Cav's Place

Since some notable events did take place during four of the five days covered by this post, I’ll return to the original format of having a separate section for each day, even if this will make for a particularly disappointing entry for Monday. I should also mention that I was in the fountain area on Thursday, which makes it the only day other than Sunday that I have firsthand information about, seeing as for the first time since the start of the protests I stayed home on a Saturday as well.

Day 26: A brief “play” was scheduled from 8 PM, with the “actors” chosen from those who expressed interest. It was also said that, being so brief, it can easily be repeated if more people want to take part, but that didn’t happen and, as far as I’m concerned, for good reason, seeing as the scene was completely pointless and quite a waste of time and resources for those who did seem to actually go through some trouble to set it all up. The only thing that somewhat saved the “show” was a speech by a guy who said he had only heard of the event the day before and, wishing to add something to it, decided to pretend to be the Prime Minister, supposedly having come to address the protesters, while the other actors, still wearing the masks with the faces of the other politicians, were to laugh when he gave a signal. There wasn’t much to this either, but I definitely appreciated the effort.
Just over 100 people attended those moments, if you include those who participated as well, and some started clearing out soon after the speech ended, when the rest split in small groups and started chatting with each other, the few feeble attempts to actually protest dying away almost immediately. The one larger group that did form, which included some of the more involved activists who were present at the time, did discuss some more important matters, but they also scattered when two television crews showed up, not wishing to be taken as “leaders”. Other than some people giving some interviews, nothing notable happened between that point and 9:40 PM, when I left, leaving behind less than 40 people. When I checked the webcam at 11 PM, about half that number were still there, but they cleared out by 11:30 PM.
Otherwise, Thursday was also the day set aside by the Special Commission formed to analyze the issue to discuss with the representatives of the protesters, so it was a day when they should have been staring at an empty conference room, seeing as we do not recognize that Commission and will not deal with it. However, after a site was set up where anyone could ask to be included in these discussions, 15 of those who did so did show up and the politicians keep saying that they were our representatives. Obviously, though at least one was actually involved in the protests, they were nothing of the sort, so the need to clearly and strongly reject this message was an important topic discussed in that larger group I mentioned above.

Day 27: While those involved in the action groups met that evening to receive and start spreading the fliers some of them managed to have printed during the week, the “official” event, which started at 9 PM and was only announced around 7 PM, took place in a club situated close to University Square and consisted of an evening of musical improvisation on themes related to the protest. Obviously, that only served to split the already few people even more, no more than 30 showing up around the fountain on an evening when a television station had a show on these issues and broadcasted live from the area. Those people cleared quickly after 11 PM, when the camera was turned off.
I have no clue what that confusion was all about, whether it was intentional or not, but the result was that three known activists, who are all at the forefront of the campaign against fracking and were obviously there specifically for this purpose, spoke on that show from the fountain area and were repeatedly presented by the moderator as the leaders of the protesters, only one of them mentioning once that he’s no more than his own leader. In addition, their speeches naturally focused on the fracking issue while the few protesters who were behind them weakly chanted for Rosia Montana, this seeming to be the only way to remind them to at least mention the main reason this entire movement was started.

Day 28: With the fliers arriving so late, the plan for Saturday was meant to increase the action groups’ impact and efficiency, so the original idea was to meet at Unirii metro station at 3 PM and ride the metro, spreading awareness to the other passengers before meeting back at Unirii at 6 PM. However, the final decision, made shortly after those who wished to take part in the effort met, was to split into five groups, four riding the metro on three different routes and one remaining at Unirii, and meet back there at 6:45 PM instead. While I don’t actually know whether this is true, I imagine that time was picked so they’ll be able to be at the fountain at 7 PM and start the day’s protest there as well.
The reports pretty much died out after that point, so I don’t know exactly what happened later, but the webcam only showed a few people start to arive around the fountain around 7:20 PM, I counted less than 20 at 8 PM and some of them had already left by 8:30 PM. That didn’t mean that the area cleared soon after that point, however, as ten or so people, a few who arrived later replacing some of those who were leaving, stuck around probably some two hours longer. After noticing there was no reason to go there myself, I started doing something else that evening, so I didn’t check the webcam regularly to have a more exact time than that.

Day 29: This time around, people were told to start gathering outside the Titan metro station from 4 PM, the march only ending at University Square, and once again there were no special events or guests. Worse, at least in my opinion, there were many messages asking those who are unable to be there by the time we’ll start marching, which was shortly after 6 PM, to either join us on the way or at least gather at University Square from 8 PM and wait for us to arrive. As a result, many feared we’ll be very few at the start, and possibly during the march as well, and indeed we numbered only in the hundreds until very close to 6 PM, but at the start of the march, when the people who had been taking shelter from the rain in the surrounding area joined as well, we were relieved to see we were well over 1000, possibly close to 2000.
The numbers were obviously far lower than before, but more did join, both on the way and at the end, and overall we were happy with what we got, considering the weather. Initial estimates from the mainstream media regarding the number of people in the Square ranged between 2000 and 6000, while some enthusiastic ones from protesters put us at over 10000 towards the end the march, even up to 20000 once, though the group that made that claim quickly went back on it, admitting they were too enthusiastic. By Monday, though I saw one independent reporter firmly insist on at least 10000 and one known protester even claim 15000, most people, including those who manage the, shall we say, official Facebook account, seemed to agree that we were between 4000 and 6000 at the peak, so the estimate of around 5000 that I made after arriving in the Square seems just about right and I’m sticking to it. Admittedly, needing to protect the camera meant that I took fewer pictures this time around and didn’t wait for the entire column to walk past in order to try to estimate the number of people marching, but it seems safe to assume that the peak was in the Square and not earlier.
The march itself lasted for just over two and a half hours, though that doesn’t mean the route was much shorter than any except the previous one, which was clearly the longest, but that the rain thankfully made people walk somewhat faster. Unfortunately, it also reduced the amount of support we could receive, as there weren’t many people outside, but a fair number were looking out the window as we walked past and some of them cheered or waved flags. Since our numbers grew by at least 3000 over the course of the march, it’s obvious that some joined as well, but I noticed some groups that seemed to have independently decided to gather in certain spots along the planned route and only march with us from that point forward, meaning that the number of people who simply decided to come outside and brave the weather after seeing us walk past was understandably very low.
Once we arrived at University Square, around 8:40 PM, some tried to continue marching, probably towards the Government, but a line of gendarmes stopped us just past the fountain area and slowly but steadily closed in from all sides, gently pressing people to gather in one place in order to clear parts of the road as the numbers started dropping. We didn’t all clear so quickly, however, so after the better known activists managed to bring some sort of order to the crowd, the large banners were gathered in a large semicircle, a group of Barlad also joined us and there was more protesting despite the fact that we were all soaked and shivering. When I left, at 9:50 PM, the numbers had dropped well into the hundreds and some of the known faces were making their way out as well, but the last people apparently only left around 11 PM.
Back to the march, the chants were still getting mixed and the worst problem was probably the noise, which often drowned out what was actually being said, the repeated attempts to make all the people with vuvuzelas, whistles or other similar instruments stop using them while others try to chant falling on deaf ears. However, the smaller numbers meant that everything did appear somewhat more organized, and that, the rain and the better speed seemed to largely prevent the group from scattering, though in plenty of places many were more concerned with trying to step in as few puddles as possible than with anything else.
As far as incidents go, I haven’t seen or heard of any. The gendarmes were far more noticeable, their numbers appearing far greater due to ours being so much lower than before, but if they imposed any additional rules they did so gently and the protesters agreed. There might have been some tension in the Square, when they stopped us from continuing and then kept closing in, but everything was solved by talking and the few who were tempted to sit down and resist seemed to be allowed to do so until the rain and the fact that they quickly found themselves alone in front of the line made them pull back to the group on their own.
All in all, I feared far worse than this and I was hardly the only one, so I’m happy with how it turned out. The protests continued in dozens of cities, both across the country and abroad, and in Bucharest, on a chilly day, at the end of a week during which very little happened, after a Saturday with basically no actual protest, some 5000 people still came out to march and spend up to seven hours in the pouring rain for a cause. Sure, that’s far less than the 20000 we saw the week before or the 25000 the week before that, and the area clearing at 11 PM isn’t the same thing as having some people stick around until 2 AM, but under these circumstances and considering how difficult it usually is to make Romanians give a damn, it’s still nothing short of amazing.

Day 30: As I was saying at the start of this post, this will be a particularly disappointing entry, since I have nothing to report as far as visible actions go. The rain that started on Sunday continued throughout the day and nobody attempted anything outside; haven’t even heard of meetings anywhere. However, this time was definitely not wasted, as the action groups started discussing what to do next and others were obviously busy planning this Sunday’s march, seeing as today’s posts reveal a somewhat different approach. Yet today is day 31, so this is a topic for the next post.
There is something to be said regarding the events on the political scene, however, namely that we saw even more desperate tactics being used. The battle between the President and the Prime Minister continued as well, but quite frankly I don’t care about that anymore, so what I do want to mention here is that the Special Commission heard from members of the Government and representatives of the intelligence agencies that day, being told that the mining project must be carried out regardless of what happens with the law, because otherwise the company will sue for damages and win, and that foreign interest groups, as well as “eco-anarchists”, have a significant presence among the protesters and have been making sustained efforts to take over the movement since the beginning, the matter supposedly being one of national security. Unsurprisingly, no evidence has been presented to support any of these claims.

Overall, the week didn’t look good, but the march did, despite the significantly lower numbers. We proved that we can do it and that we will do it. These 5000 or so people who showed up regardless of the conditions proved that it takes more than a series of desperate tactics employed by politicians, a dreadful campaign against us by the most watched news television station and some other mainstream media channels, a rainy day and the exhaustion accumulated over a month of protesting to stop us from returning in the thousands. And that, in itself, is basically unheard of when it comes to honest protests taking place in Romania since 1990, so without including those organized by political parties or the unions associated with them, where people are brought with buses, given free food, drinks, concerts, or perhaps even paid directly, and told exactly what to say. To quote Alexandru Alexe, we have already won.