On 17 November 1989, the totalitarian regime of the Czechoslovak Socialist Republic began to collapse. How were Romani people involved in what would be called the Velvet Revolution? Did you know that on 25 November 1989, 800 000 peple were chanting "Long live the Roma" on the Letná Plain in Prague?
The bulk of this article was first published by Romea.cz in Czech in 2014. It has been updated this year to include information from Emil Ščuka's book I Am the Gypsy Baron
"In the Czech Republic we have 20 000 members in 200 local organizations, in Slovakia we have about 30 000 members in 180 organizations. We are doing our best to explain the essence of the economic reforms to our members. Not everybody comprehends them, they are saying things were better under the communists, that there was money and we didn't have to do anything. We are now in a time of transition, it will not happen without problems, but the reform has a schedule in time and if it succeeds, ultimately everybody will be better off. I have held a meeting with the chairs of all the district organizations and today I can say that 90 % of them favor the right-wing direction. We reject the left, which has caused this country to be devastated economically and morally."
