During the rally, students told me that they had heard that teachers were involved in the initial organizing committee, and that they were opposed to that. They wanted a purely student organization. (The teaching staffs were generally corrupt, and are very discredited.) This distrust of the first groups to come forward and propose new organizations became a constant theme. The journalist at Adevarul said, for instance, that he had the feeling that while he was fighting in the revolution little groups of the old opportunists, "the people with political experience," were meeting and deciding how to put themselves for-
There were a large number of monitors to maintain order at the rally. One of them told me that he felt that the world was looking to them with hope, and was worried that the foreigners were disappointed with the timidity of the students. A delegation spoke from the French National Union of Students and one from the Polish Independent Student Union. The latter hung out a banner in Romanian from a balcony saying "We are with you."
I was joined by a comrade from Socialist Action, an American Fourth Internationalist group and the editor of an opposition paper for the rail unions. We went together with the journalist from Adevarul, who had been a railway employee himself until a few days before, to try to talk to rail workeIS.
Contact with railworkers impossible
Our friend said that he had been one of the initiators of the free union at the railroad, but that he had not been able to get any information about it since leaving. We found it impossible to make any direct contact with the railworkers. The railroads are called the "the country's second army," and remain under tight military control.
We were able to talk to Ionel Chiru, the editor of the railway workers' paper, Lupta CFR ["Railway Struggle"]. The Adevarul journalist told us that this was one of the few journals in the country that did not have to change its name because it was able to maintain a relatively good reputation even under the old regime. (It is a continuation of a militant railworkers' journal founded in 1932.)
Chiru gave us a picture of a very oppressed workforce. Workers were forced to work unpaid overtime, called "voluntary hours," and often ended up working 12 hours a day for only 70% of the pay due them for an 8-hour day, since the administration claimed that they failed to meet the norms and docked them 30%. The January 4 issue of Lupta CFR published the program for a new free union of transport and communications workers on its back page.
We got closer to the process of working class organization at the Peripheral Electronics Plant (a computer research and production center) in Bucharest's industrial suburb of Pipera. Even there it was not easy. We asked to speak to the organizers of the free unions.
It was the manager of the factory and the coordinator of the National Salvation Committee who came to meet us. The coordinator was a young programmer in his late twenties or early thirties; the manager a middle-aged man. Both stressed that there was very good cooperation between the management and the workers' representatives.
The factory management had been known to be a liberal one. That was confirmed by people outside the plant. The coordinator explained that here workers were assured of getting their full wages. The manager said "voluntary hours" had not been imposed. The workers were idle part of the month because of supplies problems; then they had to work overtime to make up the slack, but they ended up working even less than the basic time.
Ceausescu outlaws use of word "computer"
The plant was unusual in many respects. It was a new industry, and one mistreated by a regime that "put politics in command" in the style of the cultural revolution and looked down on technology. The manager told us that for a period even the word "computer" was banned from the official publications. Thus the management and the workers were united
The National Salvation Committee was made up of 30 delegates, one from each of the plant's 30 departments. Its composition thus reflected the workforce, about four fifths production workers. The coordinator said that organizing committees for free unions existed in only 10 of the departments.
Defense of the plant was organized by a committee of eleven, including both the manager and the coordinator, which was formed during the revolution. The plant guards were independent within the plant
ROMANIA grounds, but subordinate to the army command outside the plant limits. The two told us that the same setup existed at all the factories in Pipera. The manager expected the guards to be disbanded in a few days. The coordinator agreed, although with an apparent reserve, and he stressed that even if they were dissolved, they would be ready to go into action again immediately if necessary.
Different views on privatization
The manager and the coordinator differed frankly on two questions - the future of the plant's National Salvation Committee and the question of privatization. The committee was supposed to be a provisional body, formed to operate in the interim before the April elections.
I asked why they linked the committee, which they said was "nonpolitical", to the elections. They had no answer, although the manager said that this was actually a good question. He thought that the committee would break up into different political parties. The coordinator was dead set against the existence of political parties in the plant. They introduced nonprofessional criteria into staff relations, he said. They could be divisive and obstruct effective collaboration. "What we need to do now is earn money." As an example of the dangers of parties, he mentioned that some of the new parties were calling for reestablishing the monarchy. He was against privatization, and thought that the plant could function on a collective basis: "We feel that we are the owners."
The manager said that he was not so sure that the plant could function collectively. "I am older and not so optimistic." He thought privatization could be a good thing, but that it had to be done "prudently." Both hoped to see foreign investment, but the cloved to eat to foreign control. 5 not be allowed to lead to foreign control.
International Viewpoint #177 • January 29, 1990
ROMANIA He thought that the committee should lead toward a free union organization.
My companion argued that the workers could not leave politics in the hands of others, or they would again become dominated. The coordinator said that the weapon against that was the right to strike, which was a weapon not against the management but against the army and police, who could become dangers.
As we left, he told us that if we wanted to see a conflict, we should go down the road to the Electronica factory, where there was "trouble." The Adevarul journalist told us that in fact there were a lot of conflicts. We found a big one at Tracturul, the tractor factory in Brasov, the country's second city and major industrial center. It was the first case we encountered of a factory manager actually removed by the workers. 1987 revolt in Brasov brutally
There is a massive industrial complex at the edge of the city, dominated by Tracturul and the Red Flag truck factory, each with twenty thousand workers. 100,000 workers and their families are concentrated in the neighborhood. It is here that a massive revolt against the Causescu regime took place in 1987 and was brutally crushed. We arrived just as veterans of this rebellion were giving an interview to a Swedish TV team. One of them, a young man in his twenties, told us he had been given back his old job a few days before. After the rebellion, he had been exiled to a remote town. He told us that he and others had just started organizing a union, and that it would not just talk but actually solve the problems of the
The truck factory was under the control of the National Guard, a militia organization that includes virtually the entire male population and is commanded by reserve army officers. A battle with the secret police had taken place at the tractor factory, and it was under the direct control of
At the truck factory, we met a young engineer who worked in the central office of the complex of 38 factories. He turned out to be a leader of a group of dissident young people that had existed before the fall of the dictatorship, but had not been able to carry out much activity before. He told us that in this coordinating office, the eleven managers had constituted themselves as the National Salvation Committee in the days of the revolution.
The staff demanded a committee of 21, realizing that with such a number it would have to include workers. The managers were forced to accept that, but then they proposed their flunkies and their flunkies nominated them. The election was held in a general assembly. There was another wave of protests, and a new election was to 6 by secret bailot containing all the names of take place the following day [January 11], staff members. The workers had already gotten together and decided that they would not vote for managers.
In the evening, I had a discussion with members of the dissident group. They wanted to talk about how to set up a newspaper. They explained that the local paper, the Gazeta Transylvanii, had not changed at all, and refused to accept articles from them about the problems in the city. In fact, even technically the paper was a poor effort for a big city newspaper. They explicitly rejected "Communism, socialism and the far left." "We just want democracy." "We have to learn about democracy, we have no experience of democracy." But in fact they were very similar to far-left young people in the West — similar origins, attitudes and aspirations. The Adevarul journalist discussed with them into the small hours of the morning. As a reporter, he was in the middle of the social process. Given the weakness of the government, people are taking their complaints to the newspapers, demanding that they become the tribunes of the people.
Manager ousted by forge
The following day, we had a long discussion with workers in the forge at the tractor factory who had ousted a manager. Physical clashes had occurred, since the manager had bought the loyalty of a section of workers with free drink and other benefits. Despite this radical struggle, however, the workers did not express any conscious aspiration to run the factory themselves or elect the managers. They expressed a desire only for unions that would defend their immediate interests. But in that respect, they were more advanced than many white collar workers, who are refusing to sign up for the new unions on the basis that they are political, that 1s, that joining them involves taking a public position for something. They are still afraid of putting their names down for
In general, in the second week in January, it was the first tentative steps of organization that were being taken. Generally, people expressed uncertainty, hesitation and self-limitation. But the process is massive, and it is taking place in a political and organizational vacuum left by the collapse of a despotic regime and the total discredit of all its organizations and personalities. The language is generally antiCommunist, with an explicit rejection of anything that is reminiscent of Communist or even Socialist themes.
However, there was little or no concrete talk about privatization. Two reasons were commonly given for lack of interest in privatization, at least immediately: Firstly that the reforms in the USSR had created chaos and secondly that the only people who had the money to start private businesses in Romania were the mafia of the old regime. The number of people involved in private business is microscopic. The peasants (still 20% of the population) are predominantly elderly. The Romanian Orthodox Church, which was very submissive, is not a political or social force.
The real control of the country is in the hands of the army. The new minister of the economy is a general. Political activity remains strictly forbidden within the armed forces. But the Romanian army is relatively small, and has been shaken up by the revolution. The soldiers have gone through the experience of fraternization with the masses.
Hunger for discussion with foreigners
Most people seem to look to the West -"the countries where there is democracy" — as the model. But there is a general hunger for discussions with foreigners and information about foreign countries. All the people we talked to were willing to listen to a description of negative aspects of the developed capitalist countries.
In 1981 in Poland, I had not always found that to be true. There, some people tended to feel that conditions were so much better in the West that it was useless to tell Poles about "the problems you rich people have."
For example, I raised the question of the Irish struggle with the editors of the Bucharest Hungarian daily, Magyar Szo. They said they were happy to have the chance to talk to someone who knew something about it. All they knew was what was in the big press, that is, that there was a problem of terrorism. But they did not believe that.
They knew about the desperation that can develop among an oppressed people. I explained the reasons for the conflict in Ireland, and got a very warm response. "This is your home, too, now; and we hope you come back soon so that we can discuss
The Romanian press voices a lot of hopes in the Soviet leadership, in particular for aid, and says nothing about the conflicts in the Soviet Union. The head of the Council of the National Salvation Front, Ion Iliescu, is thought to be close to Gorbachev. But many people raised the question of Moldavia, and the conviction that the Moldavians were now going to be interested in reunification with Romania. That is obviously not going to facilitate good relations with the USSR.
Despite the hesitations of Romanians surprised by the sudden collapse of an entrenched totalitarian regime, it seems certain that the process of self-organization of the masses, already wide spread, will gather steam, and that as it does so, political consciousness will deepen, and problems will arise for which "Western democracy," offers no answers. *
Free trade unions begin to emerge not by slate. Such representatives cannot be leaders of the local unions.
11. Local union leaders and representatives cannot have any more rights than any other union members.
12. Changes can be made In the statutes at organized meetings of the union by simple absolute majority (over 50%). *
DRAFT program of forge workers at Brasov Tractor factory
1. Depoliticization of the work in the enterprise.
2. Freedom of oral and written expression without restrictions or intimidation.
3. The creation of a free union of workers in the forge which will defend their rights through its freely elected leaders.
4. The right to conduct organized strikes, in accordance with the laws in force, in consonance with the urgent needs of the workers' collective in our section, as well as the right of the workers to negotiate, through their representatives, with the management over major problems such as work, working conditions, wages, and social conditions for all workers.
5. The right of solidarity with other committees in the enterprise and outside with respect to their rights.
6. Improvement of working and living conditions in order to assure a civilized
- Documents time can be worked on the request of the enterprise in agreement with the unions and at rates of pay in accordance with the
7. Respect for Sunday as a day of rest.
9. Respect for the major religious holidays (Easter, Christmas) through the granting of time off.
10. Reduction of the workweek to five
111. Assurance of free medical and social assistance for the forge workers, both in the enterprise and in social life.
12. For the fulfillment of the production plan transmitted by T. 31 (the Production Service), we request the following:
La. Assurance of basic material and energy supplies in accordance with fundamental technological norms.
Mb. Assurance of technical competence.
Gc. Assurance of repairs and of spare parts in accordance with manuals issued by the producers of machines and installations.
Pd. Assurance of a workforce for supervision of the
ROMANIA personnel at the necessary levels.
13. The stabilization of a qualified work force in the hot sectors through the following measures:
a. Group I pensions retroactively for all employees.
b. Food for all personnel to counter the toxic effects, and bonuses for toxidity.
c. Free medical care for special problems.
d. A system of steel production in accordance norms for personnel, wages, protection and work.
14. Abrogation of the rules requiring financial contributions by persons without children.
15. No limitations on the wages that workers and technical personnel can earn in accordance with the quantity and quality of work done.
15. The appointment in the machine shop of a chief of a team for major repairs and spare parts.
17. Preparation of a general overhaul of
Section T-32.
18. Generalization of the individual contract for personnel involved directly in proand dignified life. 7. Respect for the eight-hour day. OverDraft Statutes of the Free Union in the Forge at Tracturul, Brasov
1. The free union at 1-32 is based on the workplace principle and the defense of the rights of Its members with respect to the management of the workshop, section and enterprise management. 2. Membership in the T-32 free union is voluntary.
3. Decisions are by a simple absolute majority (over 50%) In all cases except strike votes, for which a vote of two-thirds of the membership is
4. Union meetings are to be called at least once a month or at the request of at least one third of the membership. 5. in its relations with other administrative bodies, the free union will be represented by its leader or his two deputies. 6. The leader of the union and his two deputies will be elected democratically on a roughly yearly basis, and they may not be elected for two consecutive terms or more than four times in ten years.
7. In order to avoid subjectivism, the union leader and his deputies may not hold political posts.
8. The union leader can only make decisions after consulting the union and after ll gives him a mandate
9. The leader and his deputles can be recalled by a simple majority at any time that the organization decides that they no longer represent it
10. Nominations to higher union bodies must be made Individually and the maintenance and technical level, as well as of productive
19. Exact definition of the roles of technical and productive personnel (review of the Table of Organization).
20. Priority for solving the housing problems of personnel working in the section.
21. An obligation for all workers to respect technological norms concerning the quality of production, failure to do so being punishable administrative sanctions in conformity with the laws in force.
22. Material incentives for inventions and innovations in order to improve effi-
23. The formation of hot sections in a separate autonomous factory for forged and cast parts.
As the free union, we call on all workers to respect work discipline and the technical experts (engineers, foremen, technicians, and the management of the production processes), whom we need.
All decisions by senior technical experts must be taken in the framework of rationality and collective analysis.
We appeal to all workers not to engage in acts of hooliganism and personal vengeance and to respect in a civilized and consistent way the laws of the country that are in force, as well as the rules of the work collective.
The National Salvation Commitee of
Section 732 (The Forge), Tractorul, 7
Brasov *
Program of the first
Printworkers and
Journalists' unions
International Viewpoint #177 • January 29, 1990
ROMANIA congress of
HE free unions of journalists and printing workers of Romania wil fight for the following right.
1. The establishment, as juridic persons, of free publications
2. The freedom to form associations in various fields in the framework of the
Union of Journalists and the Federation of
Free Unions of Printing Workers.
3. A guaranteed maximum workweek
4. Assurance for printing workers and publication staffs of the best working conditions, heating, light, clean air, properly functioning equipment, a review of the number of hours necessary.
5. Assurance of protective equipment and other means of protection and sanitation in the work process.
6. The right of unions to petition, demonstrate, and strike in order to their members' interests and in order to fundamental human
8. Regaining workers and journalists have benefited from in the past — lowering of the retirement age and reduction of worktime, more time off, bonuses to compensate for unhealthy conditions, and so on.
9. Defense of the social rights of union members — the right to a job and vacations, to education, to social and medical protection and healthy working conditions.
HAVE You
WORKED
FOR
CEALISESCU?
8
10. Paid days off for national and religious holidays.
11. Defense of the specific rights of young printing workers and journalists.
12. A guarantee of the right to information of all sorts necessary for freely exercising the profession.
13. Repeal of the 1974 press law and of all the regulations that restrict the rights of journalists and print workers; the passing of new laws, including a press law, after consultation with representatives of
14. A guarantee of means for exercising the profession, through giving prioriand reducing the prices of, typewriters, tape recorders, cameras, videos and reproduction equipment, personal calculators and so on.
15. Recognition of some lost rights, such as free travel for journalists on all means of public transport, air, marine and surface, necessary for the exercise of the profession. Free subscriptions to the written and electronic press, free access to all cultural and artistic performances and
16. Assurance of wages in accordance with professional status and dignity for journalists and printing workers.
17. Additional pay for articles that help to increase circulation.
18. The granting of a substantial yearly prize by the union for outstanding work by journalists and printing workers.
YES -HAVENT You?
### PANCHO
19. The possibility for perfecting one's knowledge of foreign languages, access to courses of all sorts, including for learning the techniques of video work.
20. Certificates for journalists who have not had this right in recent years.
21. Legal help for all sorts of litigation arising from the job or from journalistic activity.
22. Discounts on costs. of moving around the country and abroad for professional purposes.
23. The creation of journalists' and print workers' funds, as well as vacation funds.
24. The Creation of a Council of Honor to deal with litigation among journalists and cases of loss of professional status.
25. The union defends the right of opinion and fights against any attempts to force journalists, in any way, to write or publish articles contrary to their consciences or convictions.
26. Reinstatement and compensation of journalists and printing workers prevented from exercising their profession in the period of the dictatorship or wrongfully removed for opposition or other antidemocratic reasons.
27. Restoration of the former property of the Sindicata Ziaristilor Journalists' Union], the Uniuni Ziaristilor [Journalists' Union], as well as the former Uniuni Presa-Poligrafie-Edituri. Guaranteeing by law the property of the Federation of Free Unions of Printing Workers and the Union of Journalists.
28. Establishment of pensions for printing workers and journalists in conformity with the generally accepted European norms. Additional pensions from the unions.
The Federation of Free Unions of Printing Workers and the Union of Journalists will have their own press organs. The Action Group *