SoMarks
31st December 2012, 15:12
Hello everybody! It seems that we are at least three Roumanians that came here on Revleft this month. I think that has to do with disappointment of the last parliamentary elections, when a corrupt pseudo-social-democrat coalition that continues privatization won by a large margin. On the left we have here one eurocommunist (I think so, or a left SocDem nationalist anyway) party, member in European Left, Socialist Alliance Party (PAS) and another two or three smaller, all pretending that represents continuity of the old Romanian Communist Party (PCR). They have absolutely no chances now from several motives:
1. I am old and lucky enough to know that in the 70s everyday life in Roumania was fine enough, but in the last years of the 80s became awful. We had rationalization of some basic food like cooking oil, sugar, butter (50g per month and 100g for a pregnant woman, or such), meat (only leftovers with bones and fat), bread shortage (depending on which city) butane for ovens (one pressure tank per family), all after waiting in very long queues starting from night before, electric intentional blackouts, very little heating in the winter. It was vegetables on local market, though, but nothing imported, bananas and oranges being available only on Christmas. Coffee was not available at all, only bad taste surrogates. Almost any time from that last years there was also an alternative lack of toilet paper, medicinal cotton, soap or matches, so when you were going in the streets and saw a gathering of people you knew that was a queue and often you had been asking: Whats selling here?.
So when todays pro-capitalist roumanian media or anyone ask rhetorically Do you want again hungriness, cold, darkness and only two hours of TV program per day where you can see only speeches of The Great Lider? its hard to argue with the same shortness and efficacy.
2. Roumanian media trusts are property of a few rich people and most of them was top bureaucrats or in security forces (Securitate) of the old regime, with access to peoples funds. National television its also not neutral, it leaning heavy towards the party or coalition in power that is from over twenty years always pro-capitalistic anyway. They know that if a true left alternative became known to the population they would have much to lose. So, they self-censoring the news, they present a certain half of the truth or are blatantly lying. When a pakistani girl was shot by talibans they did not tell that also was going to International Marxist Tendency meetings, when Czech Communist Party won this year 20% of their parliament seats it was absolute silence here. International anti-austerity protests have almost no coverage here.
They talk nothing about what was build before 1989, they knew that people have fresh in mind recent bulldozing of factories. They are presenting even supposedly communist crimes, but invented, like Balti massacre (50,000, in truth a priest invented the story to raise money for his church) or like Giovanni Papinis interview with Lenin (Gog, essays) presented as real, or exaggerated, like a million of deaths and deported in the 50s (in truth seems to be like few dozens shoted for treason or nazi collaboration, few thousand put to hard work for few years and few villages relocated), yes, and collectivization, with much dramatic music from studio and accent on old ladies from which bad commies takes their cows or chickens.
3. Elections was rigged towards big parties or coalitions, that are, as I said, only rightish. Every candidate must pay a hefty sum of money like a bet: if they not enter in parliament they are not having money back. Whole country was split in aprox. 500 hundreds of small electoral districts (colegii) with one candidate from one party or coalition in one district to be elected. A small left(ish) party like PAS had 21 scattered across, and if they had no candidate in your district you could not vote for them.
- I lurked on Revleft from few months and reed debates about consciousness necessary for revolution from below vs. via vanguard party; personally consider that both are necessary but for a good communication with people it must be set somehow a television channel, lets say Red Antenna, because todays people dont listen anymore radio news on shortwaves, just only music on FM, maybe read a newspaper, at most. I must confess that Marxs Capital seems hard to read and grasp, it must be studied indeed.
Observations:
Roumania or Rumania are older names of Romania, but all of them are correct and are not offensive. I prefer older forms to avoid a certain confusion.
- I wrote maybe a little too much in this introductory message, but I hope youll forgive a comrade that has many to say but no ears around, until now.
Happy New Year!
1. I am old and lucky enough to know that in the 70s everyday life in Roumania was fine enough, but in the last years of the 80s became awful. We had rationalization of some basic food like cooking oil, sugar, butter (50g per month and 100g for a pregnant woman, or such), meat (only leftovers with bones and fat), bread shortage (depending on which city) butane for ovens (one pressure tank per family), all after waiting in very long queues starting from night before, electric intentional blackouts, very little heating in the winter. It was vegetables on local market, though, but nothing imported, bananas and oranges being available only on Christmas. Coffee was not available at all, only bad taste surrogates. Almost any time from that last years there was also an alternative lack of toilet paper, medicinal cotton, soap or matches, so when you were going in the streets and saw a gathering of people you knew that was a queue and often you had been asking: Whats selling here?.
So when todays pro-capitalist roumanian media or anyone ask rhetorically Do you want again hungriness, cold, darkness and only two hours of TV program per day where you can see only speeches of The Great Lider? its hard to argue with the same shortness and efficacy.
2. Roumanian media trusts are property of a few rich people and most of them was top bureaucrats or in security forces (Securitate) of the old regime, with access to peoples funds. National television its also not neutral, it leaning heavy towards the party or coalition in power that is from over twenty years always pro-capitalistic anyway. They know that if a true left alternative became known to the population they would have much to lose. So, they self-censoring the news, they present a certain half of the truth or are blatantly lying. When a pakistani girl was shot by talibans they did not tell that also was going to International Marxist Tendency meetings, when Czech Communist Party won this year 20% of their parliament seats it was absolute silence here. International anti-austerity protests have almost no coverage here.
They talk nothing about what was build before 1989, they knew that people have fresh in mind recent bulldozing of factories. They are presenting even supposedly communist crimes, but invented, like Balti massacre (50,000, in truth a priest invented the story to raise money for his church) or like Giovanni Papinis interview with Lenin (Gog, essays) presented as real, or exaggerated, like a million of deaths and deported in the 50s (in truth seems to be like few dozens shoted for treason or nazi collaboration, few thousand put to hard work for few years and few villages relocated), yes, and collectivization, with much dramatic music from studio and accent on old ladies from which bad commies takes their cows or chickens.
3. Elections was rigged towards big parties or coalitions, that are, as I said, only rightish. Every candidate must pay a hefty sum of money like a bet: if they not enter in parliament they are not having money back. Whole country was split in aprox. 500 hundreds of small electoral districts (colegii) with one candidate from one party or coalition in one district to be elected. A small left(ish) party like PAS had 21 scattered across, and if they had no candidate in your district you could not vote for them.
- I lurked on Revleft from few months and reed debates about consciousness necessary for revolution from below vs. via vanguard party; personally consider that both are necessary but for a good communication with people it must be set somehow a television channel, lets say Red Antenna, because todays people dont listen anymore radio news on shortwaves, just only music on FM, maybe read a newspaper, at most. I must confess that Marxs Capital seems hard to read and grasp, it must be studied indeed.
Observations:
Roumania or Rumania are older names of Romania, but all of them are correct and are not offensive. I prefer older forms to avoid a certain confusion.
- I wrote maybe a little too much in this introductory message, but I hope youll forgive a comrade that has many to say but no ears around, until now.
Happy New Year!