Cav's Place

I should start by mentioning that, on top of what I see personally, I’m generally getting my information by following the movement’s “official” page and the posts of a small number of activists and independent journalists. However, a separate branch of this movement has been trying to gain some traction, others seem set on protesting or organizing events independently, with small groups or even on their own, and a message posted Sunday on the “official” page even encouraged this sort of “decentralization”. I’m not currently aware of any such attempts managing to gather more than a handful of people or getting much attention from anyone, but the point is that, even if that will change, I’m not trying to keep track of everything anyone may attempt and may well even ignore some of the things I may happen to hear of. Our slogan is “united we save” and, even if these actions will now apparently be, shall we say, sanctioned by the known activists, they clearly divide us.
And speaking of being divided, protests for the educational system were organized Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, while a march for the medical system took place Saturday, but the union leaders asked the gendarmes to keep those known to be part of this movement away even though those who went did so merely in order to show solidarity with the protesters, without signs or banners about Rosia Montana, fracking or any other issues. In fact, while the most notable call to show solidarity with the teachers was made by someone who said we should perhaps join them Tuesday in front of the Government when he was given one of the better loudspeakers for a few minutes before the start of the ninth Sunday march, while the usual speakers were taking a break, joining Saturday’s march was the “alternative action” the action groups and “official” page promoted for this ninth week. However, as I said, it didn’t work out, the only ones managing to take part being those who weren’t recognized and simply slipped into the crowd without asking.

Returning to the beginning of the week, five activists responded Monday to the actions taken after the October 17 incident by buying a used rear window, writing “resignation!” on it and bringing it to the Ministry of Culture, along with a letter of resignation only requiring a signature and a copy of the report written by British experts regarding the value of Rosia Montana as a world heritage site, which the Minister of Culture said didn’t exist. They weren’t allowed inside, not even to simply leave the copy of the report, the security guards citing special protocols that were activated after the incident in question, but the event got some media attention and even most of the gendarmes who showed up seemed rather amused by the situation.
Yet an even more visible event took place Wednesday when, as a small number of protesters gathered at the fountain from 4 PM and, despite not actually protesting, remained there for a few hours, a flash mob commemorating the victims of the 1971 Certej dam failure was staged in front of the Ministry of Environment. In fact, a few activists lit the first candles there at exactly 4:55 AM and people were asked to bring flowers and light candles throughout the day, but the actual flash mob, when a red piece of fabric was pulled over the maybe 30 of us who got into or covered ourselves with plastic bags and then, after it was removed, lay motionless for three minutes, took place shortly after 5 PM, when some 60 or 70 people were present. Once that was done, “Certej 1971” was written with candles and many more were lit as well, to the point that it did seem rather wasteful to me. In the end, a significant part of those present, including the few activists who had arrived from Brasov, left together, probably both to have an action group meeting and to discuss the next course of action in Brasov, where the gendarmes had been using force for the past few weeks.

On a different note, but once again returning to the October 17 incident, five people, including Claudiu and Alex, were formally accused and called for questioning Thursday morning. According to what was posted, the subpoenas were received Tuesday, though the date on them was October 28, so Monday. In addition, since I’m at legal matters, Tuesday also saw the second hearing of a rather odd trial related to the new Certej mining project, the National Environmental Protection Agency suing the Timisoara Regional Environmental Protection Agency in order to request the cancellation of the permits issued by the latter.
Moving on to Thursday morning, about 60 of us, and a lot of reporters, gathered at 9 AM in front of the precinct where the hearings were to take place, eventually leaving at 11:30 AM, after both the hearings and the interviews were over. We were there to take a picture with a the “Association of Future Political Detainees” banner and, of course, to show our support. At the time, most of us didn’t know who the other three who were accused were, and I personally still don’t know who one of them is, so the support was initially meant for Claudiu and Alex and then, based on who they were and what those who had caught a glimpse of what happened could remember, we were to determine whether the others deserved it as well. After all, somebody broke that window and that person should be identified and punished accordingly, both because it’d be the right thing to do and because, once this will happen, the authorities will no longer have this excuse to throw bogus charges at the known activists or any other protesters they wish to intimidate.

I initially meant to include the tenth Sunday march in this post as well, but I clearly wasn’t going to do that today, so I’m posting it as it is and will then write a separate one about the march. Should also make reading these things somewhat more manageable; they’re probably confusing enough even without taking the length into account.