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Al-Ahram Weekly 28 Jan. - 3 Feb. 1999 Issue No. 414 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 28 Jan. - 3 Feb. 1999 Issue No. 414
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Focus Economy Opinion Culture Features Living Travel Sports People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Undermining Romania's greatness
By Gavin BowdIn March 1989, six former officials of the Romanian Communist Party wrote to President Nicolae Ceaucescu protesting his policies. Among their accusations was the claim that "Romania is and remains a European country... You have begun to change the geography of the rural areas, but you cannot remove Romania into Africa." The revolution which followed was seen by many as an opportunity for Romania to throw off the shackles of Asiatic despotism and renew contact with a West which it associated with liberal democracy and the free market. Ten years on, however, the miners' conflict with the government has shown Romania deeply split as to what direction it should follow.
The miners of the Jiu Valley in central Romania marched on Bucharest this week demanding a 35 per cent pay increase and a halt to the restructuring programme that would lead to 70,000 workers being made redundant in an area already in social crisis. For the centre-right government, however, such reforms are essential if they are to gain the confidence of the IMF, not to mention the European Union, which Romania aspires to join.
An irresistible force met an unmoveable object, a fact that was spectacularly illustrated when the column of 15,000 miners was halted by an eight-kilometre long column of policemen and soldiers, including tanks.
The miners are not without support. They were greeted enthusiastically by people along their route. Their cause has been taken up by both the extreme left and the nationalist right. Erstwhile court poets to the 'Danube of the mind', as Nicolae Ceaucescu was fondly styled, Adrian Paunescu, senator for the Jiu Valley, and Vadim Tudor, leader of the rabidly xenophobic Romania Mare (Greater Romania) Party, have put their rhetorical talents at the service of the miners, denouncing the "wrecking" of the coal industry and making salacious allegations about President Emil Constantinescu's relations with a young actress.
It is such political support which confirms in the minds of many -- mainly urban -- Romanians the danger that the miners pose to the country's future. The inhabitants of Bucharest well remember the events of 1990 and 1991, when the miners, at the behest of ex-President Ion Iliescu, descended on the capital to beat up political opponents. For young intellectuals in the 'Paris of the East', the mines of the Jiu Valley symbolise a dark past of which they would dearly like to rid Romania: manifestly uneconomic businesses, inherited from the Ceaucescu regime, their workers led by Miron Cozma, the corrupt 'King of Coal', in cahoots with the mafia. The elite's hatred of this social group was clear last week when Prime Minister Radu Vasile sarcastically congratulated the miners on their action, "because so many strike days mean so many unpaid wages and savings made in a loss-making enterprise."
But the Bucharestis' disdain for the miners does not entirely convince. In the 1970s, the miners of the Jiu Valley were the only social group in Romania to rise up against the Ceaucescu regime, and paid a heavy price for it. This contrasts with the cosy silence of the intellectuals, men such as Constantinescu and Vasile, who now inhabit the corridors of power.
The miners' action does strike a cord with the victims of Romania's policy of 'aggressive openness' to the West. Since the fall of Ceaucescu, Romania has failed to achieve its economic transition. Instead, it is stagnating. The average monthly wage is now only US$100, unemployment is running at more than 10 per cent, inflation at 45 per cent and the black economy is estimated to make up 20 per cent of Gross Domestic Product. Romanians are weary of tightening their belts and of the political manoeuvering and corruption of the capital. Since last autumn, demonstrations have become commonplace, with teachers, lorry-drivers and students taking to the streets.
The centre-right government is to meet the IMF at the end of the month. Smashing the miners of the Jiu Valley thus came to be seen as a key bargaining chip. However, the current stalemate between the two sides may have dashed hopes of accelerating the Westernisation of Romania. Perhaps through the gap this 'failure' leaves, this long-suffering country may be able to find other paths to 'greatness'.
