Sovieteast European Survey, 1987-1988 by Vojtech Mastny

Author:Vojtech Mastny [Mastny, Vojtech]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781000312751
Barnesnoble:
Publisher: Taylor & Francis
Published: 2019-07-09T00:00:00+00:00

IX. Spreading Discontent

34 Social Protests in Romania

Vladimir Socor

Despite the blackout maintained by the Romanian authorities, accounts of the Braşov workers' demonstration of November 15, 1987, reached the Western media from Romanian and foreign eyewitnesses and from Western diplomats in Romania. While differing over some details, almost all of the accounts agreed on the essentials of what took place that Sunday in Romania's second largest industrial center, 1

Protesting fresh wage cuts and chronic food shortages, several thousand workers from the Red Flag truck plant, instead of going to vote in the local elections taking place nationwide that day, marched out at about 9:00 A.M., heading for the party and administrative headquarters downtown. During the one-hour march, they sang a Romanian hymn from the 1848 revolution and chanted, "We want bread" and "Down with dictatorship." They were joined by workers from the Braşov Tractor Plant, where work stoppages had taken place in some sections during the preceding week in response to wage cuts there as well. Along their way to the central square, and once there, the workers were joined by thousands of the townspeople. Estimates of the size of the crowd varied from 5,000 to 20,000, perhaps reflecting its growth as the events unfolded. Some eyewitnesses repeated that workers were handing out leaflets.2

Some demonstrators forced their way inside the party headquarters, where they tore apart or threw out of the window furniture, telephones, and files. In the square below, this debris was ignited along with party banners, placards, and Nicolae Ceauşescu's portraits which had been torn down from the walls. Some smaller fires were also started inside the party headquarters. There the workers discovered ample food supplies—including items such as flour, cheese, oranges and chocolates, all of which had been very difficult for ordinary citizens to obtain for years—stocked up for the party bureaucrats. This added to the demonstrators' indignation, so that these supplies too, were ransacked and thrown into the square.

According to the reports, Braşov's RCP First Secretary and Mayor (the two posts were merged in Romania) Dumitru Calancea was beaten and rushed to hospital. Two fatalities among the militia were widely reported. There was no indication of plunder or of damage to nonparty property at any point. The forces of order, after some apparent hesitation, moved in before dusk. Both militia and army troops with armored personnel carriers were used to clear the downtown area. No clashes were reported.

A brief video film shown on November 23 in the evening newscasts of Italian television was the first visual document of the event available in the West. According to those who saw it, the film, shot mostly on the run in downtown Braşov by a Western traveler, showed a large public building damaged by fire and emitting smoke; a street bonfire and several small fires of party flags, propaganda posters, and clearly recognizable official portraits; and a large crowd of demonstrators being pursued by armored vehicles. During this phase, one group of workers was seen holding aloft and defiantly waving a national flag, and knots of men were seen stopping from flight to throw stones at their pursuers.

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