Rail workers set up independent unions

Scan page 10

10 SOCIALIST ACTION FEBRUARY 1990 The following is an interview with lonel Chiru, the chief editor of the newspaper Railway Struggle.

The interview was conducted Jan. 8, 1990, in Bucharest by Lynn Henderson, a railroad switchman|brakeman and member of the United Transportation Union. Henderson is also on the editorial board of the newspaper Straight Track, which is published by a coalition of railroad union members across the country.

Also participating in the interview is Christian Mokanu, a Romanian railroad worker who acted as the translator.

Railway Struggle is the largest newspaper aimed at railroad workers in Romania with a circulation of 150,000. It first began publishing in 1932 and played a significant part in the 1933 Romanian general strike in which railroad workers played a leading role.

After the general strike was crushed by the government and the fascist Iron Guard, Railway Struggle was outlawed until 1945. However, even under the fascist goyernment, the paper continued to appear as an illegal underground publication.

In the post-war period, it was one of the few publications in Romania that was able to maintain a degree of integrity with workers during the rule of the Stalinized Communist Party. The day after the Ceausescu government fell, every newspaper in Romania changed its name. The exception was Railway Struggle, whose reputation allowed it to continue publishing under the same name and masthead.

Socialist Action: How did the railroad unions function during Causescu's regime, and how are they functioning now since the revolutionary uprising away?

Ionel Chiru: During Ceausescu's rule the railroad unions and all trade unions in Romania were like the fifth wheel on a car. They were irrelevant. Because of the terror policies of the state they had no real rights and no real power to defend the interests of their members.

I will give you an example. One day a telephone call comes from the Ministry of Work: "This week everyone will report to work on Sunday." The union representative says this is unconstitutional, this violates the law limiting the work week to six days, every worker is entitled to one day vi rest per week.

After an hour he returns, apologizes for saying we have a legal right not to work on Sunday, and says, "I have been ordered to convince everyone to report to work this Sunday."

Perhaps you don't know this, but under Ceausescu the Minister of Work was also president of the Romanian Labor Federation. The unions were not unions, they were phantom unions. They had no real right to negotiate for their members, and certainly no right to strike. To strike was a criminal act, an act of treason.

Despite this, there were many small, unauthorized strikes, and also some very large ones, for example in Brasov [the largest industrial city in Romania.-ed.] in 1987, at the August 23 Industrial Complex here in Bucharest, in Constanta on the Black Sea, and others.

But these were quickly crushed by the Securitate and knowledge of them was suppressed. Only now are we finding out about many of these struggles.

S.A.: I understand that new free unions are now being formed throughout Romania. How is this being accomplished?

Chiru: Yes, this process is just beginning and it is taking place on the local level. The free unions are being formed in individual work places, departments, and institutions. Later, I think, if they decide to, they will affiliate together in more general unions.

Here on the railroad, the initiating committee first proposed forming a general union for all railroad workers. But other workers said this is not correct, we cannot force everyone to join us; first let everyone form their own units in their own work places and departments— then we can affiliate into a general union.

S.A.: What is the relationship of the new unions to the old union structure? Are they growing out of the old union structure or are they a completely new development?

Chiru: They have absolutely no relationship to the old unions. On the day the Causescu government fell the old union structure disappeared. The old union structure was completely an instrument of the Ceausescu government; there was no question of superimposing the new unions on it. Officially the old unions have not been dissolved, but they have disappeared.

S.A.: You mentioned an "initiating committee." How was this formed?

Christian Mokanu: Yes, I'm curious, too, because I don't know. I was on the barricades and while we were fighting and the bullets were flying somebody had the power to stay in their homes and make programs.

But for sure, they are not our people. They fighting now to throw out every kind of old thinker. The dictator could not have been what he was if he was not served with great fidelity by many friends.

Chiru: When Ceausescu was thrown out, everyone's mind was blown, everyone was delirious with joy and disbelief. All the structures of the state disappeared in the same day, everything collapsed like a castle of cards. This included the phantom unions.

In this revolutionary turmoil and political vacuum, there came forward, spontaneously, individuals with different kinds of qualities and non-qualities-some good, some bad— all of which have yet to be judged by events and the people.

They took power by forming initiative committees: in the government (the National Salvation Front) and in the universities and every sphere of political and social life, including the unions.

Here in the rail center in Bucharest, the most active people—it remains to be seen if they are the most correct-formed themselves into an initiating committee and, taking the communications and proposals that were coming from rail workers across the country, drew up the proposed free union platform that is printed in this week's issue of Railway Struggle.

In the process they also drew on the memory and experience of the free trade unions that existed in Romania before World War II.

S.A.: Then what has yet to happen is meetings of rail workers where they have elected delegates to represent them?

Chiru: No, that's just beginning to happen. The railroad is very important in Romania. It is seen as the "Second Army of the Nation." From the first day of the uprising, everyone felt it was of prime importance to keep the transportation system operating.

There was no time for meetings; everyone was at his duty. That doesn't mean there wasn't discussion. In every railway station, in every office, in every switching yard, proposed programs and ideas concerning the new free union were being discussed and being sent into the center.

S.A.: The new unions that are beginning

Scan page 11

SOCIALIST ACTION FEBRUARY 1990 11 here. Now there is a sense of panic. Romania suddenly made the possibility of violence and revenge very real."

Imperialist transmission belt The economic crisis in the so-called "socialist" states is deepening. The bureaucracy's rule is a prime factor in this process. Centralized planning without democracy is leading to ever-greater bureaucratic inefficiencies and stagnation.

As the economic crisis in these states deepens, the bureaucracy's primary concern is to save itself and preserve its privileges. Either directly, or where necessary in collaboration with other forces, it is prepared to maintain its privileges by imposing brutal austerity programs on the working class.

But increasingly the bureaucracy sees that its only long-term option is to allow the penetration of world capitalism directly into these states and allow market relations to develop without the check of workers' democracy.

It is the bureaucracy itself that represents the growing danger for the restoration of capitalism. It is the bureaucracy that functions ever-more openly as a transmission belt for the introduction of bourgeois ideology and practice into these states.

But how can democratic workers' control be established in these so-called socialist states? Can the bureaucratic caste, in whose hands the power and wealth are now concentrated, be peacefully reformed out of existence? There is no evidence to indicate that this is a realistic possibility.

These entrenched bureaucracies cannot be reformed—they will be removed only by a revolutionary force. Their removal will require a political revolution that will completely sweep away the Stalinized bureaucracy and create a new government based on democratic workers' control. And, as always, there will be fewer victims the more bold and decisive is the attack.

Need for revolutionary party But boldness and decisiveness in and of itself are not sufficient; preparation and organization are required. Only through the creto emerge, what is their relationship to the National Salvation Front?

Chiru: The program of the Salvation Front has been accepted by the new unions. In union problems, politics and economics are always closely intertwined. I think the unions accept the general program of the Front at this time out of necessity.

You have to realize that for 40 years we have been a non-political people, a non-political nation. The Russians determined our politics. They imposed here a so-called socialist party, a so-called communist party that was our government.

We are now learning what politics means. We are now learning what unions mean, what democracy means. We are students in a new university, the university of democracy and freedom, and it takes time.

In my opinion the movement for the new free unions, like the national struggle for freedom and human rights, is like a newborn child who is trying to learn to walk. It is difficult at first, but once we learn we will take giant strides.

S.A.: Have rail workers begun to use their new unions to raise grievances and demands for changes in their wages and working conditions?

Chiru: Yes, and next week's issue of Railway Struggle will devote considerable space to printing demands received from railroad workers around the country. We think it is important to print these in order to break down remaining fears and reservations about making demands and raising grievances.

Many of the grievances being raised are concerned with rights and conditions which we supposedly already have on paper, but which have been consistently ignored and violated.

S.A.: Can you give me some concrete examples of the things that are most frequently raised?

Chiru: The most frequent demands center around wages and hours of work. Constitutionally we are supposed to have an eight-hour workday. But normally under Causescu's regime we've been working 10 and even 12-hour days.

Originally we were paid overtime for this. ation of new revolutionary Marxist parties will workers in these states have the necessary tools for carrying such political revolutions through to a successful end.

What are the propects for successful political revolution in Romania? The armed uprising, the crushing of the Securitate, the disintegration of the Communist Party, and the emergence of armed self-defense committees have taken the Romanian workers further down the road toward political revolution than anywhere else in Eastern Europe. But the question is far from decided.

While the Communist Party has disintegrated, the Stalinist bureaucracy is still in place throughout Romania. We can be assured that it is desperately maneuvering to re-establish its control. And it is not without powerful allies both in Gorbachev and Western imperialism.

The use of the army officer corps to declare a Polish-style martial law, under which the bureaucracy could reassert its control, must be an alternative that is seriously being considered.

While the emergence of the new free tradeunion movement represents a giant step forward for the Romanian workers, Solidarity in Poland is a clear example that the simple organization of independent trade unions, however necessary, is insufficient for carrying through the political revolution. A revolutionary Marxist party is required.

As of yet Romanian workers have little consciousness of this necessity. Today a very contradictory situation prevails. Romanian workers are discussing and debating politics as never before in their history, yet they also commonly express the opinion that they want nothing to do with politics.

Workers in the new independent tradeunion committees invariably express the opinion that the unions should have nothing to do with politics. They are still reacting to a period when factory directors, raises, new apartments, and even decent food was determined by ties with the Communist Party. For Romanian workers this is what politics means.

A universal characteristic of Stalinist rule is that everything is politicized-except polBut under Ceausescu it was cut and cut until all overtime pay disappeared.

Then they even refused to pay us full wages for the total hours we worked. The Ministry of Work would announce that over the last six months the railroad industry only fulfilled 70 percent of the plan, so railroad workers will only be paid 70 percent of their wages.

Originally, safety clothes, shoes, and equipment were purchased by the enterprise. Now the worker is forced to pay for it.

Railroad workers have a railroad pass which lets them ride the railroad system without cost, but this was cut to the point where now the pass is worthless.

Many of the letters and complaints concern the question of medical leave. If you were injured or became ill and couldn't work you were entitled to paid medical leave. But in the last three years this was discontinued.

In 1977, Ceausescu passed a forced-work law in which everyone was forced to donate a week of their vacation to work free for the state. Just like a slave. If you did not want to give up this week you could pay a tax instead of working, but the tax was 270 leu per day, which is more than any worker makes in a day; more than even a government minister officially makes per day.

S.A.: How did press censorship work under the Causescu regime. Was it formal or informal?

Chiru: It was an officially constituted censorship. Every week the text of the articles was put in an envelope and taken to the propaganda department of the Central Committee of the Communist Party where a so-called specialist would check it over.

At the 10th Congress of the Communist Party 12 years ago, Causescu announced the end of censorship, but it was a lie. If anything, censorship became tighter.

Even though it was difficult, we were able to raise questions of workers' rights and conditions by quoting the text of the constitution and laws and contrasting them with the practice and reality.

We had a column in the paper that was protesting the cuts in pensions and medical benefits that Causescu was imposing on reRomanian youth look on the new government itics which is utterly depoliticized.

It is this disorienting and demoralizing heritage that Romanian workers and workers tired railroad workers.

After a while, the censor became frustrated and we were forbidden to write about retired workers. So we changed the title of the column to "Homage for Work" and continued to raise the same questions.

S.A.: Could you expand on some of these cuts that were being imposed on retired rail workers. In the United States lately, there have growing attempts to cut the pension and medical benefits of rail workers.

Chiru: This is a very interesting question you've raised. Railroad workers had a very good medical plan here. Normally each major industry nad its own medical pian, which is usually better than the national health plan.

We also had a system of vacation cabins on the Black Sea for railroad workers and they [the government] took it away.

You see this building across the way he gets up and points to a large hotel across the square near the main Bucharest passenger station]. It is now called the Astoria Hotel. This was our hotel built with our money— railroad workers' money. Not one leu of state money was used to build it. It was used by out-of-town train crews on layovers. Causescu took it away from us.

We had four big hospitals for railroad workers. Now we have only two, even though we still have the same number of workers-600,000working on the railroad. They told the retired workers they could no longer use the free railroad medical plan but had to now use the national medical plan where they had to pay a portion of the bill.

But this led to one of the few victories by workers during the Ceausescu years. The retired workers flooded the system with many, many claims day by day and month by month until after two years the government, in exasperation, let them return to the railroad medical plan.

In Romania, railroad workers have a long history as the most revolutionary sector of the population. Railroad workers in 1933 led the general strike against the government and the fascist Iron Guard.

Ceausescu hated the railroad workers. He tried to eliminate from Romanian history Lynn Henderson/Sociallst Action of all Eastern Europe must surmount in the road to political revolution and real workers' democracy.

any mention of the role of railroad workers in strikes and struggles for human rights.

He hated us, but he was also afraid of us because railways have their own communication systems and phone system, which the Securitate didn't have complete control over.

Also, railroad workers, by the nature of their jobs have to travel from city to city. They made it harder for Causescu to suppress the knowledge of the strikes and struggles that were occurring in various cities around Romania.

S.A.: As you explained, under Ceausescu the unions didn't have any independence from the government. Is there a recognition now that it is important for the unions to be independent, even if the government is not a Ceausescu government? Is there a consciousness that the unions have to be independent of the National Salvation Front?

Chiru: The new unions will be completely separated from the state power. They will be completely independent. They will not have any connection with the political structure, including the National Salvation Front. That is one of the points in the proposed platform.

S.A.: Let me observe that this is not easy, especially for railroad workers. Governments often raise the claim that the railroads are strategic—-as you say here "the second army of the nation." And the government says railroad workers cannot be allowed to strike or disrupt this strategic service.

In the United States, the right of rail unions to strike is severely restricted by the government. Historically we have defended our rights and working conditions only by coming into direct conflict with the government.

Chiru: The principle has to be that this union is not in any way under the control of the government. Of course-knock on wood—if there was a war, we would have to carry guns, and troops and supplies without disruption. That is our duty. But in time of peace we must resist any attempt to erode our rights as workers and we solidarize with you in the United States in defending your rights against government actions.

Scan page 12

Interview with Romanian students: shops. The Salvation Front thinks the revolution is finished now. I think it is just beginning.