ABSTRACT: Document divulged by the WRI on the aims of the demonstrations staged in Moscow, Budapest, Sofia and Warsaw, and endorsed by the Radical Party which saw to its diffusion to the press in parallel with the WRI in London.

(RADICAL NEWS No. 48, 26 September 1968)

"Aim of the demonstration:

a) respond to the appeal launched by the Czechoslovak people, who urged an international action in support of their cause, so that the truth may be known on the events. Despite the fact that the situation changed in a certain way compared to the first requests for help, as a consequence of the Moscow agreements and the subsequent negotiations and diplomatic manoeuvres, the external support and pressure are still pertinent and important;

b) break the barrier of silence and of the distortion of the news of the occupation as carried out by the authorities and the press of the U.S.S.R. and of the other countries of the Warsaw Pact;

c) prove that the opposition to the occupation is deeply felt in the Western countries by the socialist, pacifist and radical movements, whose urgent task is to prevent an enhancement of NATO and a possible turnabout toward the extreme Right. The best way to help the people of Czechoslovakia and of Western Europe is precisely that of preventing this type of answer; in November the War Resisters International will cooperate with other associations for the organization of an international demonstration against NATO; during the demonstration, actions of civil disobedience will be carried out. The demonstration will take place in Brussels in front of the NATO headquarters;

d) encourage and show sympathy for the open and courageous protests which have been expressed in the Soviet Union, East Germany, Poland and Hungary, and encourage a more open opposition on the part of those groups pf students, workers and intellectuals that are against the occupation of the Socialist Republic of Czechoslovakia.

The trials against the Soviet intellectuals, including the one against Larissa Daniel and Pavel Livtinov, following their protest against the occupation of Czechoslovakia, held in the Red Square last August, opened in Moscow last Monday;

e) illustrate the political standpoint of the demonstrations. For this purpose we have chosen, for the distribution of the pamphlets, persons who have a record of radical opposition against the military policies of their governments, against the Vietnam war and against NATO.