Australian Left Review
Article Title
The challenge of Rudolf Bahro in Eastern Europe
Abstract
THE ALTERNATIVE IN EASTERN EUROPE by RUDOLF BAHRO. New Left Books, London, 1978. Reviewed by DENIS FRENEY.
Rudolf Bahro was released from prison in the German Democratic Republic in October 1979, under an amnesty proclaimed on the thirtieth anniversary of the founding of the GDR . He had been arrested in August 1977, and in July 1978 was sentenced to eight years’ jail for “espionage” . T h e act of “espionage” was the smuggling of the manuscript of this book to West Germany where it was published. Bahro, then, was a political prisoner. His imprisonment aroused many protests among communist parties and socialists in western Europe and elsewhere. He differs from many others who have been imprisoned in that he remains very much a marxist and a communist, whose vision of socialism comes directly from Marx .