The Hungarian Student, 1961
HUNGARIAN YOUTHS SIXTEEN DEMANDS Resolved at the Meeting of the Students of the University of Technology, Budapest, October 22, 1956 We hereby bind ourselves with the students of Szeged University in their resolution, and have proceeded with the creation of the MEFESZ organization in the Technical University of Architecture and Transport. Students of the University of Technical Sciences and of the College of Horticulture here present also join. The task of the new MEFESZ is to make clear, in resolution form, the stand of the student community in the current grave political questions. 1. We demand the immediate withdrawal of all Soviet troops from Hungary, in accordance with the peace treaty. 2. We demand new secret elections of the leaders of the MDP (Hungarian Workers’ Party) on both the local, the intermediate, and the central levels, proceeding from the local levels upward ; those elected shall urgently convoke a congress of the Party and shall elect a new Central Committee. 3. The government shall be reorganized under the leadership of comrade Imre Nagy; all the guilty leaders of the Stalin-Rakosi era shall forthwith be dismissed. 4. We demand public trial of the case of Mihály Farkas and his associates. Mátyás Rákosi, who is primarily responsible for all the crimes of the recent past and for ruining the country, shall be brought home and tried before the court of the people. 5. We demand general, equal, and secret elections to be held throughout the country, with the participation of several parties, for the purpose of electing a new National Assembly. We demand that the right of the workers to strike be safegarded. 6. We demand that Hungarian-Soviet and Hungarian-Yugoslav political, economic, and intellectual relations be reexamined and regulated anew on the basis of full political and economic equality and non-interference in each other’s internal affairs. 7. We demand the reorganization of the entire economic life of Hungary. Our economic system—based on a planned economy—shall be re-examined by our experts, keeping in mind the resources of the country and the vital interests of the Hungarian people. 8. Our foreign trade agreements and the actual data on the never-completed reparations payments shall be published. We demand open and truthful information on the uranium supplies of the country, their exploitation, and the concessions given to the Russians. We demand that Hungary be enabled to sell uranium ore freely, at the prices of the world market, and for hard currency. 9. We demand the complete revision of the norms applied in industry, as well as the immediate settlement of the wage demands of workers and intellectuals. We demand the fixing of a subsistence wage level for the workers. 10. We demand a reorganization of the system of deliveries on a new basis and the rational use of agricultural products. We demand the support of individually-working farmers on the basis of equality. 11. We demand the re-examination of all former political and economic trials by an independent court of justice and the liberation and rehabilitation of all those condemned unjustly. We demand the immediate repatriation of all prisoners of war and civilians who have been carried off to the Soviet Union, including the prisoners sentenced outside the country. 12. We demand full freedom of opinion, of speech, of press, and a free radio, as well as a new daily with wide circulation for the MEFESZ (National Union of Hungarian Students). We demand the publication and destruction of the existing cadre material. 13. We urgently demand that the symbol of Stalin’s tyranny and political oppression, the statue of Stalin, be demolished. In its place, a befitting memorial shall be erected in honor of the heroes and martyrs of the 1848-49 fight for freedom. 14. We demand the restoration of the old Hungarian Kossuth coat-of-arms in place of the present coat-of-arms, which latter is entirely foreign to the Hungarian people. We demand new uniforms for the Hungarian army, befitting our national traditions. We demand that March 15 be declared a national holiday and holiday for workers, and that October 6 be declared a national day of remembrance and school holiday. 15. The youth of the Technical Universities of Budapest declares unanimously and with enthusiasm its solidarity with the workers and the youth of Poland and of Warsaw in connection with the Polish movement for independence. 16. The students of the Technical University of Architecture urgently establish the local organization of MEFESZ, and have resolved to call together a parliament of youth in Budapest for the 27th of this month, with the entire youth of the country participating by means of delegations. THE CABLE OF THE UNIVERSITY STUDENTS OF SZEGED TO PROFESSOR SZENTGYORGY THE UNIVERSITY OF SZEGED MAKES THE FOLLOWING DECLARATION: THE NEWLY BORN DEMOCRATIC HUNGARY WANTS TO LIVE IN PEACE AND FRIENDSHIP WITH ITS NEIGHBORS AND ALL PEOPLES OF THE WORLD AFTER IT HAS REGAINED ITS INDEPENDENCE. WE CALL ON ALL UNIVERSITIES OF THE WORLD TO SUPPORT AND HELP US WITH THEIR MORAL AUTHORITY IN OUR ENDEAVOR TO RESTORE PEACE AND INDEPENDENCE TO OUR COUNTRY WHICH ARE THE BASIC CONDITIONS FOR CULTURAL WORK AND RESEARCH. WE ASK ALL THOSE MEN OF LEARNING WITH WHOM WE ESTABLISHED CONTACTS AT HOME OR ABROAD TO COME TO OUR HELP. UP TILL PRESENT WE STRIVED WITH ALL THE MODEST MEANS AT OUR DISPOSAL TO SERVE THE PROGRESS AND BETTER FUTURE OF MANKIND. WE WANT TO DO ALSO IN THE FUTURE EVERYTHING POSSIBLE TO WORK TOGETHER WITH THE CULTURAL WORKERS OF OUR NEIGHBORS AND ALL RESEARCHERS OF THE WORLD. WE WOULD BE OVERJOYED IF THIS DESIRE WOULD BE FULFILLED. WE ASK YOU TO MAKE THIS DECLARATION KNOWN IN A POSSIBLY WIDE CIRCLE. 7
