„It is impossible, to even write just one line about the union or socialist movement of our country, without recalling the striking role of Ștefan Gheorghiu” is said in an obituary. The writer and socialist Panait Istrati is convinced: “We have no second propagandist, who is able to cover even the half of the distance which Ștefan Gheorghiu walked.”
The revolutionary syndicalist and anarchist Ștefan Gheorghiu was already during his lifetime an icon of the workers‘ movement in Romania. With Gheorghiu nearly unknown abroad and deformed and monopolised by the social-democrats and the communist party, this study aims to draw an unaltered picture of this restless agitator and worker, whom the repressive state tried to murder. At the same time the book informs extensively about the development and the militant struggles of the workers movement in Romania till World War I. The study focuses on the syndicalist and anarcho-syndicalist currents. Also the struggles and political positions of the time come alive through selected original translations into German .
Content:
Preface
Introduction
The communist state makes Ștefan Gheorghiu into an icon
A view on the workers movement till 1900
The “first” generation
About the union-legislation in Romania
Chapter 1:
The workers‘ child Ștefan Gheorghiu becomes a revolutionary
The workers‘ movement in Ploiești till 1899
Reorganisation
The social movement in Ploiești
Excursion: A view on the anarchists in Ploiești
Chapter 2:
In battle against the corporations
Organisational bans
Railwayman
Ploiești: The organisation of the waiters
Chapter 3:
A view on the workers movement in Romania after1900
A twofold structure
1910: Founding of the „Partidul Social-Democrat Român“
The relation between social-democrats/marxists and syndicalists/anarchists
Campaigns and defamations against anarchists
Against “Revista Ideei”
Against anarchism in general
Against anarchists
The syndicalists
The syndicalists at “România Muncitoare”
Disciplinary action against the syndicalists from Ploiești
The self-organised syndicalists
Chapter 4:
Câmpina – a revolutionary stronghold
Labour dispute in Câmpina and surroundings
State terrorism and the capitalists‘ fighting strategies
Those from Banat and those from Câmpina
The workers‘ paper as a voice for revolution and against capital
From the hell of Prahova
To the petroleum workers
Maria Aricescu and her family
The fight goes on
Chapter 5:
In the dungeon
Fire in the tannery
Excursion: The mutiny on the Potemkin
Torture
Excursion: Peasant-uprising, state terrorism and workers‘ fight in Galați and in Brăila 1907
Chapter 6:
Education, agitation and class-struggle
Evening tea in Ploiești
Investigation and agitation
Through organisation towards culture
Given laws – hard-fought for laws and the “People’s Reading Houses”
Internationalism and solidarity
Jules Durand
Correspondent for „România Muncitoare“
Gheorghe Dorobanțu
Authority habits in Ploiești
The horror of Rucăr
Strike in Tișița
Against nationalism and about “good Romanians”
Everything is Romanian in Ploiești
Chapter 7:
Janeta Maltus – A “danger for state security and order”
Police repression in Brăila and workers‘ rage
The state gets outsmarted: Ștefan Gheorghiu marries Janeta Maltus
Chapter 8:
Poporul Muncitor – Division of the syndicalist and workers‘ movement in the interest of the government?
The “League for the protection of the workers” and the “national unions”
Organisational activities
Resistance
Ștefan Gheorghiu rejects being assimilated
End without one peep
Who was Iuliu Neagu-Negulescu?
Chapter 9:
War against war
“War against war”
Reactions of the union- and party leadership…
… and the state
Chapter 10:
“Trust in the own strength” – Front-line ports and transport
1909 in Galați: The longest strike in Europe
Against the rule of the “Vătafi” in Brăila
To all workers of Brăila port
Brăila: Expulsions of Ștefan Gheorghiu
Class struggle in port and transport
Resistance against rationalization, prices rise and union ban
Excursion: With Panait Istrati in Egypt
The transport workers and their union in class-struggle
The founding of the transport workers‘ union
“Our aims and character”
“Tribuna Transportului”
A new upturn of the workers movement in Galați
Galați resurrects
The fight against the cranes – forerunner of a social revolution?
Workers’s solidarity
Down with the standing army
“To the workers of Brăila”
A short conclusion
Against the war
Gheorghe Stroici
Chapter 11:
The flame expires
The working class grieves
“Transport workers – your Ștefan has died”
Ștefan Gheorghiu – in the description of his comrades and friends
„Ștefan Gheorghiu“
Panait Istrati: About Ștefan Gheorghiu in the light of his first death-anniversary
Chapter 12:
A life for the emancipation and freedom of the working class
Class struggle and awareness
Unified organisation or independent syndicalist movement
And today?
No personality cult, but highest respect
Chapter 13:
Postface: Class struggle – monopolising – neglect?
Chronological table
Quotes
Documents and appendix
Sources and literature
Index of names, places, organisations/groups, magazines
List of abbreviations
Content (Inhaltsverzeichnis) as PDF: Militant Gheorghiu Inhaltsverzeichnis
Register as PDF: Militant Gheorghiu Register
Martin Veith: Militant! Stefan Gheorghiu und die revolutionäre Arbeiterbewegung in Rumänien
296 pages, ISBN 978-3-86841-134-8
Edition AV 2015, 19,90 Euro
The book is in German language
In every good bookshop or direct from Verlag Edition AV
Postfach 12 15
D-35420 Lich
Telefon: 06404 – 6570763
Fax: 06404 – 668900
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