Ágnes Erdélyi

"After the ’79 Charta signing the situation escalated rather quickly. The Opposition got decentralised, a couple of hubs emerged, it turned out that there were others, too, e.g. artists, Miki Szabó’s seminars, sociologists, research into the Roma. So out of the blue it became obvious that there were a lot of things going on, which we either were or were not aware of. To put it in another way, after the second signing, the oppositional circle extended manyfold. There started to be more than one hubs. Quasi institutional forms of it like the Fund for Supporting the Poor took shape in no time. What’s more, the second Charta was followed by heavy reprisals, which led to the launch of the Support Group of Unemployed Degree Holders, the Institute Seeking Sacked Job-Seekers (KUKI) and the Institute Seeking Jobs (MUKI) For example, we raised money with Vili (Sós Vilmos). We had a pretty good clientele. We managed to collect money not only in our own circles but also from people who didn’t sign anything or get involved but still supported us. And they donated generously towards this cause. […] Some of them donated on a monthly basis, some of them gave us large one offs. It turned out that we had quite a few supporters. Having a wide audience, Radio Free Europe provided us with excellent publicity. At this point we were already aiming for an institutionalised opposition. The Open University meant that there was a fixed program on Mondays. Its venues alternated between Óra Street, the vicinity of Batthyany square and there might have been events near Visegrádi utca, too. Tamás Gáspár’s lecture took place there, I’m sure but I don’t remember any more who who the actual host was. I frequented the Open University while Janos Kis gave talks about soviet type societies; they were rather inspiring. In those days the History of Ideas in Russia was my specialty. Also, the Fund for Supporting the Poor had fund raising campaigns on a regular basis. I wasn’t a member. I went to their classical concerts and did fundraising for them, though. Later on, when Gábor Iványi broke away from the Methodists and organised seminars in theology for themselves, I gave philosophy workshops. These sessions took place in flats, too. Let me tell you a story about money. Our flat had been broken into. They didn’t take too much stuff. In one of the drawers there was our savings along with the money raised, i.e. the ’public’ money next to it. The private savings remained intact,the public money had been taken. The slip of paper with a record of donations was lying next to it. I only put the amounts on the slip without any names, just for the books: date and amount, as we received them. That had been taken, too. But the one who carried it out lacked discipline and took some other things as well, which he obviously wasn’t allowed to do. I was rather parsimonious and cigarettes weren’t cheap in those days. The burglary happened some time in February and I’d got a carton of cigarettes for Christmas, and I still had a few boxes left. The burglar took them too."