JAZZ IN JAIL
THE contrast is painfully eloquent: in Poland, virtually all political prisoners, including the leaders of Solidarity and several other opposition movements, are released under a truly extraordinary amnesty; in Czechoslovakia, meanwhile, the leaders of the Jazz section of the Prague Branch of the Musicians' Union, perhaps the last legal centre of truly independent activity in that unhappy coun- try, are thrown into prison. The `Jazz section' was — is — much more than its name might suggest. It has brought not merely jazz music to its 7,000 members. It has organised independent art exhibitions. It has published and distributed — legally — literature not otherwise available: for example, an anthology of recent French literature. Above all, it has been a meeting place where young Czechs could `be them- selves' — a hackneyed phrase in the West, but a true and invaluable rarity in a communist country. The authorities have been gunning for the Jazz section for years. The most characteristically absurd instance of harassment was a fine imposed on the Jazz section for erecting a monument to mark the 40th anniversary of the United Nations. Now the leaders of the Jazz section need all the international support they can get. Perhaps even the United Nations might bestir themselves to protest.
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