ABSTRACT
Warsaw and Budapest have been forced to cope with a widening spectrum of dissident activity and independent public initiatives. Calculating that outright repression would be counterproductive by undermining an economic reform program which necessitates entrepreneurial expansion, public involvement, and Western material assistance, the regimes have opted for greater political relaxation. The Grosz regime is preparing to legalize diverse political currents which will operate in accordance with a proposed new law on associations. But the Hungarian Party itself appears to be divided on how to handle the growing number of autonomous groups; pro-reformist forces are urging greater liberalization while more traditionalist forces warn about the specter of anarchy. The Magyar free trade union movement has also expanded with the formation of the Democratic League of Independent Unions, designed to assist workers in establishing autonomous labor bodies, and the founding of Workers Solidarity, the first independent union of manual workers.
