Cav's Place

I should mention that I continued to see a small number of people apparently gathering around the fountain each evening when I checked the webcam overlooking the area, but no other banners or any other signs that they were actually protesting, plus that on some evenings they scattered particularly early as well. Seeing as, when I pointed out some mistakes made on one of the fliers that was printed, I was told I should come to the fountain and make those observations while these things are being discussed, before the materials appear on-line after it’s already too late to change anything, I can assume that these small gatherings largely act as some sort of informal action group meetings, whether those who show up actually are part of those groups or not. I may be wrong, of course, but that’s how it seems to me at the moment.
With the three options for the route of the ninth Sunday march being posted on Wednesday and the voting ending at 10 PM on Thursday, other actions included a silly and pointless one-minute strike on Wednesday, when people were asked to stop working and simply look at a certain page or one of the available mirrors at exactly 3 PM, two discussions on matters of patrimony on Thursday, and the action group meeting that took place on Friday, apparently from 5 PM. More visible was Friday’s “guerrilla action”, when campaign stickers stating that the product doesn’t contain cyanide yet were placed on products found in supermarkets, and two more actions meant to spread awareness on Saturday, one focused on the students living in the Tei Complex and the other on the pilgrims gathered at the Patriarchy. There are some conflicting reports about this last part, with Alina, who initiated and more or less leads these action groups, saying it turned out quite well but other reports stating that only six people actually tried to spread the fliers, gendarmes started filming them since they gathered and then asked them to leave, informing them that the Patriarchy disapproves of their action.
It was also announced on Wednesday that five NGOs, which were reduced to four after it was revealed that one of them isn’t formally registered at the present time, took Chevron, the Government and the National Agency for Mineral Resources to court in order to cancel the permits allowing the company to explore potential shale gas deposits in Barlad county and in three areas of Constanta county. Otherwise, with the “intimidation machine” being kicked into motion and people all over the country starting to receive fines for taking part in the protests, some of those who were present during the incident that took place a week before were called for questioning on Thursday, with “offender” having obviously been initially written on the subpoenas, before being erased and replaced with “witness”. Actually questioned as offenders were Claudiu and Alex, on Friday, though they were not formally accused at the time.

Ninth Sunday March: At 4 PM, when we were supposed to start gathering, a mere handful of people were at the statues, the meeting place having been changed so we’ll have more room and also in order to provide us with more opportunities to take to the street in case the gendarmes will try to stop us. As such, it took quite a while before people actually started protesting and some known activists made some speeches, and nobody was surprised when, at 5 PM, when the plan was to start marching, it was announced that we’ll wait a while longer, seeing as plenty of people were yet to arrive.
We were perhaps 2000, possibly somewhat more, when the call was made to get moving, but I didn’t check the time when it happened and in fact I’m not sure how relevant it’d have been to do so, seeing as the gendarmes did stop us from taking to the street at first. That led to some people using the underground passage to reach either the fountain or the Theater and others trying to break through the line directly before the rest of us used a narrow street to go around and finally make our way to those who had gotten ahead and were waiting for the numbers required to start marching on the road. The gendarmes did make several more attempts to get us back onto the sidewalk even after that point, but they didn’t seem quite so determined and it didn’t take long for the protesters to get past each line they were trying to form, not to mention that those of us willing and able to run a little could easily stay ahead, so they eventually gave up and waited for us at Victoriei Square, in front of the Government building, where we arrived at 6:35 PM.
According to the original plan, the march was supposed to end there, being followed by perhaps hours of protesting in that location, but at 7:20 PM a call was made to get moving again and people were quick to do so. Unsurprisingly, the gendarmes were once again not happy with the idea, but they were caught unprepared and plenty of us were already through before they managed to link arms and form a line in front of the rest. That prompted some of them to start running, obviously in an attempt to get ahead of us and form another line, we responded by sprinting ourselves in order to stay ahead of them and that was more or less the story at least until we reached Romana Square. Some of them and those of us who were ahead of the line were sprinting every so often, each side trying to stay ahead of the other, and the line occasionally tried to stop in order to hold back the thick of the protesters, at which point those of us who were ahead turned back to catch them between the two groups, allowing some of the rest to start making their way through and making the gendarmes need to start moving again if they didn’t want to simply end up behind the protesters. For obvious reasons, I focused on filming during that time, though I still took plenty of pictures as well over the course of the evening.
I believe our numbers peaked either as we left Victoriei Square or at some point during our march on Victoriei Way, possibly before reaching the crossroads with Elisabeta Boulevard, but it was hard to make an estimate at that point and I was definitely in no position to do so. Still, mainstream media sources almost unanimously stated that we were around 3000, only one going as high as 4000, and while 3000 seems somewhat too conservative, I believe this latter value to be quite fair, at least based on what I saw both before the mess started and after it more or less ended. Of course, there were some protesters who put forward numbers as high as 9000 that evening, but those were obviously too high.
Returning to the march, after Romana Square the gendarmes seemed to have something of a change of heart and largely left us alone, many of them regrouping to wait for us at University Square, where it was believed we were heading after some of the known activists were heard saying so as we left Victoriei Square. However, when we reached the crossroads with Elisabeta, the call was made to keep going straight ahead and people readily did so, especially since they could see what was waiting for anyone turning left. The fact that avoiding University Square had been the plan all along was perhaps as much of a surprise for many of the protesters as it was for the gendarmes, but the known activists couldn’t exactly make all of us aware of this and prevent the gendarmes from hearing of it at the same time, and I’m sure people understood that.
After that point, the obvious question was where were we really going, and what I could hear most frequently was the Parliament, so probably Constitution Square, but others apparently also meant to go to the Patriarchy, which would have clearly caused conflicts among the protesters, so we turned left when we should have turned right in order to get to either of those. Shortly after that, when most of us turned left a second time and headed for Unirii Square, others seemed determined to keep going straight ahead, I have no idea where to. Still, though some of those who had other routes in mind likely scattered before that point, perhaps some 2500 people reached and occupied Unirii Square at 8:25 PM, finding no gendarmes waiting for us.
For a while, we were expecting them to leave University Square, which at that point they were blocking for absolutely no reason, and surround us at Unirii, but they didn’t. That prompted some more hot-blooded protesters to try to persuade the others to get moving again and go to them instead, but we stayed where we were, clearing Unirii Square to go to University Square and create an incident obviously serving no purpose. Granted, seeing as people seemed quite tired and not particularly willing to actually protest anymore, staying at Unirii just to block the place wasn’t particularly useful either, so the numbers started to drop quickly and after a while a negotiator came alone, talked at some length with a few of us, eventually announced that only 350 were left and those who’ll insist on staying on the road will be identified and fined. That initially caused some to react with some hostility but, after briefly discussing the matter, the known activists decided it wasn’t worth it to create an incident when the evening had been ours once again and most had already left on their own, so the call to scatter was made at 9:30 PM and people quickly did so. I heard a few odd reports stating that some were still around until 10:30 PM or even 11 PM, but since I waited a few minutes before entering the metro station and therefore saw the area, including the sidewalk, clear almost completely, I find that strange.
Now, before I move on to the conclusion, I want to briefly return to the incidents that took place on Victoriei Way and mention that a woman fainted at some point and some protesters were hit by the gendarmes, a few showing bruises and one now using a crutch to walk. In addition, I saw some reports about a group of violent individuals joining the march and pushing the gendarmes. That may explain why the negotiators were justifying their colleagues’ behavior by saying that we had agitators among us and they needed to make sure they won’t be given a chance to cause some real damage, but it doesn’t explain why they didn’t extract those few and allow the rest of us to continue on our way, because the way they acted simply turned that entire part of the march, between Victoriei Square and Romana Square, into one continuous incident, angered even some protesters who’d have been far calmer otherwise and ensured that it actually took longer before the road was cleared.
Still, it could have been far worse, especially considering the way the politicians are changing their attitude after noticing that, though our numbers are unfortunately declining, we’re definitely not stopping and some of those who aren’t actually taking part in marches anymore at this point may simply wait for them to make another move and return if it’ll still be against what we’re asking. Sadly, it already is much worse in Brasov, where the gendarmes used force for the third Sunday in a row, heavy fines and minor injuries being spread liberally among protesters merely because they wanted to march on the road. For this reason, we must be more and more careful from now on, making sure we won’t provoke incidents ourselves and continue to avoid as many as we can, but obviously without allowing them to intimidate us into giving up. The movement is entering a new stage, one that requires us to have the wisdom to find the proper ways to respond to the changing situation and the determination to see those plans through to the end.