Milan Krajča has a lot on his mind.

The lanky, baby-faced 23-year-old fell tiredly into his seat at the Lucerna Café in New Town recently and needed a few sips of espresso before he was rejuvenated and ready to talk. And talk he did: As a young communist, he is full of ideas he wants to share.

Krajča spent the first half of the day as a university student, attending history classes at Charles University. Then he spent the afternoon busy in another role: chairman of the country's Communist Youth Union (KSM).

That meant shuttling around foreign delegates in town to attend the International Conference of Communist and Leftist Parties Nov. 25-26. The theme of the meeting, and the issue weighing heavily on Krajča's mind these days, is the rising tide of anti-communism that he said is sweeping the Continent, particularly in the Czech Republic.

"Anti-communism is not an issue only for communists," Krajča says earnestly. "This is about the defense of democratic rights for everybody."

The KSM has been in the spotlight since the Interior Ministry banned the group Oct. 12, saying that its mission statement, which advocates the abolition of private ownership, violates the Czech Constitution. On Nov. 20, the KSM filed a retaliatory legal complaint, alleging the dissolution violates their right to free expression.

"[We] started monitoring the KSM's activities at the request of the police," said spokesman Petr Vorlíček. "After a thorough analysis of texts published on the KSM's Web site, the police came to the conclusion that there were reasons for dissolving the association."

Across the European Union, there are examples of democracies with laws on their books that blur the line between free and outlawed speech, opinion and belief.

France recently made it a crime to deny that Armenians suffered genocide at the hands of Ottoman Turks during World War I. British Historian David Irving was jailed in Austria earlier this year for denying the Holocaust. In Germany, any allegiance to Nazism is illegal.

But what is perhaps most surprising is how relatively few social observers here in the Czech Republic view the government's crackdown of the KSM as a threat to basic civil liberties.

"I don't think [the KSM's] rights were violated," said political analyst Bohumil Doležal. "Especially after the experiences with communism we've had in this country."

Even the Communist Party of Bohemia and Moravia (KSČM) has been relatively quiet on the issue.

'Witch hunt'

The KSM, founded 15 years ago, has 600 high school- and university-age members across the country. Like members of any other youth group, they spend time just hanging out together, but also organize and attend pro-communist rallies and marches.

The wrangling between the Interior Ministry and the KSM goes back 12 months. They first clashed over a technicality: The KSM, registered only as a civic group, was attempting to do the work of a political party, the ministry said. The ministry then challenged the union's mission statement, which called for a socialist revolution and the abolition of private property.

Krajča said the ministry's actions have been nothing short of a politically motivated "witch hunt. The [KSČM] is the main enemy for them."

But others say the KSM's speech is not the issue.

"I think nobody, not even the Interior Ministry, is against the KSM's right to hold opinions," said Jaromír Štětina, a former anti-communist dissident and an independent member of the Senate. "The Interior Ministry's reservations are against the KSM's methods of achieving its political goals, namely Marxism-Leninism, because it is an appeal for violence and terror."

Under sections 260 and 261 of the Criminal Code, it's illegal to support or propagate any movement "that provably aims at suppressing human rights and freedoms."

Observers often cite this.

"The dissolution [of the KSM] does not seem to be a direct attack on freedom of speech," said Jana Reschová, a professor of constitutional law at Charles University. "However, there has been, in my opinion, an indirect limitation of the freedom of speech. Additionally, the ministry seems to be very selective and not very consistent in its sanctions of ideas having the potential of violating the constitution."

For now, little has changed: Until the KSM's complaint makes its way through the Czech courts, the union is allowed to continue operating as normal.

Whatever the courts decide, the KSM and its brethren worldwide vow to maintain their ideological battle. An online petition opposing the government's recent actions has garnered about 9,400 signatures, including that of Bono, the frontman for Irish rock group U2.

If necessary, the KSM will consider taking its case to the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, France, Krajča said. "Lots of people in the Czech Republic disagree with the system. [The government] can use this precedent against others," he said.