Bureaucracy silences Czech jazz musicians
1987Adam Wood 1987-09Read it in the scan (PDF at ETOL), page 13 →
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Six months ago, on March 12, 1987, Karel Srp and Vladimir Kouril, two Czechoslovakian musicians, were sentenced to 16 months in prison-with the six months they had already served in pre-trial detention credited to their time.
Three others were given suspended sentences and placed on probation up to four years. Two remaining musicians who were too ill to stand trial will be put on trial in the near future. The charge against the defendants was "unauthorized commercial activities.
These seven men are all leaders of the now outlawed Jazz Section of the Czech musicians union. The Section was formed in 1971 and soon became an outlet for many artists seeking refuge from cultural repression.
The Jazz Section utilized the fact that musical publications were not as strictly censored as political journals. The Section's petition demanding the immediate release of the musicians was signed by several thousand people."
magazine and literature contained writings rejected by official publications and materials which covered many subjects besides music.
The Section published uncensored works by two of Czechoslovakia's writers, Bohumio Habal, the novelist, and Jaroslav Seiffert, a Nobel Prize-winning poet. Seiffert's Nobel acceptance speech had not been published in Czechoslovakia until the Jazz Section did so.
These writings and ideas had a large impact in Czechoslovakia, and the size and influence of the Jazz Section grew rapidly. The Section had 8000 members in the early '80s, and its publications had a circulation of 80,000 to 100,000.
The Czech government began to feel threatened by the Section's activities and attempted to pressure the musicians' union to dissolve the Jazz Section. In 1983 the union complied, but immediately took the Section into its Prague organization.
In July of 1984, the entire musicians' union was suspended with the ultimatum of expelling all Jazz Section members. Nonetheless, the union continued to give refuge to the Jazz Section, and the suspension was repealed.
Finally, the Czech authorities issue of Inprecor, a magazine published in Paris by the Fourth International, Peter Uhl, one of the most prominent Czech dissidents, explains why he didn't sign the Charter 77 letter. Uhl was imprisoned from 1969 to 1973 and again from 1979 to 1984. Jazz Section's assets liquidated.
The Section's fans were outraged. A "Committee of Jazz Branch Activists" was formed. A petition demanding the immediate release of the musicians was signed by several thousand people.
About 150 people crowded the halls surrounding the courtroom where the trial was held. The crowd maintained syncopated clapping for 20 minutes during the judge's verdict.
Judge Stiborik called the Section's work commendable, but closed his presentation announcing that "social values must be regulated." The 16-month terms were only a fraction of the eight-year sentences the musicians were liable for.
Vaclay Havel, an award-winning Czech playwright, commented: "It's completely absurd to say that what these men contribute to culture is great but that he [Stiborik] must still send them to prison. The only right sentence would have been to