The Role and Position of the Revolutionary Union Organisation in the Economy of Czechoslovakia in the 1980s

The paper's objective is to analyze the work of the Revolutionary Union Organization (ROH) in the Czechoslovak economy of the 1980s. The basic thesis of the paper is the assumption that ROH bodies preferred the interests of the representatives of the Czechoslovak Communist Party to those of workers. The relationship is analyzed on the basis of the employment legislation of the time and the impact of the union organization in its drafting. The paper also examines the contribution of the union organization in the course of the revolutionary changes in Czechoslovak society in the late 1980s and early 1990s. The analysis is based on a critique of sources from that era and a comparison of the role of the ROH in the 1980s and the role of the unions during Prague Spring. On the basis of the objectives set for this paper, the conclusion is that the ROH did have an impact on the work lives of working people, but its leadership lacked funds and, above all, the willingness to effectively protect the interests of working people. Hence, until December 1989, the ROH remained an organization serving, above all, the interests of the Communist Party