Cav's Place

After losing about a year to internal conflicts, splits, egos, stubbornness, indecisiveness, poor planning and unwise choices, the United We Save movement seems to have finally managed to become relevant once again, thanks to yesterday’s protest against deforestation, triggered by the recent developments regarding the Forest Code and the actions of certain companies and the politicians which appear to serve their interests, which include the President. Admittedly, for the main event, in Bucharest, the gathering place was in the same location as a festival dedicated to NGOs and a large number of organizations, including the Romanian branches of major international environmental ones, supported and promoted the event, and even directly participated in the efforts to organize it. But this may actually mean that the success was even greater, due to managing to create such a consensus and persuade some organizations that don’t usually work with others to do so this time.

Unlike the largely unsuccessful, and at times completely failed, other attempts that some activists have made over this past year, this protest started from an idea and one person who became truly dedicated to it, but almost immediately seemed to take a life of its own. It wasn’t a matter of a few people trying to force an issue on the agenda or struggling to gain support even within the movement by spending a great deal of energy only to persuade the rest that their priorities should be those of others as well and that a particular course of action is worth pursuing at a particular moment, but a case of an idea that caught on and spread, with many, from all over the country and even from abroad, jumping in within the first few days, trying to coordinate and do their best to help organize what was obviously going to be a major event, with protests taking place in dozens of cities.
Of course, there were still misunderstandings, disagreements and conflicts, some of which still far from being solved in any way, but that feeling from September and perhaps October 2013, when what needed to be done could usually still somehow be done in spite of all the differences, did tend to return, and the end result speaks for itself. It’s what happens when people fighting for a cause manage to remember that what they have in common is more important than what sets them apart, which is something that over this past year seemed to have been forgotten even more than it had been ever since this movement stopped being merely a method of channeling all discontent through a quick reaction against a specific threat and enemy and became a way to actually fight for goals and ideals, and in some cases unfortunately also for personal gain.

But to return to the day of the march, people were asked to gather at the main entrance of Herastrau park, where a festival dedicated to NGOs was also taking place, starting at 4 PM, what will happen next remaining to be decided according to the numbers. As such, I was pleasantly surprised to see quite a crowd already there around 4:15 PM, when I arrived myself, and perhaps even more pleased to see so many known faces, including some who had unfortunately ended up on different sides and in open and at times particularly heated conflict over this past year. Some were still notably absent, but those who were there, as well as some of the banners and speeches and the way in which things already appeared to have been organized, were enough to give me a good feeling about what will follow. Enough of a good feeling, in fact, to do what I usually tended to do and take a fair number of pictures despite the mood I was in otherwise.
That feeling was proven correct once again not much later, when we started moving at 5:10 PM even though it was said that the march will only begin around 6 PM. In fact, though a route was eventually decided on and made public a few days before, the march was not only not planned from the beginning but not entirely certain even with mere hours remaining, as it all depended on how many people will be present and how long they’ll need to gather, considering past experiences. However, some estimates say we were already around 2000 when we got moving and, while I’m no longer used to estimating such large crowds anymore, I think it’s entirely possible that we were in fact even more.
With the gendarmes not causing any problems, we were then able to stick to the planned route and reach the Government at 5:45 PM, where we stopped to display the banners and chant some slogans, and apparently also to have the anthem played through a loudspeaker. By 6 PM, however, we were once again on the move, making a second stop at 6:50 PM, in front of the Presidential Palace, where the smaller place made it more difficult to arrange the banners properly and people seemed to mostly try to find a way to fit inside the square as those closer to the gate once again led some chants and slogans.
By 7:10 PM we were moving again, and not much later those who had the loudspeakers started announcing that some media channels were reporting that we were 8000 or even 10000. However, at the time I actually told someone that we were probably only around 5000, thinking that 6000 was also quite possible but more was unlikely, and these numbers actually seem to be what many sources eventually settled on after the protest ended. Even many of the activists seem to agree on these or even lower values now, with others limiting themselves to saying we were “thousands”, even though a fair number tended to get carried away and insist on 10000 or 12000 at first, getting upset when seeing the significantly lower estimates reported elsewhere.
Back to the route, we made another brief stop, lasting only about five minutes, in front of the Cantacuzino Institute, which is known for manufacturing vaccines but may be closing its doors after being brought to its knees in recent years, causing problems in hospitals and additional expenses and even an increase in the incidence of side effects as quite a number of products now need to be imported and some aren’t quite suitable for most Romanians. I’m actually not sure whether this was planned from the beginning and simply not announced or not, but those who support the Institute, while carrying banners stating their support for our cause as well, were definitely identifiable as a separate group from the first moments, mainly due to the white medical robes they were wearing. There was also a petition to sign regarding this issue, and activists had mentioned it even before the start of the march, albeit rather in passing until we actually ended up in front of the gate, where it became the main focus for those few minutes.
Once we got moving again, it wasn’t long before we reached Izvor park, crossing it and then, at 8 PM, making a brief stop at its main entrance, which is across the road from the Chamber of Deputies entrance of the Palace of Parliament. Barely a couple of minutes later, we were on our way once again, going around and reaching Constitution Square at 8:15 PM, the march ending there even though the initial plan called for it to end about 100 meters farther on, in front of the Ministry of Environment. Either way, our numbers were already decreasing by then and therefore some activists asked the rest to sit down as some of the banners were laid on the street before a final round of announcements, speeches and chants. The call to end the day came around 8:55 PM, when no more than a few hundred were left.

As far as reactions from politicians go, the first came from the Romanian Ecologist Party (PER), who attempted to get involved in organizing the event from the beginning, causing a significant part of the conflicts and leading to some odd situations in the end, as in some cities this resulted in two separate events in the same place, one organized by activists, which wanted nothing to do with politicians, and the other by PER. Otherwise, the National Peasants’ Party – Christian Democrat (PNT-CD) also attempted to associate itself with the Bucharest event, but they’re too small and the event was too big for this to draw anything more than a few snappish comments from some activists. The Green Party and Remus Cernea, on the other hand, limited themselves to showing their support and promoting the event, but seemed wise enough not to do anything which would lead to conflicts.
Then, on the day of the march, the President released a statement in support of the protest and also mentioned some actions he’s planning regarding the matter of deforestation, even though we don’t quite see how those would help and, either way, one of the protest’s main triggers was the very fact that he returned the new Forest Code to the Parliament not due to any of the significant problems it still has but in order to ask for the removal of certain anti-monopoly provisions that Holzindustrie Schweighofer, which uses the majority of Romania’s softwood, complained about. As such, the statement had the opposite effect, people immediately realizing he was merely trying to find a quick and easy way to save face.
It would appear that the Prime Minister also released a statement, saying that it’ll be easier to fight against illegal logging with the new Forest Code, but with activists and protesters set against him for very good reason at least since 2013, it doesn’t matter what he says. So what was more interesting was that the Minister of Environment said that she was open to talk with a delegation of the protesters at the end of the march, assuming we’d have reached the Ministry, as planned. This statement was made at some point during the evening, however, and the fact that I didn’t hear it mentioned when we stopped in Constitution Square and some of the surprised comments I saw posted last night tell me that hardly anyone was aware of it at the time, so selecting such a delegation was never considered.

Now we’ll see what comes next, but at the moment the plan is to continue with weekly marches, and some are even suggesting to return to the model used in the autumn of 2013 and have daily protests as well, to ensure that the matter will remain on the agenda. What the decision will be is uncertain at the moment, but it definitely should be something that’s properly organized and directed but nevertheless largely comes naturally, as I hope certain activists have finally learned some lessons thanks to this success if the repeated failures didn’t seem to teach them much. The most important lesson, however, is that we need to continue working together, and by this I’m not only talking about the different groups of activists that drifted farther and farther apart and even came to blows, at times nearly doing so literally as well, but also with NGOs and experts, and I’ll say also with certain politicians, though this clearly won’t get me any friends among the activists.
Unlike the issues of Rosia Montana and fracking, where greater harm could pretty much be prevented by keeping things as they were, this is a complicated matter that requires analysis and new solutions, the existing situation being the unacceptable one. In addition, it must be kept in mind that the currently proposed Forest Code is the result of long negotiations between politicians and NGOs and a compromise that said NGOs largely support as being significantly better than the current one, even though all admit that it still has flaws and they weren’t able to obtain a few key provisions. As such, as much as I hate to say this when it comes to environmental issues, being too adamant about it will likely lose us the support of allies we can’t afford to lose at the moment and therefore their opinion must be considered very seriously, no matter how difficult it may be for those of us who are stricter environmentalists.