BY ROBERT DEES
AUGSBURG, Germany - After a two-week strike and a five-day
march toward the capital Bucharest during which they fought
pitched battles with the police and military, miners from the
Jiu Valley in Romania scored a victory against government
attempts to shut down some of the mines. Their fight
registered a blow against the efforts of the Romanian
government and imperialist powers to move toward restoring
capitalist rule in that workers state.
Ten thousand miners laid down their tools January 5, demanding a 35 percent wage increase and a halt to plans to close two mines in the region. As the government refused to negotiate, some 8,000 miners began a more than 200-mile march on Bucharest from Petrosani January 18. By that afternoon, the government had banned all road and rail traffic in the region. The miners continued their march on foot and in a caravan of some 300 vehicles. They first encountered Interior Ministry troops - reportedly 2,500 strong - at a blockade of concrete slabs and rubble near the town of Bumbesti-Jiu. After a night of fruitless negotiations, the miners overran the roadblock. Local residents supported the miners by throwing rocks at the cops. Back in Petrosani, 1,000 women demonstrated in support of the miners.
The next day the workers reached Targu Jiu, where "they were received by thousands of residents with an ovation," reported the German paper Suddeutsche Zeitung. An additional 2,000 miners from the Gorj coal region joined the march there. Also waiting for the miners there were another 2,500 special Interior Ministry troops sent to stop them. Massive teargas attacks failed to disperse the miners, who overran this cordon as well.
By January 20, the march column, joined by numerous villagers, was estimated as large as 20,000. Farmers were providing marchers with food along the way. President Emil Constantinescu called an emergency session of parliament and threatened to use the army against the strikers.
Miners attack `like an army'
The miners squared off again with police forces the next
day, an estimated 3,500 to 6,000 of whom massed to stop the
march in the town of Ramnicu Valcea. The miners overran this
blockade as well, with the support of local townspeople. "The
miners attack in an organized manner, like an army,"
complained government spokesperson Rasvan Popescu. There were
reports of miners saving cops from being lynched by furious
townspeople. According to official figures, 133 people were
injured, including 124 cops. Miners, now within 100 miles of
the capital, took up the chant, "Bucharest, Bucharest."
Several officials of other unions and locals called on their members to not support the Jiu valley miners, but hundreds of miners from other regions were reportedly joining the march, often also overcoming roadblocks to get there. Schoolteachers in the Neamt and Maramures regions also went on strike. In several cities Black Sea harbor workers were reportedly planning to strike the following Monday, and 8,000 workers at two tractor and truck factories in Brasov called on the government to resign.
Counterdemonstrations against the miners were also reported in Bucharest and other cities, calling for the defense of "democracy." The New York Times stated that on January 22 "at least 10,000 people, mainly students and academics" marched in the capital denouncing the miners. The European Union and the U.S. government sent declarations of support to the government at the height of the showdown "for Romanian democracy."
The Interior Minister, criticized for "weaknesses" of the security forces, resigned. The strike was declared illegal and the capital city off-limits. Constantinescu had previously proclaimed he would never meet with the head of the miners' union, Miron Cozma, who he termed a "criminal." But on January 21 Constantinescu sent a delegation to try to negotiate.
A two-mile-long army convoy of tanks and other armored vehicles was reported moving toward Pitesti, about 75 miles from the capital, the next day, and Constantinescu blustered that he would declare a state of emergency if the miners did not go home. They didn't budge. Several generals and government ministers were fired. That afternoon, negotiations between Prime Minister Radu Vasile and union officials reached a rapid settlement.
Resistance to worsening conditions
Inflation in Romania was 64 percent in 1998 and more than
153 percent the year before. On average, miners earn the
equivalent of about $220 a month. Two years ago 40,000 miners
worked in the Jiu valley - half are now out of work.
Nationally, only half of the former 180,000 miners are
working.
Under these conditions, miners were asking for a wage increase and a halt to plans to close two pits, as well as $10,000 severance and a plot of land for miners who are dismissed. Union chief Cozma stated that all the miners' demands were met, a claim the government disputes. According to a report in the Suddeutsche Zeitung, the demand to keep the two mines open was won, but the wage increase is conditional upon reducing losses in the mines. A 30-day period has been set to negotiate details.
The capitalist press has tried to portray the miners as "privileged," since they earn nearly twice the national average.
Alexandru Kulcar, a miner from Lonea, showed a reporter his apartment. He keeps chickens and pigs to supplement his family's diet. The kitchen has a coal oven. Father, mother, and a 13-year-old daughter sleep on two couches in the living room. Their third room is empty, as Kulcar cannot afford to heat it. "Others have four or five children and are unemployed," he said. "They've got it worse."
The average wage nationally is about $115 a month, of which two-thirds must be spent on food. Sixty-eight percent of population lives below poverty level.
Imperialist diplomats and the big-business press are loudly bemoaning the setback for capitalist restoration that the miners' strike represents.
"Capitalism is for criminals," miner Constantin Botezatu told a reporter for the Christian Science Monitor during the strike. "It is very bad for Romania."
Last fall, the International Monetary Fund (IMF) suspended payments to the Romanian government as punishment for failing to more rapidly to implement the imperialist lending institution's plans, which include shutting down some 140 mines and selling off numerous state-owned industries. IMF officials arrived January 20 to negotiate a new $10 million loan, on top of the nearly $3 billion currently owed by Bucharest.
Government plans also call for laying off 70,000 out of the current 95,000 auto and steel workers, who supported the miners. On Sunday, the CNSRL trade union federation, which is considered friendly to the government, announced plans to strike starting February 15 to push the government to take steps against the economic crisis. The opposition BNS union federation said it would consider joining the walkout.
The miners had marched on Bucharest three times in 1990 and again in 1991, when they helped bring down the first openly pro-capitalist government.
They have a history of battling the former Stalinist regime as well. In 1977 the miners led the first uprising against Stalinist dictator Nicolae Ceausescu. They took Ceausescu's envoy hostage and won a wage increase to boot.
Alexandru Kulcar, of the Lonea mine, said, "If our problems are not resolved, it is quite possible we will march again."