The return of the miners
TIS useful to begin by recalling the principal events since last autumn. On October 18, 1990, Romanian prime minister Petre Roman announced a liberalization of prices, to be spread out over a year, and a currency devaluation.
Just before that Eugen Dijmarescu, the Minister of the Economy, with Adrien Severin one of the key figures of the reformist government team), had decided to replace the factory managers who had been elected by the workers after the overthrow of Causescu. This had provoked energetic protests on the part of not only the miners, but also the union confederation that was close to the government.
New tensions and conflicts arose several months later. In mid-March, 1991, Romania had signed an agreement with the EEC and on the first of April a second phase of price liberalizations was supposed to have begun, which, according to the agreements, would have involved very sharp rises in the price of basic foodstuffs (on the order of 300%).
The unions organized a demonstration of 15,000 people in the capital and demanded the cancellation of the second phase of the liberalization, the suspension of the "liberalization" reforms, and the possibility for the workers to become stockholders in their own factories. President Iliescu, with the support of the presidents of the two chambers, proposed putting off until the first of June the new phase of price reforms, but the government opposed this under pressure from international institutions. Mobilizations for anniversary
Trade union actions and opposition party mobilizations followed in June 1991, on the anniversary of the police repression and the intervention of the miners on University Square (see /V 188, July 2, 1990). But on this occasion the government scored some successes. The demonstration organized by the opposition ended in failure, as did the general strike called for June 19 by the National Union Confederation (NUC) (the previous day, the railworkers had called off their actions which had been denounced by the government as "illegal").
In July of this year conflicts broke out on the Parliamentary level. The government introduced a law for the privatization of commercial firms and defeated nearly all the numerous amendments presented by the deputies of the opposition. In response, the elected officials of the Liberal Party, of the National Unity Party,
THE clashes between miners and government forces in
Bucharest at the end of
September again revealed the profound crisis of the regime installed in Rumania after the overthrow of
Ceausescu. This article is written as the miners return to their coalfields and negotiations are being conducted in Bucharest for the formation of a new government, which will certainly not be an easy task.
LIVIO MAITAN of the three Social Democrat Parties, and of the two Ecological Parties left the meeting hall. Iliescu again tried to mediate, but the government refused.
Repercussions within Front
All of these events had had repercussions on the power block itself. The differences between Iliescu and Roman had become more and more open and, more generally, conflicts had broken out within the ruling National
Salvation Front
(NSF), for example, on the occasion of its congress in the month of March. At the congress itself, certain figures, including vice-President Cladiu Lurdache, had refused to accept leadership positions.
In
June, some members
NSF of the accused Petre
Roman of having "confiscated the leadership" of the organization and of having betrayed its economic and political pro-
They gram.
announced the creation of a new movenM ment, the NFS
Social Demo-
(NSFcrat
SD), led by the
ROMANIA former NSF Secretary of Propaganda, Velicu Radina, who is said to be ready if need be to support the Presidential candidacy of Iliescu against that of Roman. The NSF-SD accused the latter of advancing "liberal and non-Social Democratic" reforms and declared itself opposed to the restoration of capitalism under any form whatsoever.
Earlier, a conflict had broken out at the Parliamentary level with the formation of an independent group of ten deputies and three senators called NSF May 20 (the date of last year's elections which continue to form a point of reference for the dissidents).
June also saw new developments on the trade union plane. On June 7, five union confederations - the Alfa union cartel, the Fides confederation, Hercules, and the Transport union confederation Transtar - formed a united confederation, the National Union Confederation (NUC). The NUC - which has about three million members - denounces the under-utilization of the country's economic potential, demands an emergency government and advocates the transfer of State enterprises to the people in the form of vouchers (the government opted for vouchers to be placed in a stock exchange, involving up to 30% of the property).
New union bloc formed
On the fifteenth of that month three other confederations - the National Confederation of Construction Workers, the Confederation of Industrial Machine Workers and the Confederation of Energy Sector Workers - formed the National
AT LEAST WE'LL HAVE ENOUGH COAL WINTER! 100001 ROMANLOT GOVERNI
Bulgarian miners move into action
ANOTHER sign of the increasing combativity of the Eastern European working class was the Bulgarian miners' strike in mid-August. On August 14 strikes broke out in many of Bulgaria's mines in support of demands for wage increas-
International Viewpoint #214 • October 14, 1991
ROMANIA
Union Bloc (NUB). The NUB fights against unemployment, for the improvement of Social Security and for an acceleration of privatizations. We can add that from the end of last year organizations of the unemployed, which are called unions, es and a clear government policy towards the mining industry. The strike ended but are actually a combination of unions on August 23 with a tentative agreement between the coalition government of and hiring agencies, have been formed.
Prime Minister Dimitar Popov and the Federation of Miners, a member of the
Also in June, apart from the aborted general strike of the 19th, there were
There has been increasing disquiet among the two leading Bulgarian trade strike calls that were supported; warning union federations the other one is the Confederation of Independent Trade strikes of rail workers, the strike of the
Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB), which, with 2,000,000 members, is twice as large workers of the FAUR metallurgy plant, as Podkrepa — about the effects of the government's market "reforms". Ecothat of the taxi drivers in Bucharest and nomic policies supported by the International Monetary Fund have led to a drop that of the metal workers of the Craiova in living standards which, according to official figures, amounted to 49.6% in the factory.
Finally, in the month of August, the
It is estimated that some 27,000 miners, or one third of the total labor force in government presented a new law on prithe Bulgarian mining industry, participated in the strike. The government initialvatizations — with stormy debates in Parly took a hard line, saying that the wages of strikers would not be paid and liament - and the national agency on questioning the legality of the strike. They were supported in this by all the privatizations drew up an initial list of major political parties, who are agreed that economic reform should continue thirty state firms destined to be auctioned unabated. Finally, on August 22, a compromise was reached between governoff (Financial Times, September 5).
ment and Podkrepa representatives, laying a basis for further negotiations on wages and the future of the industry; the chairman of the Central Strike Com-
Conflicts and crises mittee said that the agreement "satisfies practically all our demands". *
In conclusion, during the last twelve months, Romania has seen conflicts and crises at every level, in the context of an economic situation that has not ceased to deteriorate. It is sufficient to mention that the GNP has fallen 10%, and industrial production 20%, that exports have fallen
46% while imports have risen 54%, and that inflation is well above 100% (it is predicted to reach 130% this year).
This inflation has, among other things, had the effect of wiping out the wage gains that had been obtained by the miners
(which included the reduction of the work week from 36 to 30 hours. But it is unemployment in particular which has become a real nightmare. According to the daily newspaper Avenaru, it had reached
120,000 already by the end of 1990, and has grown since then. By the end of this year it is expected that that figure will rise to a million, but unions as well as government agencies estimate that it could reach
On September 25, thousands of miners from the Jiu valley, the most important mining region in the country, arrived in
Bucharest where they were later joined by thousands more of their comrades. Thus began the sequence of very combative mobilizations in front of government buildings and the Parliament, incursions into these buildings and street demonstra-.
The miners proclaimed a general strike.
Severe clashes with the forces of repression occurred until the very day the demonstrators left (there were officially five deaths and 130 wounded). The threats of
Petre Roman had no effect, nor did those of Iliescu (the latter had, however, adopted a very prudent attitude, increasingly himself the target of the demonstrators' slogans). At several points the union leaders, especially the miners' lead-
4 er, Miron Cosma, and the NUC leader
Eugen Tamas, who called for the end of of the mobilizations, were cast aside by the miners.
Students support miners
Moreover, the workers and students of Bucharest quickly involved themselves in the miners' actions. This is particularly significant in the case of the students and their leader, Munteanu, who had been one of the targets of the miners in June 1990 and seems to now be pro-Monarchist. In another spectacular reversal, the congress
Christian Democratic Party applauded the miners' leader, to whom the president of the party himself, Cornelius Coposu, expressed his solidarity!
What were the demands of the miners? They can be summarized in the following way; abolition of the law on the liberalization of prices, a return to the price policies concerning basic foodstuffs and other basic goods, readjustment of wages in line with the cost of living, the rehiring of the 4,000 miners laid off during the course of the preceding months and participation of a miners' delegation in the negotiations for the formation of a new government to replace that of Roman whose departure they were demanding.
The results obtained so far are far from satisfactory. There were some compromises. Iliescu, who made a brief tour of the mining regions hoping to regain announced that Roman had in fact resigned and that the consultations for the formation of a new government would begin immediately. At the same time he has begun to "closely examine" demand for the readjustment of wages.
Now new conflicts will no doubt develop with the oppositional parties as well as within the NSF, shaken by the quarrel between Iliescu and Roman (who accused the President of having "allied with outlaws). In any case, it is not very likely that the new government will be willing or able to satisfy the demands of the miners or of the workers in general or to improve in any way the economic situation.
Whatever its composition, it risks becoming in large measure paralysed and the target of attacks coming from all directions. As for "aid" and international investments, it is certain that the different international institutions and foreign investors will be even more prudent than before (the EEC has already decided to put off discussions that had been planned).
A contradictory situation
The Bucharest events have shown once again the contradictory situation that the Romanian working class finds itself in. It has considerable social weight and can count on strong union organizations. In the heat of mobilizations it plays an objectively hegemonic role. But in the absence of an overall political alternative and of a truly independent organization, it will remain on the defensive, fighting rear guard battles, and risks being drawn into orientations and positions that go against
Thus the other social forces intervening in the current context - whether at the side of the miners in the streets of Bucharest, or trying to exploit their intervention to settle inter-bureaucratic scores - will no doubt have more influence than the working class on the political and economic choices to be made in the coming months and years. *
The hard road ahead
USSR soviet against White forces and played a key role in its victory).
At Moscow's ZIL truck factory, a journalist found "political aloofness" . "In my opinion", offered one of the workers, "the collective was not for or against. These events did not concern people". S
A barber in a state shop not more than