Towards new political struggles
MUCH REMAINS OBSCURE about the recent violent clashes
ROMANIA mount their economic and political offensive, by pleading for the introduction of an economy"
unrestricted
"market and installing a Western-type "democracy.
between the newly elected Romanian government and oppositionists. At this moment it is not possible to verify the conflicting accounts of what happened (for example, whether the siege of the TV center was launched by police provocateurs or not, as representatives of the students have said. But it is possible to take note of the context in which the mid-June events occurred.
LIVIO MAITAN
A
S I STRESSED in my commentary on the elections (see
International Viewpoint, No.
187, June 18, 1990), Romania, along with Bulgaria, is the country in
Eastern Europe where there is the greatest continuity with the old regime. The election results simply reflected this situation.
They confirmed, at the governmental level also, the hegemony of a front that is very different from the parties or coalitions presently governing
Hungary,
Czechoslovakia, Poland and East Germany.
The pro-capitalist parties, defeated in elections whose legitimacy, it should be remembered, was recognized by virtually all the international ebservers, are not ready to sit back and accept this situation. Still less are social groups, such as the student movement, or groups of intellectuals, inspired by a legitimate desire to impose a more consistent democratization, and a more thoroughgoing purge of officials from the Ceausescu epoch, prepared to accept it
The information available indicates that there are different orientations within the opposition forces. The people who pressed for a prolonged occupation of the University Square and the accompanying demonstrations do not accept the relationship of forces reflected in the elections, hope to change it very rapidly, are escalating their opposition and putting their hopes on confrontations in the short term.
Others, including representatives of the minority parties in the parliament, reportedly have a different perspective. For example, Radu Campeanu, leader of the
National Liberal Party, the opposition said in an interview after the party, events: "We are going to play an opposition role. This will be firm and constructive, not systematic opposition. We want to contribute to the development of
Romania." (Il Corriere della sera, 19
28
June). Another leader of the same party
International Viewpoint #188 • July 2, 1990 explained that things will change quite quickly, and that the opposition will win the next elections.
It seems that there are also differences among the leaders of the ruling front. The newly elected president, lon Iliescu and the premier, Petre Roman, have made statements differing in tone. What is more, the army and the policy reportedly took a lax attitude or even refused to act (this is the argument the government spokespersons have advanced to justify appealing to the miners).
It is nonetheless true that the government's counterattack has been marked by the use of classical bureaucratic methods. Facing an attack by forces considered hostile, you can legitimately call for demonstrations of your own supporters. But the use of miners as commando groups in repressive actions is an outrageous procedure, linked to an unacceptable notion of the role that should be played by the workers considered most loyal.
For their part, the capitalist governments of Europe and North America are not hiding their desire to have interlocutors in Romania who will help them to
The present situation in Romania, which is far from being stabilized, is by no means a satisfactory one for them. They are doing. and will do everything that they can to contribute, directly or indirectly to chang ing it.
The events in Romania have prompted a new anti-Communist campaign by the international bourgeois media and led a series of governments to issue indignant condemnations, and even to suspend economic negotiations with Bucharest. The hypocrisy of these actions needs no commentary.
The governments of West Europe and North America would have done much the same if hostile demonstrators had occupied the central squares of their capitals for weeks, including during an election campaign. These "democratic" leaders, who are turning up their noses at the idea of aiding Romania economically, did not hesitate to refloat their business dealings with China only a year after the Tiananmen massacre.
The fight for democratic rights remains vital in Romania, as in the other countries of East Europe. Thoroughgoing democratization is quite consistent with the needs of the struggle required against any attempt to restore capitalism and against any current that advocates that. In this struggle, a central role belongs to the working class, and in the case of Romania, in the first instance to the miners, who, it should not be forgotten, waged some of the most heroic struggles against the Ceausescu dictatorship. They have to carry out this task, not by clubbing demonstrators, but by forming their own independents unions and parties and their organs of self organization on a mass scale. *