History Politics Economy Industry Agriculture Foreign trade Transport Education Demographics Government structure Health and social welfare Mass media Resource base Religion Society In the 1980s, trade unions were the largest of all Czechoslovak organizations.
A single large federation, the Revolutionary Trade Union Movement (Revoluční odborové hnutí / Revolučné odborové hnutie, ROH), represented most wage earners (80 percent in 1983); to deny someone trade union membership was to imply extreme censure.
More disturbing to the authorities was workers' propensity to vote party members out of union office and to demand a range of reforms.
These reforms were not calculated to allay the fears of those who thought that the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia (KSČ) leading role was critical to socialist development.
In major industrial centers, workers called for political pluralism, organized committees to defend freedom of the press, and voiced their support for The Two Thousand Words manifesto.