On February 15th 1999, Miron Cozma, the leader of the Romanian miners, was tried in absentia by the Romanian Supreme Court and sentenced to 18 years of prison. Two days later he was arrested by special anti-terrorist police while leading a procession of about 5,000 followers in buses and cars from the Jiu valley to Bucharest in protest against the sentence of the Supreme Court. The miners' protest was violently broken up by a force of 1,000 riot police which intercepted the miners' march.
The miners have shown themselves time and again to be the most potent opposition to the movement in the direction of capitalism. That is why the government in Bucharest, egged on by its Western backers, have decided to crush them. They calculate that if they can defeat the miners, they can deal with the other sections of the workers one at a time.
The weapons used by the Romanian bourgeois in their war against the working class are a combination of deceit and state terrorism. Closures and sackings are carried through, sometimes with the aid of false promises of (non-existent) alternative employment, sometimes by force. Always with the assistance of the government-controlled, bribed and corrupted mass media, which demonises and slanders the governments' opponents.
The only way the miners and other workers can resist this onslaught on their jobs and living standards is by mobilising their forces against the government through strikes and demonstrations. The miners have staged marches on Bucharest on five separate occasions since 1990. Previous to that they showed great courage organising strikes under the repressive regime of Ceaucescu (1977).
All this has earned them the special hatred of the pro-capitalist elements in Romania and their backers in the West. They have been portrayed as "animals", "brutes", "murderers" and all the rest in the media, both in Romania and the West. The vile campaign of slanders has recently reached a crescendo after the latest miners' march on Bucharest. The lengths to which they are prepared to go in this campaign is itself an indication that the class struggle in Romania has reached a critical point.
The pro-bourgeois elements realise that what is at stake is the outcome of the "reform programme" itself. They must at all costs liquidate the resistance of the miners. Thus the apparent concessions made under duress as a result of the latest march on Bucharest was immediately followed by the trial of Cozma and other miners' leaders. Repression will be stepped up. A spokesman for the Ministry of the Interior has warned that "in future cases of unrest 'real bullets' would be used." (The Guardian, 18/2/99) The trial of the miners' leaders will be the prelude for new attacks and closures. That is the real meaning of the arrest of Miron Cozma and his comrades.
Miron Cozma
Miron Cozma, 47 years of age, has been the most prominent of the miners' leaders for almost a decade. As a young mining deputy engineer, he was first elected union leader by the Jiu Valley miners in 1990. After the overthrow of Ceaucescu, the workers everywhere spontaneously kicked out the old managers and bureaucrats and elected those people they trusted. Many of them were engineers like Cozma. Miron Cozma led the miners' march on Bucharest in 1991 which led to the downfall of the government of Petre Roman who had split from the National Salvation Front and adopted a pro-market stance. Roman's so-called Social Democrats are now participating in the right-wing coalition government which is determined to take revenge by butchering the coal industry and persecuting Cozma.
The political evolution of Miron Cozma cannot be easily determined. He is one of those mass leaders who easily connects with the workers and gives voice to their aspirations, but with no clear programme or perspective. Such figures occur frequently in the history of the workers' movement in many countries. They can be said to have an accidental character, but actually express the first confused stirrings of the consciousness of the masses who are searching for the revolutionary road.
In January 1905, the Russian workers were led by a priest, Father Gapon, a man with monarchist sympathies and connections with the tsarist authorities, who subsequently veered to the left and came close to the Bolsheviks before reverting to type and being assassinated. One can say that it was unfortunate that the Russian workers looked to such a leader at the beginning of the revolution. This undoubtedly reflected the low political level of the masses at that stage, their confusion, lack of experience and the weakness of the Marxist movement. But such is life. Everywhere, at all times, the masses learn through experience. Under such conditions, the movement is usually led by all sorts of accidental elements. This is an unavoidable stage. But the workers learn through experience, and if the Marxists are skilful, they can find a road to the masses. But we must take the movement as it is, not as we would like it to be, at any given stage.
Cozma's personal courage and dedication to the miners' cause are not in doubt. Otherwise he would have been bought off long ago. Corruption and betrayal were always specialities of the venal Romanian bourgeoisie. Instead, he has put up with constant attacks, slanders and actual repression. Cozma was imprisoned for "attacks on state institutions" (1997 -1998). Immediately following his release in 1998 he was re-elected again as the leader of the coal miners' trade union in the militant Jiu Valley.
Unfortunately, Miron Cozma's personal courage has not been matched by political clarity or consistency. He never claimed to be a left winger or a socialist. He has defended the idea that trade unions should be "apolitical". In the last elections he advised the miners to vote for the right wing coalition (the Democratic Convention of Romania). After leaving prison he joined Romania Mare (the Greater Romanian Party), a right wing nationalist party that opposes the present government. Then he resigned from it in order to be independent. His membership of Romania Mare therefore only lasted a few months. Recently Romania Mare has stated publicly that they do not want him back. The Bucharest Radio Romania Network (a state-supported central radio station) reported that "the Greater Romania Party [PRM] has decided not to allow Miron Cozma, the leader of the Jiu Valley miners, to become a member of the party again. Cozma had temporarily resigned from the party [just before the miners started their march on Bucharest]. Costel Avram, the president of the PRM Hunedoara branch, said in Petrosani today that this decision was made by the PRM Steering Committee, because Cozma has damaged the party's image. Mr. Avram also said that the PRM had helped Cozma unselfishly, simply because he had been sent to prison on political grounds. Now, however, the party is leaving the miners' leader alone to pursue his own trade union policy." (our emphasis, AW)
The election of the right-wing coalition government in 1996 was a disaster for the working class. One of its first actions was to imprison Cozma for his part in the events of 1991. The government of Victor Ciorbea began a de-industrialisation policy. To begin with, he closed the pig and chicken factories on the grounds that they were not profitable (1997). Then he bribed the miners with the offer of transforming themselves into prosperous businessmen. Each miner was paid about $2000 to accept redundancies in 1997-998. Needless to say, the offer was a trap. When the miners realised they had been betrayed, their anger boiled over. They decided that pit closures must be resisted.
The impasse led to a new miners' march on Bucharest in January. After the strike, there has been a sustained campaign in the media alleging that there was a conspiracy to overthrow the government involving Cozma. These allegations are based on the inflammatory speeches of C.V. Tudor, the leader of Romania Mare (Greater Romania Party) calling for the overthrow of the "anti-popular government". But, in the first place, Cozma had already distanced himself from Romania Mare before the strike. In the second place, it is clear that Tudor's appeals for "insurrection" had a purely demagogic character. There was no plan, no strategy and no perspective of taking power. Under the circumstances, Tudor's speeches were highly irresponsible, providing a convenient excuse for Vasile to attack and slander the miners. It is true that a conspiracy existed. But it was a conspiracy of the government in Bucharest to provoke the miners into action and then crush them.
The argument that Cozma was planning an insurrection is plainly nonsensical. On the contrary. He tried to negotiate with the government and prove that the 2000-strong Barbateni pit was profitable. The miners will not accept closure without a fight. He vainly tried to talk with the minister Berceanu who replied that he would not talk with an outlaw. In December Cozma warned that if the government pressed ahead with its closure plans, the coal miners would go to a general strike on January 4. The "Social Democrats" were clearly provoking the miners. They refused to talk to Cozma, they would close the mines because they only produced losses, and even told the miners to go ahead and strike, as this would save money, and so on.
The actions of the state have been characterised by extreme brutality. The sentence of 18 years imprisonment is of unparalleled savagery, and is clearly motivated by a spirit of revenge and class hatred. It is also meant as a warning to the Romanian workers. The trial itself was a farce. According to police sources, 70 people were injured and one miner was killed during the demonstration where Cozma was arrested. It seems that the forces involved were special anti-terrorist units. Cozma was then flown by police helicopter to Bucharest for interrogation at a detention centre, and has been kept in isolation together with the other miners' leaders ever since. There are rumours (undoubtedly true) that he was savagely beaten. This would explain why he has not been shown on television. His lawyer. Viorel Dumitrescu, has said that he would lodge a complaint with the International Court in the Hague. But the best defence of the imprisoned workers' leaders is the solidarity of the world working class.
Conclusion
In politics, it is necessary to distinguish between the essential and the secondary. We oppose the action of the Romanian government in sentencing a miners' leader to 18 years in prison. This is not a question of individuals, but a class issue. If we do not fight this, tomorrow there will be new repressive moves against the workers. In taking this stand, of course, we do not take any responsibility for the political positions of Cozma. That is an entirely different question. The Romanian government has not taken this action because of Cozma's political views or affiliations. It is a blow against the miners and the workers' movement in general. If we do not resist these measures, further attacks will be prepared.
The Bucharest government has organised one rigged show trial and is now preparing others. They have skilfully made use of the demagogy of Romania Mare to prepare public opinion for an attack on democratic rights. This is logical. Capitalism and democracy in Romania are mutually exclusive concepts. In order to make Romania "safe" for international capitalism, it is necessary to break the resistance of the working class, starting with the miners. The removal of parliamentary immunity from C.V. Tudor, the leader of Romania Mare, is the first step towards a new show trial. But Tudor is not the main target. The main target is Ion Iliescu. The right wing government knows that it will be defeated at the next elections, and wants to remove all its actual and potential rivals. This is what is called "defending democracy" in present-day Romania.
In the meantime, the real victims are the Romanian workers and peasants who are faced with a nightmare if the so-called "market reform" is allowed to continue. All these attacks are intended to break the resistance of the working class. Under such conditions, it is necessary to take a firm class stand. Can we make our opposition to the repressive moves of the government conditional on the question of Miron Cozma's political views? We think that would be wrong. The Romanian miners decide who their leaders are. They may make wrong decisions, and we have every right to criticise that. But when the movement is in struggle against the employers, the government and the state, we must decide which side we are on. In this case, of course, we are on the side of the miners, unconditionally. The Romanian Marxists will fight for a genuine workers' leadership and oppose the attempts of reactionary and nationalist elements to get a base in the unions. But the prior condition of success is to fight the main enemy--the capitalists and their stooges in the government and the state. Only by taking a firm class stand at every stage can the ground be prepared for the socialist transformation of society in Romania and on a world scale.
Alan Woods
London 24/2/99