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September 1991 Mineriad
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September 1991 Mineriad
September 1991 Mineriad was a political action and physical confrontation between the miners of the Jiu Valley and the Romanian authorities, that led to the resignation of Prime Minister Petre Roman's government. Led by Miron Cozma, president of the Jiu Valley Coal Miners Union, the miners engaged in a series of actions beginning in the 1990s referred to as "mineriads" whereby large numbers of miners traveled to the Romanian capital of Bucharest and engaged in demonstrations and sometimes violent confrontations against counter-demonstrators and government authorities.
During the June 1990 Mineriad, the miners were called in by the Ion Iliescu government to "protect the Revolution" by opposing the crowds who were protesting the government (the Golaniad). As a reward, the miners were promised better wages and living conditions, promises that were not kept.
Starting in September 1990, the Petre Roman government had begun shock therapy: fast-paced economic and political reforms with the goal of transforming Romania's economy into a market economy, and away from the Communist planned economy. Prices were to be liberalized in three stages and the subsidies for food, which compensated workers' relatively low wages, were cut, while the privatization laws brought the specter of unemployment. The workers most affected by these reforms felt that the people who gained most from this Romanian Revolution were not the workers (who came to see themselves as the underdogs of society), but a new class of businessmen and entrepreneurs.
The reforms led to severe inflation (prices grew by over 200%), a large increase in unemployment (from virtually zero in December 1989 to over one million—11% of the urban workers—in 1991) and food shortages, leading to a growing popular discontent.
The workers most threatened by the market were the miners, as was the case of the Donbas miners in the Soviet Union, or the Sheffield miners during Margaret Thatcher premiership in the United Kingdom.
The miners demanded higher wages, lower prices and the resignation of Petre Roman's government, as well as the resignation of president Ion Iliescu.
On September 25, 1991, the miners, mostly from Petroșani and Târgu Jiu, hijacked two trains bound for Bucharest and marched toward the government's capitol building, asking to meet with officials, a demand ignored by the government.
In Bucharest's Victory Square, in front of the capitol building, the crowd, estimated at 10,000 people (mostly miners, but also some Bucharesters), began throwing stones and petrol bombs at the government buildings, setting a corner of the building in fire. The miners were armed with sticks, metal pipes, chains, rubber hoses and axes, and were equipped with helmets and rubber boots.
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September 1991 Mineriad
September 1991 Mineriad was a political action and physical confrontation between the miners of the Jiu Valley and the Romanian authorities, that led to the resignation of Prime Minister Petre Roman's government. Led by Miron Cozma, president of the Jiu Valley Coal Miners Union, the miners engaged in a series of actions beginning in the 1990s referred to as "mineriads" whereby large numbers of miners traveled to the Romanian capital of Bucharest and engaged in demonstrations and sometimes violent confrontations against counter-demonstrators and government authorities.
During the June 1990 Mineriad, the miners were called in by the Ion Iliescu government to "protect the Revolution" by opposing the crowds who were protesting the government (the Golaniad). As a reward, the miners were promised better wages and living conditions, promises that were not kept.
Starting in September 1990, the Petre Roman government had begun shock therapy: fast-paced economic and political reforms with the goal of transforming Romania's economy into a market economy, and away from the Communist planned economy. Prices were to be liberalized in three stages and the subsidies for food, which compensated workers' relatively low wages, were cut, while the privatization laws brought the specter of unemployment. The workers most affected by these reforms felt that the people who gained most from this Romanian Revolution were not the workers (who came to see themselves as the underdogs of society), but a new class of businessmen and entrepreneurs.
The reforms led to severe inflation (prices grew by over 200%), a large increase in unemployment (from virtually zero in December 1989 to over one million—11% of the urban workers—in 1991) and food shortages, leading to a growing popular discontent.
The workers most threatened by the market were the miners, as was the case of the Donbas miners in the Soviet Union, or the Sheffield miners during Margaret Thatcher premiership in the United Kingdom.
The miners demanded higher wages, lower prices and the resignation of Petre Roman's government, as well as the resignation of president Ion Iliescu.
On September 25, 1991, the miners, mostly from Petroșani and Târgu Jiu, hijacked two trains bound for Bucharest and marched toward the government's capitol building, asking to meet with officials, a demand ignored by the government.
In Bucharest's Victory Square, in front of the capitol building, the crowd, estimated at 10,000 people (mostly miners, but also some Bucharesters), began throwing stones and petrol bombs at the government buildings, setting a corner of the building in fire. The miners were armed with sticks, metal pipes, chains, rubber hoses and axes, and were equipped with helmets and rubber boots.