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Romania Dissidence
There were few signs of widespread organized opposition
to the
Ceausescu regime in the late 1980s, but scattered and
sporadic
indications of social and political unrest were
increasing. This
opposition emanated from political and human rights
activists,
workers, religious believers, ethnic minority groups, and
even
former mid-level officials of the PCR. But the ubiquitous
Securitate effectively suppressed dissidence because
activists were
few in number and isolated from one another and from their
potential followers.
The Securitate had an effective overall strategy and
varied
tactics for suppressing dissidence. It relied primarily on
extralegal reprisals against leading individual dissidents
that
ranged from petty harassment, threats, and intimidation to
physical
beatings at the hands of the plainclothes militia.
Dissidents were
often fired from their jobs and then prosecuted and
imprisoned for
"parasitism," even though they were frequently denied all
opportunities to work. To isolate dissidents from one
another and
from Western diplomats and media representatives inside
Romania who
could bring them international attention, the state denied
them
residence permits that were required by law before they
could live
in major cities. The state either avoided prosecuting
dissidents in
open trials that would generate publicity for their causes
or
prosecuted them in secret trials before military courts
(see Judicial System
, this ch.).
Even if they avoided detention, some well-known
dissidents had
their telephone and mail service interrupted and were
jailed
without warning. Several lived under virtual house arrest
and
constant surveillance by plainclothes Securitate agents
and the
uniformed militia, who cordoned off their apartments and
intimidated potential visitors. Dissidents were often
vilified
publicly in the media as traitors, imperialist spies, or
servants
of the ancien régime. When the cases of certain dissidents
became
known to international human rights organizations and the
state was
unable to act freely against them, the Securitate
pressured these
dissidents to emigrate by making their lives unbearable
and
granting them exit visas to leave the country. Once the
dissidents
were removed from the domestic political scene, the DIE
acted
against those who continued their criticism of the
Ceausescu
regime while in exile
(see Department of External Information
, this
ch.).
Romania's industrial workers became an important source
of
unrest and a potential threat to the Ceausescu regime and
future
PCR rule in the 1970s. During the 1980s, the labor force's
restiveness continued, primarily in reaction to the
virtual
collapse of the national economy and the deteriorating
standard of
living
(see The Economy
, ch. 3). The regime's economic
austerity
policy and attendant food, fuel, and power shortages hurt
the
working class in particular. But Ceausescu weathered
spontaneous,
short-lived labor protests with the support of the
security forces
and police, who prevented the development of a sustained,
independent workers' movement in Romania that would be
comparable
to Poland's Solidarity. Although they never failed to
subdue
protestors, the Securitate and police appeared to be
strained under
the burden of monitoring restive workers throughout
Romania in the
late 1980s.
Data as of July 1989
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