SLOMR
Encyclopedia
SLOMR
SLOMR (Romanian language
acronym for Sindicatul Liber al Oamenilor Muncii din România - Free Trade Union of the Working People of Romania) was a Romania
n free trade union
founded, without prior preparation, in February 1979, as a means to oppose the control exercised by the ruling Communist Party
during the country's communist period
. Initiated along the same lines as Solidarity, created one year later in the People's Republic of Poland
, it grew to about 2,400 adherents within four weeks, and was dismantled by the authorities of Nicolae Ceauşescu
's regime, coordinated by the Securitate
, over the next three months.
port of Drobeta-Turnu Severin
approached Ionel Cană, a physician who had worked in Olt County
amongst workers and had recently moved to Bucharest
; Cană, who had already helped workers draw up petitions complaining about labour conditions, agreed to the men's proposal to set up a union.
over Radio Free Europe
on March 4, 1979. The names of the 20 founder members of SLOMR, with their occupations and addresses, were appended to the text. The document stated that the organisation, legally established under Romanian law, was affiliated to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
. Pointing at the declining work and living conditions and at the difficulties workers had in expressing themselves freely and defend their interests, the declaration indicated that the new labour organization was not backed by any political force, and that its objects were to ensure justice in the social and labour areas.
The intention of the new trade union was to enter the struggle against unemployment
, for better working conditions, for safety and health
in the factories, for the revision of the wage system
and the pension
system, for the reduction of the weekly work period
and the suppression of unpaid overtime
, etc. The new union, insisting on the legality of the steps it had taken, requested a frank dialogue with the authorities for the settlement of these claims.
Soon, about 2,400 of workers from various localities such as Bucharest, Ploieşti
, Constanţa
, Târgu Mureş and Timişoara
joined the new union, which also added to its programme more general claims such as freedom for all workers, including peasants, to change their place of work, the right to a decent wage for peasants and the right to freely sell their products and the suppression of terror and internment in psychiatric hospitals of those who demanded that their rights be respected. The dissident Romanian Orthodox Church
priest Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa
offered to be a spiritual adviser. The new trade union was also supported by the writer and dissident Paul Goma
. An additional manifesto calling for the legalization of unofficial trade unions and observance of the right to free association was also released.
in psychiatric hospitals, exile, systematic harassment, beatings, as well as a summary trial and prison sentence passed on the SLOMR founder and other leading members. Thus, the 20 founders have been arrested and sentenced to prison, Ion Cană being condemned to a 7 years term for "disseminating fascist
propaganda". Another trade union leader, Gheorghe Braşoveanu, was confined to a psychiatric institution while the prominent opponent Vasile Paraschiv
underwent harsh psychiatric treatment.
In April the SLOMR, in an open letter
to Ceauşescu, protested against the arrest of its members, among them Cană and Braşoveanu (the two were eventually released in 1980). Cană's successor as chairman, Nicolae Dascălu, was sentenced in June to 18 months in prison for allegedly passing state secrets to Amnesty International
.
In Timişoara
Carl Gibson, Erwin Ludwig, Prof. Dr. Fenelon Sacerdoţeanu and other 20 persons formed — after personal talks with Dascălu and other dissidents from Bucharest — the regional SLOMR of Timişoara. Gibson and Ludwig were arrested on April 4, accused of having created an "anarchistic
organisation" an sentenced to six months in prison. A further 153 leaders of the union, among them Virgil Chender from Sighişoara
, were arrested on charges of "parasitism
" and "hooliganism
", and placed under house arrest
, interned in psychiatric hospitals, deported, imprisoned or expelled from the country after serving their sentences. Father Calciu-Dumitreasa was sentenced to ten years in prison.
A number of trade unionists were also obliged to sign statements disclaiming the existence of the SLOMR. At the same time, the authorities launched a campaign of slander and harsh threats designed to destroy the union. After he arrived in Germany
, Gibson became the speaker of the SLOMR in the West
. Together with a group of Romanian dissidents from France
and Switzerland
, he informed the World Confederation of Labour
in Brussels
and the United Nations
' International Labour Organization
about the free trade union movement in Romania and about the human rights violations. The support group was able to convince both organisations to post a complaint against the regime in Bucharest.
After the initial arrest of the leaders of the union, others took over the task of organising the union but a month later they were arrested as well and the remainder were subjected to permanent harassment. In a last and successful attempt to dismantle the entire organization, in June several hundred union members were arrested throughout the country at the same time. The communist Romanian regime alleged not to have any knowledge of the new union.
SLOMR (Romanian language
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
acronym for Sindicatul Liber al Oamenilor Muncii din România - Free Trade Union of the Working People of Romania) was a Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
n free trade union
Trade union
A trade union, trades union or labor union is an organization of workers that have banded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labour contracts with...
founded, without prior preparation, in February 1979, as a means to oppose the control exercised by the ruling Communist Party
Romanian Communist Party
The Romanian Communist Party was a communist political party in Romania. Successor to the Bolshevik wing of the Socialist Party of Romania, it gave ideological endorsement to communist revolution and the disestablishment of Greater Romania. The PCR was a minor and illegal grouping for much of the...
during the country's communist period
Communist Romania
Communist Romania was the period in Romanian history when that country was a Soviet-aligned communist state in the Eastern Bloc, with the dominant role of Romanian Communist Party enshrined in its successive constitutions...
. Initiated along the same lines as Solidarity, created one year later in the People's Republic of Poland
People's Republic of Poland
The People's Republic of Poland was the official name of Poland from 1952 to 1990. Although the Soviet Union took control of the country immediately after the liberation from Nazi Germany in 1944, the name of the state was not changed until eight years later...
, it grew to about 2,400 adherents within four weeks, and was dismantled by the authorities of Nicolae Ceauşescu
Nicolae Ceausescu
Nicolae Ceaușescu was a Romanian Communist politician. He was General Secretary of the Romanian Communist Party from 1965 to 1989, and as such was the country's second and last Communist leader...
's regime, coordinated by the Securitate
Securitate
The Securitate was the secret police agency of Communist Romania. Previously, the Romanian secret police was called Siguranţa Statului. Founded on August 30, 1948, with help from the Soviet NKVD, the Securitate was abolished in December 1989, shortly after President Nicolae Ceaușescu was...
, over the next three months.
Background
In January 1979, a group of fifteen workers from the shipyards in the DanubeDanube
The Danube is a river in the Central Europe and the Europe's second longest river after the Volga. It is classified as an international waterway....
port of Drobeta-Turnu Severin
Drobeta-Turnu Severin
Drobeta-Turnu Severin is a city in Mehedinţi County, Oltenia, Romania, on the left bank of the Danube, below the Iron Gates.The city administers three villages: Dudaşu Schelei, Gura Văii, and Schela Cladovei...
approached Ionel Cană, a physician who had worked in Olt County
Olt County
Olt is a county of Romania, in the historical regions of Oltenia and Muntenia . The capital city is Slatina.- Demographics :In 2002, it had a population of 489,274 and the population density was 89/km²....
amongst workers and had recently moved to Bucharest
Bucharest
Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....
; Cană, who had already helped workers draw up petitions complaining about labour conditions, agreed to the men's proposal to set up a union.
Creation
The founding declaration, signed by 20 persons, was broadcast by Noel BernardNoël Bernard
Noel Bernard was a Romanian journalist, known for being the head of the Romanian-language department of Radio Free Europe...
over Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed"...
on March 4, 1979. The names of the 20 founder members of SLOMR, with their occupations and addresses, were appended to the text. The document stated that the organisation, legally established under Romanian law, was affiliated to the International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions
The International Confederation of Free Trade Unions was an international trade union. It came into being on 7 December 1949 following a split within the World Federation of Trade Unions , and was dissolved on 31 October 2006 when it merged with the World Confederation of Labour to form the...
. Pointing at the declining work and living conditions and at the difficulties workers had in expressing themselves freely and defend their interests, the declaration indicated that the new labour organization was not backed by any political force, and that its objects were to ensure justice in the social and labour areas.
The intention of the new trade union was to enter the struggle against unemployment
Unemployment
Unemployment , as defined by the International Labour Organization, occurs when people are without jobs and they have actively sought work within the past four weeks...
, for better working conditions, for safety and health
Occupational safety and health
Occupational safety and health is a cross-disciplinary area concerned with protecting the safety, health and welfare of people engaged in work or employment. The goal of all occupational safety and health programs is to foster a safe work environment...
in the factories, for the revision of the wage system
Living wage
In public policy, a living wage is the minimum hourly income necessary for a worker to meet basic needs . These needs include shelter and other incidentals such as clothing and nutrition...
and the pension
Pension
In general, a pension is an arrangement to provide people with an income when they are no longer earning a regular income from employment. Pensions should not be confused with severance pay; the former is paid in regular installments, while the latter is paid in one lump sum.The terms retirement...
system, for the reduction of the weekly work period
Working time
Working time is the period of time that an individual spends at paid occupational labor. Unpaid labors such as personal housework are not considered part of the working week...
and the suppression of unpaid overtime
Overtime
Overtime is the amount of time someone works beyond normal working hours. Normal hours may be determined in several ways:*by custom ,*by practices of a given trade or profession,*by legislation,...
, etc. The new union, insisting on the legality of the steps it had taken, requested a frank dialogue with the authorities for the settlement of these claims.
Soon, about 2,400 of workers from various localities such as Bucharest, Ploieşti
Ploiesti
Ploiești is the county seat of Prahova County and lies in the historical region of Wallachia in Romania. The city is located north of Bucharest....
, Constanţa
Constanta
Constanța is the oldest extant city in Romania, founded around 600 BC. The city is located in the Dobruja region of Romania, on the Black Sea coast. It is the capital of Constanța County and the largest city in the region....
, Târgu Mureş and Timişoara
Timisoara
Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...
joined the new union, which also added to its programme more general claims such as freedom for all workers, including peasants, to change their place of work, the right to a decent wage for peasants and the right to freely sell their products and the suppression of terror and internment in psychiatric hospitals of those who demanded that their rights be respected. The dissident Romanian Orthodox Church
Romanian Orthodox Church
The Romanian Orthodox Church is an autocephalous Eastern Orthodox church. It is in full communion with other Eastern Orthodox churches, and is ranked seventh in order of precedence. The Primate of the church has the title of Patriarch...
priest Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa
Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa
Gheorghe Calciu-Dumitreasa was a Romanian priest and dissident. He served 21 years in prison during the Communist regime. He was first imprisoned in 1948, but his 1978 imprisonment he claimed was harsher. He had criticized Nicolae Ceauşescu's repressions and became seen as an "enemy of the state"....
offered to be a spiritual adviser. The new trade union was also supported by the writer and dissident Paul Goma
Paul Goma
Paul Goma is a Romanian writer, also known for his activities as a dissident and leading opponent of the communist regime before 1989. Forced into exile by the communist authorities, he became a political refugee and currently resides in France as a stateless person...
. An additional manifesto calling for the legalization of unofficial trade unions and observance of the right to free association was also released.
Repression
The SLOMR's establishment and the issue of its constituent statement were almost immediately followed by a wave of repression against the body and its members — it included massive arrests, involuntary commitmentInvoluntary commitment
Involuntary commitment or civil commitment is a legal process through which an individual with symptoms of severe mental illness is court-ordered into treatment in a hospital or in the community ....
in psychiatric hospitals, exile, systematic harassment, beatings, as well as a summary trial and prison sentence passed on the SLOMR founder and other leading members. Thus, the 20 founders have been arrested and sentenced to prison, Ion Cană being condemned to a 7 years term for "disseminating fascist
Fascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
propaganda". Another trade union leader, Gheorghe Braşoveanu, was confined to a psychiatric institution while the prominent opponent Vasile Paraschiv
Vasile Paraschiv
Vasile Paraschiv was a Romanian social and political activist.- Biography :Paraschiv was born in Ordoreanu village, Clinceni commune, Ilfov County...
underwent harsh psychiatric treatment.
In April the SLOMR, in an open letter
Open letter
An open letter is a letter that is intended to be read by a wide audience, or a letter intended for an individual, but that is nonetheless widely distributed intentionally....
to Ceauşescu, protested against the arrest of its members, among them Cană and Braşoveanu (the two were eventually released in 1980). Cană's successor as chairman, Nicolae Dascălu, was sentenced in June to 18 months in prison for allegedly passing state secrets to Amnesty International
Amnesty International
Amnesty International is an international non-governmental organisation whose stated mission is "to conduct research and generate action to prevent and end grave abuses of human rights, and to demand justice for those whose rights have been violated."Following a publication of Peter Benenson's...
.
In Timişoara
Timisoara
Timișoara is the capital city of Timiș County, in western Romania. One of the largest Romanian cities, with an estimated population of 311,586 inhabitants , and considered the informal capital city of the historical region of Banat, Timișoara is the main social, economic and cultural center in the...
Carl Gibson, Erwin Ludwig, Prof. Dr. Fenelon Sacerdoţeanu and other 20 persons formed — after personal talks with Dascălu and other dissidents from Bucharest — the regional SLOMR of Timişoara. Gibson and Ludwig were arrested on April 4, accused of having created an "anarchistic
Anarchism
Anarchism is generally defined as the political philosophy which holds the state to be undesirable, unnecessary, and harmful, or alternatively as opposing authority in the conduct of human relations...
organisation" an sentenced to six months in prison. A further 153 leaders of the union, among them Virgil Chender from Sighişoara
Sighisoara
Sighişoara is a city and municipality on the Târnava Mare River in Mureş County, Romania. Located in the historic region Transylvania, Sighişoara has a population of 27,706 ....
, were arrested on charges of "parasitism
Parasitism (social offense)
Social parasitism is a charge that is leveled against a group or class in society which is considered to be detrimental to the whole by analogy with biologic parasitism .-General concept:...
" and "hooliganism
Hooliganism
Hooliganism refers to unruly, destructive, aggressive and bullying behaviour. Such behaviour is commonly associated with sports fans. The term can also apply to general rowdy behaviour and vandalism, often under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs....
", and placed under house arrest
House arrest
In justice and law, house arrest is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to his or her residence. Travel is usually restricted, if allowed at all...
, interned in psychiatric hospitals, deported, imprisoned or expelled from the country after serving their sentences. Father Calciu-Dumitreasa was sentenced to ten years in prison.
A number of trade unionists were also obliged to sign statements disclaiming the existence of the SLOMR. At the same time, the authorities launched a campaign of slander and harsh threats designed to destroy the union. After he arrived in Germany
Germany
Germany , officially the Federal Republic of Germany , is a federal parliamentary republic in Europe. The country consists of 16 states while the capital and largest city is Berlin. Germany covers an area of 357,021 km2 and has a largely temperate seasonal climate...
, Gibson became the speaker of the SLOMR in the West
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
. Together with a group of Romanian dissidents from France
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
and Switzerland
Switzerland
Switzerland name of one of the Swiss cantons. ; ; ; or ), in its full name the Swiss Confederation , is a federal republic consisting of 26 cantons, with Bern as the seat of the federal authorities. The country is situated in Western Europe,Or Central Europe depending on the definition....
, he informed the World Confederation of Labour
World Confederation of Labour
The World Confederation of Labour was an international labour organization founded in 1920 and based in Europe. Totalitarian governments of the 1930s repressed the federation and imprisoned many of its leaders, limiting operations until the end of World War II...
in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
and the United Nations
United Nations
The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
' International Labour Organization
International Labour Organization
The International Labour Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations that deals with labour issues pertaining to international labour standards. Its headquarters are in Geneva, Switzerland. Its secretariat — the people who are employed by it throughout the world — is known as the...
about the free trade union movement in Romania and about the human rights violations. The support group was able to convince both organisations to post a complaint against the regime in Bucharest.
After the initial arrest of the leaders of the union, others took over the task of organising the union but a month later they were arrested as well and the remainder were subjected to permanent harassment. In a last and successful attempt to dismantle the entire organization, in June several hundred union members were arrested throughout the country at the same time. The communist Romanian regime alleged not to have any knowledge of the new union.
External links
- A quarter of a century since the SLOMR at the Sighet MemorialSighet prisonThe Sighet prison, located in the town of Sighetu Marmaţiei, Maramureş county, Romania, was used by the communist regime to hold political prisoners...
site News program archive at Radio Free EuropeRadio Free EuropeRadio Free Europe/Radio Liberty is a broadcaster funded by the U.S. Congress that provides news, information, and analysis to countries in Eastern Europe, Central Asia, and the Middle East "where the free flow of information is either banned by government authorities or not fully developed"...
Romanian edition; February 27, 2007 edition features William Totok's interview with Carl Gibson on the Timişoara SLOMR and its legacy.