"The Democratic Initiative changed its name to Liberal Democratic Party and asked for registration at the Ministry of Interior on November 11, 1989, which actually made it the first political party that had dared to ask for such thing since 1948. Thus they took them all, all of the Praguers except of me. Eman and Karel Štindl, they had stayed in custody long after the November 17. I am not really sure now when they let them free again, but there is a whole range of.. or some materials that cover this topic do exist. That is how we, our part of dissent, differed from the chartists. Because we hadn't claimed politics as a crap, that politics was rather something that had to be done, and had to be done decently. We had perceived the contest of political parties as the only right way for the republic. That is how we differentiated from the rest of dissent who claimed that politics is a crap. That the politics should not be done, and we would manage all of that together somehow – and that’s what we refused absolutely. Quite the opposite, as the Liberal Democratic Party."
"The Pevná Hráz magazine did actually operate as long as Láďa Líbal was there... I will try to recall all of them. There was Láďa Líbal, me, Honza Rampich, that Whisky Vyskočil, Jáchym and Mr. Jelínek too, and that's it, I think. Each of them would write about something. Honza Rampich did reviews of punk music, Jelínek wrote his own stories that he also issued there, Láďa created titles for the vinyls, some graphic stuff and wrote stories himself as well - he was also the one issuing poetry, I think. We were also looking for material and different people. I remeber how I obtained some materials through one girl who worked as a nurse in Dobřany. The current state of affairs was described in there - how poorly they had treated the retired people. We even issued some information about one concrete department - about their activities that used to... or about that behaviour of the staff towards these people. And that was the way how we used to compile and release another issue."
“During the Palach Week, we were on our way to the cemetery in Všetaty, to where we never arrived as they had detained us – some of us at the railway station, some inside of the train wagon. I was detained at the station. Then we were taken to the local JZD (agricultural cooperative) and there the famous story goes - when you meet quite famous people you have heard about only from the Radio Free Europe before -, that was quite nice. It was when I met with that of Bohumil Doležal, with John Bok and others. Being introduced to Bohumil Doležal there, I joined Emanuel Mandler then - he actually equaled to the Democratic Initiative. That was where my work began. Bohumil invited me to some apartment, where the Democratic Initiative used to gather, and since then, I started to work on more concrete things. My position there had changed over time. I became a member of the Democratic Initiative Coordination Committee and was in charge of activities that were happening here in Pilsen.”
Martin Svoboda was born on April 13, 1968, in Pilsen. After his parents’ divorce, he lived only with his mother and older brother. Martin attended a primary school in Pilsen-Slovany, graduated and then worked at the state-owned company named Metrostav in Prague. He identified himself with thoughts of then youth grass-roots movements and political activists and spread petitions and samizdat publications. Martin had been involved himself in preparations of the Pilsen‘s samizdat magazine named Pevná hráz. After his detention during the so-called Palach Week in 1989, he, due to his acquaintance with Mr. Bohuslav Doležal, started to cooperate with Mr. Emanuel Mandler and the so-called Democratic Initiative (Demokratická iniciativa). In November 1989, he was initially one of the organizators of then anti-regime protests, from which the Pilsen section of the Civic Forum emerged. However, the accident that happened on the way to Austria - to where he was sent to attain necessary equipment for the needs of the then-emerging movement - left Martin bedridden for a long time. After 1989, he started his own business, completed high school education, and later graduated from law school at the University of West Bohemia.
