November 17 - Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day in Czechia

Posted on November 17, 2020

First, let me mention that the shorter name “Czechia” is still controversial – at least in English – many people use “Czech Republic” still, and many Czechs apparently prefer it.

Second, I hate to say it, but this holiday is a commemoration of a really sad event: on this date in 1939, Nazi forces stormed Czech universities and snatched up loads of professors and students accused of demonstrating against their occupation of Czechoslovakia. Nine of the students and professors were executed, and more than 1,000 were sent to concentration camps.

Some Czech people and armed forces were living in Britain, working to defeat the Nazis from there, and on November 17, 1940, they honored the victims with a remembrance. Ever since then many nations, including Britain and Czechia, have celebrated the day as International Students’ Day. (See “Also on this date,” below.)

But I like the other, longer name for this commemoration: Struggle for Freedom and Democracy Day. This name is a reminder that there are some humans who want to seize power, to enrich themselves at others’ expense, or even to eliminate certain groups of people. The rest of us – those of us who believe in the rule-of-law, those of us who value tolerance and diversity, those of us who practice anti-racism and work to end misogyny and bigotry, those of us who value EVERYBODY’s freedom and democracy – we must actively struggle against the greedy, the bigoted, the power-hungry, the fascist.

Struggle. Fight against bad ideas with non-violent resistance, demonstrations, marches, words.

Freedom and democracy are not givens. They are not easy. But with struggle and “good trouble,” we-the-people can often prevail against bad ideas.

On November 17, 1989, a peaceful student demonstration was organized; the students were critical of Czechoslovakia’s Communist government and ended up being attacked by riot police. This was the spark that ended up bringing down Communist rule in Czechoslovakia in what is called the Velvet Revolution.