Sandor Racz, 1956 Hungarian workers’ leader, dies
By Pablo Gorondi, Associated Press, Budapest
Sandor Racz (above), a labor activist and leading figure during Hungary’s anti-Soviet Revolution of 1956, died Tuesday at age 80.
The World Federation of Hungarians, of which Racz was honorary president, confirmed that he died while receiving treatment for an undisclosed illness at the National Institute of Oncology in Budapest.
The 1956 uprising broke out on Oct. 23 and was crushed by the Soviet army in early November. But as president of the Budapest central workers’ council, Racz and other labor leaders pressed ahead with the objectives of the movement for several more weeks, negotiating with pro-Soviet Prime Minister Janos Kadar and top Soviet military officers.
“For me, the revolution was so unambiguous, that I could not even imagine a Hungarian who does not feel that the Hungarian people are 1,000 percent right when they want to free themselves from an unacceptable foreign, murderous and pillaging system,” Racz wrote in memoirs published in 2005.
Even as the crackdown on those who took part in the revolution was under way — at least 225 people would be executed by 1958— the workers’ councils held two nationwide strikes in November and December.
Racz, then a 23-year-old a tool maker at an electronics factory, was arrested on Dec. 11, 1956, after being lured to Parliament with the excuse of holding talks with Kadar, who ruled Hungary until a few years before the end of the communist regime in 1990. Racz was sentenced to life in prison in 1958 but released under a 1963 general amnesty.
After his release, he returned to work as a tool maker and participated in secret meetings with students, telling them about the events of 1956. He retired due to poor health in 1987 and spent the rest of his life keeping alive the memory of the 1956 events.
“The workers’ councils were very important but they tend to be forgotten because most of the attention is given to the armed aspects of the revolution,” said British writer Bob Dent, author of a book about the revolution. “The councils were unofficial trade unions representing workers during and after the uprising.”
Racz was born on March 17, 1933 near the city of Hodmezovasarhely in southeast Hungary. He is survived by his wife, Aniko Damasdi, and two children.
Shiraz Socialist 
Robin Carmody said,
May 2, 2013 at 9:14 pm
Sad.
The 1956 events in Hungary, of course, did as much to change the lives of many British people whose parents had been uncritical pro-Soviet Communists, even Stalinists, as the events in Suez at the exact same time did to change the lives of millions born into families who had absorbed the mainstream British narrative of empire and How We Civilised The World … and, for both groups, it was rock’n’roll that filled the gap.
Robin Carmody said,
May 2, 2013 at 9:20 pm
It’s as if Robert Wyatt and everyone on that side of British rock music are the children of Hungary 1956 just as surely as Jagger, Clapton, Page & Plant and that lot are the children of Suez. Bowie or Robert Fripp or Peter Gabriel feel like the children of both.
I think it should be mentioned at this point that Ken “The Exile” Bell, who would no doubt have considered Sandor Racz to be a “scab”, stood as a UKIP candidate in Lancashire today. What a fitting political end point.
Rosie said,
May 3, 2013 at 6:39 am
I’ve come across Ken Bell in blog threads. He’s full of invective – vicious and obscene, also quite imaginative. Are you sure he stood in Lancashire? I’ve googled and if it’s the same guy he was forced to stand down.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-lancashire-22149897
Pendle UKIP candidate Ken Bell stands down
“A UKIP candidate who wrote an offensive tweet about Margaret Thatcher has withdrawn from local elections following an “extremely sarcastic” email exchange with a female activist.”
Ken Bell usually aims for the vulva when communicating with women. Is it the same vile bloke? I wish him lots of ill.
Scott Reeve said,
May 3, 2013 at 9:14 am
It was not an anti soviet uprising, but a pro soviet uprising. Soviet means workers councils. There were none in Russia in 1956.
Scott
Paul Mabbot said,
May 3, 2013 at 9:53 am
You are right Scott but it is the kind of `mistake’ Mr Denham makes regularly.
Best book on the Hungarian uprising is Sandor Kopacsi’s In the Name of the Working Class.
Jim Denham said,
May 3, 2013 at 12:45 pm
The article was by Pablo Gorondi of Associated Press (as it states) and not by me. Had it said ‘anti-communist’ I would probably have inserted a note or correction to the effect that what is meant is anti-Stalinist.
As the term “soviet” by 1956 and in this context quite self-evidently didn’t and doesn’t mean “workers councils”, but Soviet Union, such a note or correction seemed to me to be quite unnecessary. Shiraz credits readers with some intelligence.
But perhaps in the case of Mr Mabbot we’re wrong to do so.
holy joe said,
May 3, 2013 at 3:02 pm
Racz was a member of the FKGP, the Smallholders’ Party. He would probably have got on very well with any UKIP members he encountered.
lidia said,
May 5, 2013 at 5:42 pm
Revolution 1956 backed by NATO. No wonder today’s NATO revos in Libya and Syria got full support here 🙂
I only wonder, why “Shiraz”? Does it mean that NATO socialists here are going to “liberate” Shiraz?
And, by the way, Zionist colonialist apology is going nicely with NATO-socialism, I got it.