cz/cs/1990-84/zneni-20210227, accessed 5 May 2021.

27 §198a zákona 140/1961 Sb., Trestní zákon, available at: https://www.zakonyprolidi.cz/cs/1961-140, accessed 5 May 2021. The Criminal Code No. 140/1961 was repealed on 1 January 2010 and replaced by the new Criminal Code No. 40/2009 Coll.

28 At the beginning of the 1990s, the Czechoslovakian anarchist movement was mostly oriented towards non-violence and pacifism; however, a minor stream inspired by the German radical left autonomist movement endorsed violent clashes with the skinheads (Charvát 2007, p. 162). One of the biggest clashes between the anarchists and the skinheads happened in May 1991 in Prague, as a group of skinheads attacked anarchists participating in a non-violent protest against corruption in connection with the General Czechoslovak exhibition, which was organised for the 100th anniversary of the Jubilee Exhibition in Prague in 1891 and which served to showcase Czech and Slovak industry (‘Rvačka před Výstaviště’, Rudé právo, 31 May 1991). On 1 May 1992, several dozen skinheads faced a much larger mob of anarchists armed with stones and Molotov cocktails in Prague, Letenské sady (Mitrofanov 1992).

29 ‘Anarchisté a skinheadi u jednoho stolu’, A-Kontra, 26–27, 8–9.

30 Interview with Petr (anonymised), a former punk, Prague, 16 August 2018.

31 Interview with Martin (anonymised), a former neo-Nazi skinhead, Brno, 22 December 2018.

32 The name of this branch of the skinhead movement refers to the medieval tradition of the Czech Hussite movement. The ‘Ultraquist’ skinheads used the calix (in Czech ‘kalich’), which was the emblem of the Hussites, as their symbol (Charvát 2017b, p. 87).

33 ‘Interview mit einem der Organisatoren der Böhmischen Hammerskinheads’, Wehrt Euch!, 5.

34 ‘Skinheads Uherský Brod’, Národní boj, 2; ‘Vlastenecká liga = H.O.S.T.’, Národní boj, 4–5.

35 The Beneš decrees were a number of acts issued by the president of Czechoslovakia Edward Beneš who, on the basis of a constitutional decree of 15 October 1940, exercised emergency powers after having left the country and gone into exile in London. He exercised these powers after he returned to Czechoslovakia. In 1946, a specific constitutional law confirmed all the Beneš decrees with retroactive effect as legally valid. After 1989, an international dispute opened regarding the validity of the decree of 25 October 1945 (No. 108) according to which all property of people of German or Hungarian nationality was confiscated, with the exception of those who had remained loyal to Czechoslovakia and the decree of 2 August 1945 (No. 33) according to which Czechoslovak citizens of German or Hungarian nationality lost their Czechoslovak citizenship. Exceptions were made only for those who acted loyally towards Czechoslovakia (Frowein et al. 2002, pp. 7–8).

36 Interviews with Filip Vávra, a former neo-Nazi skinhead, Prague, 19 September 2018; Vladimír Červený, a former punk and S.H.A.R.P. skinhead, Prague, 26 September 2018.

37 US Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices 1993—Czech Republic (Washington, DC, United States Department of State, 1994), available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/3ae6aa4f8.html, accessed 25 February 2019; Human Rights Watch World Report 1994—The Czech Republic (New York, NY, Human Rights Watch, 1994), available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/467fca8b1d.html, accessed 25 February 2019.

38 On 5 February 1993, the Czech Prime Minister Václav Klaus declared the activities of skinheads to be dangerous, as these activities attacked the very foundation of the state and its legal code (‘Podle Klause skinové útočí proti podstatě státu’, Rudé Právo, 9 February 1993).

39 ‘Vrchní soud zmírnil tresty pro vrahy Tibora Danihela’, Slovo, 1 July 1999.

40 ‘Soud zahájil kauzu hudební skupiny Braník’, Rudé Právo, 11 March 1995; §198a zákona 140/1961 Sb., Trestní zákon, available at: https://www.zakonyprolidi.cz/cs/1961-140, accessed 5 May 2021.

41 ‘Soud uznal, že vražda Roma Berkiho měla rasový motiv’, Mladá fronta DNES, 24 May 1996.

42 Tougher penalties were introduced for hate-motivated crimes of murder, bodily harm, breaking and entering, or, for example, blackmail (CHC 1997, p. 33).

43 ‘Parkanová odmítla tvrzení o jednotné rase Čechů a Romů’, Lidové noviny, 14 August 1997.

44 From 2000 onwards, the skinhead image was gradually abandoned by parts of the neo-Nazi movement (Charvát 2007).

45 In September 1991 in Hoyerswerda, Saxony, and in August 1992 in Rostock, Mecklenburg-West Pomerania, there was a series of racist riots and acts of violence directed against asylum seekers.

46 ‘Zpráva o bezpečnostní situaci na území ČR v roce 1996 (ve srovnání s rokem 1995)’, available at: http://www.psp.cz/eknih/1996ps/tisky/t021100a.htm, accessed 1 February 2019.

47 Freie Kräfte or Freie Kameradenschaften is a designation for informal and decentralised forms of organisation, which were adopted by the German neo-Nazi movement during the second half of the 1990s to avoid organisation bans and repression.

48 See, for example, ‘Současný stav hnutí’, Hlas národa, 4.

49 David Lane was a member of the US-based white supremacy terrorist organisation ‘The Order’. The 14 words, ‘We must secure the existence of our people, and a future for white children’, represent the ideological core of international neo-Nazi organisations such as Hammerskin Nation and Blood and Honour. ‘Racial Holy War’ (RAHOWA) was a slogan of the US neo-Nazi terrorist organisation, Church of the Creator. The RAHOWA denotes the final revolution, which will lead to the establishment of a new society ruled by the Aryan race.

50 Interview with Martin, a former neo-Nazi skinhead, Brno, 22 December 2018.

51 The state’s insufficient protection of the Romani minority was, for example, criticised by the United States Department of State, the Czech Helsinki Committee, and the European Commission against Racism and Intolerance; furthermore, the Roma issue was highlighted in Agenda 2000 (European Commission 1997, p. 45), in which the European Commission presented its opinions on the accession applications of the Czech Republic and other candidate states of Central and Eastern Europe.

52 ‘Veřejnost i politici odsoudili rasismus’, Hospodářské noviny, 11 November 1997.

53 ‘Soudci snížili trest za smrt Biháriové’, Mladá fronta DNES, 27 February 1999.

54 ‘Premiér pro tvrdší postup vůči skinům’, Právo, 27 July 1998; ‘Proti skinům zřejmě speciální jednotka’, Slovo, 20 November 1998.

55 ‘Policie a BIS zatkly šest vůdců radikálních skinů’, Právo, 22 February 1999.

56 ‘Rozpuštění občanského sdružení Národní aliance’, ČRo 1—Radiožurnál, 31 March 2000.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Vendula Prokůpková

Vendula Prokůpková, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Political Studies, Charles University, Pekařská 16, 158 00 Prague, Czech Republic. Email: [email protected]