1987. október (112-124. szám) / HU_BFL_XIV_47_2

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121/1987 (E) 23rd Octot>er,1987

Commemorations in Budapest on the Anrjiversarv of the Revolution

On the 31st anniversary of the 1956 Hungárián revolution - October 23rd, 1987 - many unofficial commemorations took piacé in Budapest. At 11 am somé members of the INCONNU independent art group Iáid flowers on the monument to the unknown soldier in Hősök Tere. Róbert Pálinkás, a graphic artist, commemorated the anniversary with a few words. (The other members of the INCONNU group who are pres- ently in England held a commemoration at the same time at the monument to the victims of the Yalta Accord in London.) In the afternoon at 1.30 pm in the garden of the University of Technology in Buda - where the students and teachers of the university had set off on their march 31 years earlier - about 60-80 people con- gregated. Tibor Philipp unfurled the national flag and those present sang the Anthem. After this Imre Mécs who was a student at the university made a speech.

He remembered the circumstances surrounding the organisation of the demonstration on the 23rd October 1956 and the cheerful and optimistic atmosphere wnich fiiled the young people at the time. Imre Mécs was sentenced to death after the suppress- ion of the revolution then this was changea to a second degree sentence, to life imprisonment. After him János Denes, who was the president of the 1956 workers council in tne Chinoin Factory in Kőbánya, spoke. He said he had gone to the Rákoskeresztúr cemetpry that morn.ing to lay flowers on the grave he supposed to be Imre Nagy’s. He spoke bitterly about the ruined and abandoned state of the 301st plot in the cemetery and the unmarked and sunken graves. György Gadó spoke after János Dénes, representing the Democratic Opposition, about the necessity of true demo- cracy and political reforms, saying that it was nőt possible to wait fór official permission. Society must reform itself.

Later in the afternoon the INCONNU group organised another commemoration in Tibor Philipp’s Budapest fiat. This parallelled the festival of rememberance going on at the same time in London. The fiat was hung with graphics which had been made with enlarged photographs of 1956 and pictures of Imre Nagy. However there was an unex- pected power cut in the house which lasted about half an hour and another one later, so candles were lit. Róbert Pálinkás, the youngest member of the INCONNU group,at 7pm unfurled a flag in which there was a hole as a reminder of the days of revolution. He opened the celebration with a reading of Albert Camus*s work,"The Blood of Hungarians" . After this Elek Nagy, president of the workers council in Csepel in 1956,remembered how the Csepel workers had taken part in the revolutionary fights from the first day of the revolution, his discussions with Imre Nagy, how Csepel had resisted the attacks of the Russian armed forces until November llth, the retribution and his own years in prison. He alsó said that he had been summoned to the Ministry of the Interior two days before and had been told that it would be advisable to steer clear of any celebrations of this sort. Afterwards Tibor Philipp, the owner of the fiat, spoke about the ever serious crisis which he. likened'to the situation in 1956 and how the young people then, unlike the passivity of today, believed in the impossible and could thus bring the revolution to victory. Tamás Mikes,who took part in the 56 fights as a secondary school student and was thus imprisoned, emphasised in his bittér comments that the Democratic Opposition should discover in the spirit of 56 what can be said to the dispossessea and how to engage in social action. Then Róbert