16 Demands That Made a Revolution
16 Demands That Made a Revolution These are the resolutions passed by massed students at the Builders' Technical University of Budapest on October 22, 1956, which the secret police refused to have...
...We demand full freedom of opinion, of speech, and of the press, as well as a free radio and a new daily newspaper with a large circulation for MEFESZ [Hungarian student association...
...We demand the destruction of all existing secret personal dossiers...
...2. We demand new, secret elections of the lower, middle and central leadership of the Hungarian Workers' party, beginning with elections of the lower echelons and working gradually upward...
...7. We demand an expert reorganization of the Hungarian economy, and a re-examination of our whole economic system, based as it is on a planned economy, with due regard for the country's natural resources and the vital interests of the Hungarian people...
...We demand that Hungary be free to sell its uranium ore at market price for currencies with a high rate of exchange...
...We demand that March 15 [anniversary of the 1848 Revolution] be a national holiday on which all work should stop, and that October 6 [anniversary of death of 1848 patriots] be a day of national mourning on which schools should remain closed...
...We demand adequate support for individual working peasants...
...8. We demand the publication of our trade agreements and the de facto data of our reparations agreements, which can never be fully paid...
...We demand open and true information about the country's uranium resources, their exploitation, and the concessions granted to Russia...
...We demand the immediate return of prisoners of war and of civilians who have been dragged away to Soviet Russia, including the return of persons condemned beyond the borders of our country...
...6. We demand an investigation of the political, economic and cultural relations between Hungary and Soviet Russia and between Hungary and Yugoslavia, their new relations to be based on complete political and economic equality and non-interference in each other's affairs...
...We demand that in place of the present coat-of-arms, which is foreign to the Hungarian people, the old Kossuth coat-of-arms be re-introduced, and we further demand new uniforms for the Hungarian National Army in keeping with Hungarian tradition...
...We demand a reorganization of the system of compulsory deliveries and a useful apportioning of produce...
...16 Demands That Made a Revolution These are the resolutions passed by massed students at the Builders' Technical University of Budapest on October 22, 1956, which the secret police refused to have broadcast the next day—thus starting the Hungarian Revolution: 1. We demand the immediate evacuation of aH Soviet troops from Hungarian territory in accordance with the resolutions of the Peace Treaty...
...The students of the Builders' Technical University will immediately form local organizations of MEFESZ and resolve to convoke a Parliament of Youth for Saturday the 27th of this month, in Budapest...
...5. We demand general, free and secret elections throughout the country for a new Parliament, with the participation of several parties...
...4. We demand an open trial of the case of [former secret-police chief] Mihaly Farkas and his accomplices, and, further, that Matyas Rakosi, who is primarily responsible for all the crimes of the recent past and for the destruction of the country, be brought home [from the USSR] to stand trial before a People's Court...
...and the election of a new central management...
...the convocation of a Party Congress within the shortest possible time...
...Tomorrow, the 23rd, at 2:30 p.m., the students of the technical and all other universities will assemble and march to Palffy Square to the statue of [General Josef] Bern [a Polish hero of 1848] and by laying a wreath will there express their sympathy for the Polish freedom movement...
...9. We demand a complete revision of industrial work norms and the urgent and complete revision of the wages of workers and of the intelligentsia...
...3. We demand a revision of the Government under the leadership of Comrade Imre Nagy and an immediate replacement of all guilty leaders of the Stalin-Rakosi era...
...The workers of the factories are free to join the marching youth...
...We demand the right to strike for the working class...
...The youth of the Technical Universities of Budapest declares unanimously its enthusiastic solidarity with the Polish and Warsaw workers and youth in their struggle for Polish national independence...
...We demand that the statue of Stalin, which is a symbol of terror and political oppression, be quickly removed and that in its place a monument be erected honoring the martyrs and heroes of the War of Independence of 1848-49...
...Delegations from all parts of the country will represent all the youth of the country...
...We demand a careful scrutiny of all former political and economic trials by independent courts, and the immediate release and rehabilitation of innocent persons who have been condemned...
...We require the establishment of minimum wages for the worker...
Vol. 40 • February 1957 • No. 6
