Professor, PhDr. Michal Koleček

“As I have already mentioned, we had a dispute with the management, they even told us they would cut off the water and electricity in the halls of residence and that way they wanted to make us leave. However, we told them - because it was quite cold in November - to do it and that we would stay there anyway but they would have to deal with the consequences because there would be material damage when the frost came. At last, they did not do it. The management did not cooperate with us back then, on the contrary, there was a disagreement from the beginning and even when not only student representatives but also teachers started to come for central meetings - no one came from ours. It was quite tense with the school but in the end, they did not cut off the electricity.”

“Everything, including the Civic Forum, was happening in the halls of residence or Činoherák [Činoherní klub Theatre in Prague], but nothing was happening in public. Students went to factories, but they were three or four, it was not a big demonstration. And from the point of view of the Civic Forum, it was necessary to organize a demonstration in Ústí. And they knew that there were a lot of us, that it was not possible to fill the square without the students. However, I was worried to take all the people from the halls of residence. Because I thought to myself: ‘These people work here, and we will put them in groups and take them outside.' I was worried that the police would occupy the halls of residence and would not let us go back. Or that they would beat us because many people were undecided - people from families from Chomutov, Litvínov, Most - and we did not know how they would react in case something happened to them, whether it would strengthen them or whether they would say: ‘I do not need this’ and they would go home.”